OCR Text |
Show 134 GENERAL VIEW OF which is, health. Those countries, with the exception of a few smull localities, al'e, . beyond all doubt, aud must ever l'emain, very healthv. Some of the causes which make them so, must be obvious toull, who become acquainted with those countries. They tHe high, thy, rolling, mountainous, and well wate1·ed with the purest sprmgs nnd stt·eams; and come the wind from whate veL' point it may, it must. ever be free from miasma and disense, n~ it always comes, eithet· from snow clad mountains ot· pusses over tbe pure and untainted waves of the briny Ocean. There is, however, one dn~. wuack to tho mild, and otherwise pleasant winters, ovet· a large portion of the countries we huve seen and discriheJ; on the western shores of our contin~ nt: which is, the g1·eat amount of dark, cloudy, and rainy weather, through most of the winter season. The rain::;, howevet·, as it has already been seen, do not genemlly fall in heavy showers, but are, mostl.r, gentle and light, and oftPn, . nothing more than heavy mist. \Ve are inclined to believe, that little if any m01·e wutet· fall:::; there, in the winter, than falls in most parts of the Mississtppi Valley; with this difference, that there it is rain instettd or snow. In those countries, as in the Mississippi Valley, the winters do, in some degree, vary. \Vhen compared with the wjnters East of the Rocky Mountains, they are al \Vays mild; yet some are more so than others, and some are much dryer thun others. The fit·st winter we passed, \Vest of the mountains, was milder, dryer, and much more agreeable than the second; indeed, thet·e was much of the first that wns dry, sunny, and agreeable, beyond anything \Ye had ever before witnessed. The second was more rainy and d isug reeable. But as far South as the Bay of San Francisco, in California, it is nc\'er colder, even in the wiute1·, than to produce heavy white frost. \Ve believe that small grains of every description, that are rais· ed in the United States, will grow well, and produce abundantly, throughout Ot·egon, and oYer all the Uppet· or Northern portion of California. So also, will the grasses; but Indiati Corn ne\let· will, as the nights are too cool in Summer, over all those regions, for the thrifty growth and proper ripening of this grai~; it can, huw· ever, be raised in small quantities, but the farmer there, can never gl'Ow it to much profit. The Willammette Valley is, perhaps, the largest district of productive country .in Oregon. Son1ething more than two thirds of it is ' \ \ OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. 135 open, Ol' prairie land, and the largest part of this is rich; the prairies, indeed, generally, tht'l)ugh the country, when turned up by the plow, make very much the sarne black, rich appearance, they mostly bent· in the Mississippi Valley; some doubt, however, theit· being as dur.able, as there seems to be a gt·eat absence of lime. Near one third of this valley•is timbet·ed, and the timber is mostly good, and as it furnishesgt·eat manufacturing, as well as agricultural privileges, it would be capable of sustaining, were every pot·· tion of it made to yield to the best advantage, a population of neat·· ly a million of souls. The U mqua Vu lley is, })erhaps, three-fourths pratne. The Rogue's River Valley, two-thirds, and the Clamuth, fout· fifths. In many places through these several valleys, the praifies at·e of convenient size to be entirely settled and cultivated; in others they are so large that It will be inconvenient; but as the neighboring mountain lands, are,. with few exceptions, thickly clothed with the finest timber in the world, they will, in time, all be brought in· to cu 1 ti vat ion. North of the Columbia, and \Vest of he Cascade Mountains, there is, perhaps, not more than one third of the country that is not timbered, and much of it stands so thick on the ground, i.i so tall and large, that it will not only make lumb-er most abundant in the country, but it must long, if not always, be capable of fut·nishing immense quantities for expot·tation. The valleys, through this portion of Oregon, are smaller than they are South of the river; here the country has more broken, mountai~ waste land, and consequently it cannot sustain so large a population. [tis thought, that considet~able portions of. the tim· be red land between the Cascade Mountallls and the Pact fie, both No1·th and South of the Columbia, is good for cultivation, though mostly, if notal ways, much inferior in point of productiveness, to the prairie lands. The Ca wlitz Valley, North oft he Columbia, like the Willammette, South, furnishes, perhaps, the la~gest valley of land, suitable for cultivation, between the Cascades and the Ocean ; but on lhe North as well as the South side, there are many other smaller valley:, besides these, capable of sustaining considerabl~ setde· ments. which will altogether, in time, when all that can, IS made ' ' . to yield, furnish agricultural products, sufficient to sustatn n popu-lation of some millions. And through this whole region of country, many of the hills |