Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/435

Rh Western States. The rains fall in very gentle showers, and are generally what you term drizzling rains, so light that a man can work all day without getting wet through a blanket coat. The rains are not the cold, chilly rains that you have in the fall and spring seasons in the East, but are warm as well as gentle. Since I have been here I. have witnessed less wind than in any country I have ever been in: and I have heard no thunder, and only seen one tree that had been struck by lightning. If the tall timber we have here were in the States, it would be riven and blown down, until there would not be many trees left. The rains are never hard enough here to wash the roads or the fields. You can find no gullies washed in the roads or fields in this region.

.—I consider the commercial advantages of this country as very great. The trade with the Sandwich Islands is daily increasing. We are here surrounded with a half civilized race of men, and our manufacturing power will afford us a means of creating a home market besides. South America, the Sandwich Islands, and California, must depend upon us for their lumber. Already large quantities of shingles and plank are sent to the Islands. We shall always have a fine market for all our surplus; but, until this country is settled, we shall have a demand at home. Most of the vessels visiting the Pacific touch at the Sandwich Islands, and they will be glad to obtain fresh supplies of provisions there. The Russian settlements must also obtain their supplies here. We have China within our reach, and all the islands of the Pacific There can be no competition with us in the way of provisions, as we have no neighbors in that line. I consider Oregon as superior to California. The climate of that country is too warm for men to have any commercial enterprise. Besides, in California, pork and beef can not be put up; and consequently, the grazer loses half his profits. For a commercial and manufacturing people, the climate of Oregon is warm enough. We can here preserve our pork and beef, and we have much finer timber than they have in California, and better water power, and not the drouths they have there. I do not wish a warmer climate than this. A very warm climate enervates mankind too much.

.—This is a new item in the geography of this country, and one that I have never seen before; but of late towns have become quite common. As all the towns yet laid out in the country are upon the water, I shall begin at the mouth of the Columbia, and come up wards. First, there is old Astoria revived. Captain Applegate and others are now laying off a town at old Astoria, to be called Astoria. They have not yet sold any lots. Next is Linnton, laid off by Burnett and McCown. This place is on the west bank of the Wallamette River, four miles above its mouth, and is the nearest point on the river to the Fallatry [Tualatin] Plains, and the nearest eligible point to the head o f