Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/280

274 usually, in November—sometimes not till December—and the wet season continues until April, or possibly till May; not without interruptions, however, sometimes of a month, in midwinter, of bright weather. About the middle of June the Columbia River is high, and during the flood there are generally frequent flying showers. After the flood is abated, there is seldom any rain until September, when showers commence again, and prove very welcome, after the long, warm, but wholly delightful summer. The annual rain-fall of the Wallamet Valley ranges from thirty-five to fifty inches. In the Umpqua and Rogue River valleys it is less; and at the mouth of the Columbia, and along the coast, both north and south, it is more. At Steilacoom, on the Sound, it is fifty-three inches. From a weather-record of over ten years, kept at Portland, the lowest point in the Wallamet Valley, we clip the following summing up:

"Sixty-five per cent. of the above days were without rain or snow.

"—Ice formed December 2d, 1858. In 1859, ponds were frozen over at times till March 1st—ice never over two inches thick; very little cold weather in December, 1859; no ice to speak of.

"January 24th, 1860, the ground froze for the first time this