branches overhead, the nervous little squirrel scolds at you from a safe distance, or the only half-confiding quail maintains vigilant picket duty in your vicinity,—all, as you think, for your gratification, though in truth you are regarded by these little residents as an alien and an intruder. The beauties that should invite you now pass away or lose their freshness with the approach of dry weather. The mosses and lichens will have dried up by midsummer; the ferris can then only be found in the coolest recesses of the woods. The excess of foliage then will close many beautiful vistas; there will be no more signs of daily growth, no tender tints on the leaflets. The year will be at middle age, round and perfect, but with the touching bloom of its youth forever past.
There will be a corresponding difference in the color of the skies, the shape of the clouds, the hues of the water; in every part of nature. Let the student of nature learn all her passing moods. There is a wealth of enjoyment in having well-trained eyes and a receptive observation, that no amount of gold can purchase. It depends on the individual. Certain of us never come into our kingdom, which is the kingdom wherewith the Creator endowed us “in the beginning,” because we are too sordid, too indolent, or too effeminate. Certain others of us are rejoiced to think that we have not wholly missed of it through either of these faults, and that enjoyment grows with possession.
But to return to the subject of climate per se. No country which has not water enough can be productive,—water in some form. West Oregon gets enough, and with great regularity. East Oregon, with equal regularity, gets too little, except in the bottom-lands, where irrigation is natural, or artificial irrigation easy. The soil is good almost anywhere. What then? There must and will be developed a system by which water can be brought upon the arid lands of East Oregon and Washington. When that is done the productiveness of the elevated plains will equal that of the western valleys, and be more certain.
Civilization began in either hemisphere in the rainless countries of Egypt, Peru, and Mexico. The reason is evident. Civilization depends on the ease and security with which man harvests the fruits of his fields. The crop in the Nile Valley
