with sheep and cattle; and large quantities of hides are annually prepared for exportation.[1] Oranges, limes, figs, olives, grapes, apples, and peaches, grow thriftily, and yield abundantly. The gardens attached to the Old Roman mission establishments, at Yerba Buena, San Luis Rey, and San Diego, are fairly choked up, with the fruit-trees and shrubbery, that have been suffered to grow, for many years, unchecked and unpruned. The climate of the territory is mild and equable; the winters are rainy; and, though the summers are dry, there are heavy dews to cool the air and moisten the grounds.[2]
The pecuniary considerations growing out of, or connected with the war, lose much of their importance, however, when we consider its other results. The ability of the country to vindicate her honor and maintain her rights — her great capacity for war, either offensive or defensive, — has been signally demonstrated. The tendency of this will be, to increase, in an eminent degree, the respect and deference paid to our government by other nations. Called upon, at brief notice, to raise and equip a large army, — this was accomplished; and, under such circumstances, we entered into a contest with a people not unpractised in "war's vast art," or unacquainted with the improvements of modern
- ↑ Folsom's Mexico in 1842.
- ↑ Persons living upon or near the Atlantic are very apt, in instituting a comparison between their own climate and productions, and those of the same latitude on the Pacific coast, to overlook the fact, that isothermal lines, or lines of equal temperature, traverse the surface of the earth with e n eccentricity varying very materially from the parallels of latitude. In the valley of the Willamete, which lies above the 45th degree of north latitude, the snow never falls to a greater depth than three or four inches; green peas are eaten at Christmas; the grass grows all winter, and cattle are rarely housed — Father De Smets' Oregon Missions and Travels over the Rocky Mountains.
