Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/144

Rh Those countries, with the exception of a few small localities, are, beyond all doubt, and must ever remain, very healthy. Some of the causes which make them so, must be obvious to all, who become acquainted with those countries. They are high, dry, rolling, mountainous, and well watered with the purest springs and streams; and come the wind from whatever point it may, it must ever be free from miasma and disease, as it always comes, either from snow clad mountains or passes over the pure and untainted waves of the briny Ocean.

There is, however, one drawback to the mild, otherwise pleasant winters, over a large portion of the countries we have seen and described; on the western shores of our continent: which is, the great amount of dark, cloudy, and rainy weather, through most of the winter season. The rains, however, as it has already been seen, do not generally fall in heavy showers, but are, mostly, gentle and light, and often, nothing more than heavy mist. We are inclined to believe, that little if any more water falls there, in the winter, than falls in most parts of the Mississippi Valley; with this difference, that there it is rain instead of snow.

In those countries, as in the Mississippi Valley, the winters do, in some degree, vary. When compared with the winters East of the Rocky Mountains, they are always mild; yet some are more so than others, and some are much dryer than others. The first winter we passed, West of the mountains, was milder, dryer, and much more agreeable than the second; indeed, there was much of the first that was dry, sunny, and agreeable, beyond anything we had ever before witnessed. The second was more rainy and disagreeable. But as far South as the Bay of San Francisco, in California, it is never colder, even in the winte, than to produce heavy white frost.

We believe that small grains of every description, that are raised in the United States, will grow well, and produce abundantly, throughout Oregon, and over all the Upper or Northern portion of California. So also, will the grasses; but Indian Corn never will, as the nights are too cool in Summer, over all those regions, for the thrifty growth and proper ripening of this grain; it can, however, be raised in small quantities, but the farmer there, can never grow it to much profit.

The Willammette Valley is, perhaps, the largest district of productive country in Oregon. Something more than two thirds of it is open, or prairie land, and the largest part of this is rich; the prairies, indeed,