Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/67



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 becalmed on the Columbia, in the dusk of the evening, the clouds descend from the mountain ravines, and settle down, for awhile, 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 sufficient to prefect the crops of grain, which, except Indian Corn, are more abundant, and surer, than in the United States. The temperature at this season, is near the same that it is in the same latitude East of the Mountains; except the nights, which are quite cool during the whole year; so that a person may sleep in mid summer, comfortably under a pair of blankets. These cool nights are doubtless injurious to the growth of Indian Corn, which does not flourish and produce abundantly in this country. The sky, through the Summer, is usually clear, and on the plains, a gentle breeze is generally blowing from the sea; which renders the Summers remarkably agreeable and healthy. The natural vegetation of the country, is all of a giant growth. We have spoken of the Fir's attaining to the height of three hundred feet; many others, of the smaller kinds of vegetation, are in the same proportion. We have seen the common Elder growing from six to twelve inches in diameter, and the Hazle very commonly from four to six