CLIMATE
This is decidedly the inviting characteristic of the country, and is certainly a great inducement for all persons of delicate health. I speak of the middle region. Free from marshes or standing water and vegetable decay, the air is remarkably pure and serene; summers rather warm, especially in the valleys; the mercury ranges, for some time during the hot season, from 100 to 109 degrees above zero. Nights cool, but no fog or dew, except in a few places. Twice since I have been in the country frost has injured vines, leaves, &c., first of May, but never in the fall till late; often my melon vines, &c., are green till the first of December. Four times since I have been here the mercury has fallen below zero; once to 26 degrees. But usually it ranges above 20 in the morning, and above 60 through the day. During six of the ten winters I have passed in the country, the rivers have not been frozen. The Columbia river has been frozen nearly to its mouth, twice since I have been in the country. The snow sometimes falls a foot deep—I should judge about once in five years. About half of my winters here there has been no snow in the valleys, and but little on the plains, except to whiten the earth for a short time. It disappears in a few hours, especially on the south face of the bluffs and hills. Last year I made a collection of flowers and plants, which I purpose to send to Washington. I gathered two flowers in January, on the 22d and 29th,[223] and during the month of February some 40 showed themselves, and by the first of March the grass on the south faces of the bluffs was 14 inches high. This year the season was about three weeks later, judging by the appearance of flowers. I know of no disease that can be said to be peculiar to the country. The country is peculiarly free from sudden changes of weather, or violent storms. Persons who have wintered here from the south, tell me the winters are as mild as the winters {170} in the northern parts of North and South Carolina, and with less sudden changes.