Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/282

276 East of the Cascades, the arrangement of the seasons is somewhat different. There is much less rain, which comes in showers, rather than in a steady fall; and is confined to the months between September and June. Occasionally, snow falls to the depth of a few inches; and in some winters has remained on the ground a number of weeks. The heat of summer and the cold of winter are each more extreme, but not at their highest or lowest degrees so trying as the same amount of heat or cold would be in a moister atmosphere. The autumn months in this portion of the county are most delightful, with the thermometer ranging from fifty-five degrees to seventy. The phenomenon of the plains is the periodical warm wind which comes from the south—perhaps from the California valleys—and blows over their whole extent, up to the forty-ninth parallel. The following is the mean temperature for the different seasons, as well as for the year:

A country like Eastern Oregon and Washington, without marshes or any local causes of miasma; with a clear, dry atmosphere, warmed by the sun, and cooled by the vicinity of snow mountains, could never be unhealthy. Only the most reckless disregard of health can occasion disease in a climate so naturally free from miasmatic poison as this. Western Oregon and Washington may be said to be equally healthful; with this difference, that during the rainy season those who are already invalids are liable to greater depression of the vital powers by reason of the continuous wet weather. Even a well person, of a