Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/193

Rh doubt whether a greater quantity of water fell than falls generally in the same length of time, during the same months in the States. Many have expressed objections to the climate, on account of the rainy seasons, and it can not be denied that they frequently render it quite disagreeable and gloomy, especially to those who have just emigrated to the country. Yet most persons do their accustomed business at this season, whether it be in or out of doors, without seeming to experience any great inconvenience, or suffering detriment to their health. Southern winds prevail in the Willammette Valley, at this season, and when they change to the North they are usually succeeded by fine, clear weather. At the same time, however, they prevail from the East or change to the West on the Columbia, showing their course is affected very much by the hills and mountains. The clouds float low in the Winter, and frequently huge masses of them, as if influenced by attraction, cling to the sides of the hills and mountains, until as they move along, they are torn by the tops of the tall firs. We saw once as we were laying [sic] becalmed on the Columbia, in the dusk of the evening, the clouds descend from the mountain ravines, and settle down, for a while, so near the surface of the broad river, that the Islands with which it was there interspersed, and portions of the neighboring shores which were covered with groups of tall trees, penetrated with their tops above the cloud. Their seeming to be much elevated, together with the regularity of the upper surface of the cloud, awakened the idea of a beautiful little Archipelago, with all its Islands, floating in the air. The grass is green and growing throughout the Winter, and cattle and other animals keep in good condition, without any attention or feeding whatever, and we have frequently eaten excellent beef killed from the grass at this season. In the Summer there is probably not so much rain as in the United States, but it is entirely