CHAPTER EIGHT
GENERAL VIEW OF OREGON AND CALIFORNIA.
As we have now completed our explorations in both Oregon and California, we will make a few remarks upon their fitness for the occupancy, and various uses of civilized man.
As we have already said, the climate, in Oregon and California, is far milder and more agreeble, than it is in the same parallel of latitude, any where on the Eastern side of the American continent. There is, we think a difference of perhaps 10 to 12 deg. We suppose that some may think this difference too great, but when they recollect than animals can live well through the winter, in Oregon, in in the 47th deg. of North latitude, and that scarcely any snow falls during this season of the year; and that that which does fall, even in this high latitude, lays but a very short time, in the lower and more productive valleys; and that good beef is often killed in mid-winter from the grass, any where between the Cascade Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, South of the Columbia River; and then recollect what the Winters are in the United States, even as far South as the 25th deg. North, we are inclined to believe, that most, if not all, will be ready to believe, that we are nearly correct in regard to this matter.
As the farmer's stock can live well all winter, not only throughout California, but through nearly the whole of Oregon, he will here possess one advantage that he can never have East of the Rocky Mountains, except in the most Southern part of the United States; consequently, he will not be compelled, as he is in most parts of the great and fertile Valley of the Mississippi, to labor six months' labor, to his stock. And there is not only in the territory of Oregon, but also in the province of California, another great advantage, that is, indeed, paramount to all others; which is, health.
137
