SCHOOL AND RAILROAD LAND.Besides the public lands open to homestead and preëmption, a settler may purchase school lands, university lands, State lands, or railroad or wagon-grant lands. In each township of thirty-six sections of 640 acres each, the two numbered 16 and 36 are devoted to school purposes, and are sold by the Board of School Commissioners for the State to settlers in quantities not exceeding 320 acres to any one applicant, and at the best prices obtainable; such lands are valued by the county school superintendents for the information of the commissioners, but the minimum price is two dollars an acre. A further number of sections has been granted by the United States to the State of Oregon for the support of the University and of the Agricultural College. The greater part of these lands has been sold; some still remains; the average price of previous sales is somewhat under two dollars an acre. The State also possesses some further lands donated by the United States for various purposes, but the quantity is not extensive—except of lands known as swamp lands. Where the greater portion of a section is properly describable as wet and unfit for cultivation, it is called swamp land. Such lands have been granted by the United States to the State of Oregon, and are not open to preëmption or homesteading. A very free interpretation is put on the words "wet and unfit for cultivation," and a very large acreage is included. The State has given rights of purchase over large bodies of these lands to different parties, and at prices which I have heard bear but a small proportion to their real value. At every session of the Legislature some fresh bills are brought in for dealing with the swamp lands, and a vast amount of "lobbying" goes on, which I suppose some people or other find a profit in. The great bulk of these lands are situated in Southeastern Oregon, in the vicinity of the lakes, such as Klamath Lake and Goose Lake; but a good many acres are scattered throughout Eastern and Southern Oregon.

ACREAGES OWNED BY COMPANIES.The largest land-owners in the State are the railroads and the military wagon-road companies. The great grant to the Oregon and California Railroad extends over the alternate sections within twenty miles on either side of the road, to the extent of 12,800 acres for each mile of railroad. The total estimated amount of this grant is 3,500,000 acres. The West-side Railroad, called properly the Oregon Central, has a grant estimated at 300,000 acres. The prices at which these companies sell these lands do not exceed seven dollars per acre; and the amount may he spread over ten years, carrying seven per cent. interest. The wagon-roads have grants the amounts of which are stated as follows:

ACRES.
Oregon Central Military Road Company 720,000
The Dalles Military Road Company 556,800
Corvallis and Yaquina Bay Wagon-Road Company 76,800
Coos Bay Military Road Company 50,000
The Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountains
Military Wagon-Road Company 		850,000

This last grant is attached to the road company described in a previous chapter. The Willamette Valley and Coast Railroad Company also has a grant of all the tide and overflowed lands in Benton County, the amount being estimated at about 100,000 acres of alluvial land. In many cases the companies were unable to obtain the full amount of acreage which their grants give them out of the odd-numbered sections within the belt covered by the grant. The alternative is for them to get what are called "lieu-lands," outside of their declared limits.

So rapid is the tide of settlement, especially in Eastern Oregon, that the land-offices are thronged with applicants. A young Englishman who came out with me wrote from the Dalles to us last spring that on three successive Fridays he had come in from his range to file his homestead application, and after waiting the whole day he had been unable to get the business done, and had to return to his quarters disappointed.

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CHAPTER XIV.

The "Web-foot State"—‌Average rainfall in various parts—‌The rainy days in 1879 and 1880—‌Temperature—‌Seasons—‌Accounts and figures from three points—‌Afternoon sea-breezes—‌A "cold snap"—‌Winter—‌ Floods—‌Damage to the river-side country—‌Rare thunder—‌Rarer wind-storms—‌The storm of January, 1880.

I should think that no State is so much scoffed at as Oregon on the score of wet weather. Our neighbors in California call us "Web-feet," and the State is called "The Web-foot State." Emigrants are warned not to come here unless they want to live like frogs, up to their necks in water, and much more to the like effect. And this question as to the quantity of rain is one always asked in the letters of inquiry we get here from all parts of the world. It is impossible to give a general answer, because the rainfall varies in the State from seventy-two inches at Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River, to twelve inches on some of the elevated plains of extreme Eastern Oregon. Western Oregon also varies in its different parts; the rainfall of seventy-two inches at Astoria sinking by pretty regular stages southward to thirty-two inches at Jacksonville.

AVERAGE RAINFALL.The average rainfall for four years reported by the United States Signal-Service Station at Portland is 52-82/100 inches. At Eola near Salem the average of seven years is 371-98/100 inches. At Corvallis the average of the last three years, taken at the Agricultural College by Professor Hawthorne, is 31-62/100 inches; but this last low average is produced by the fact of the months of October and November, 1880, having been unusually dry. The average rainfall for October, in 1878 and 1879, was 2-86/100 inches, and for November 4-12/100 inches; while in 1880 the rainfall for those months was only 80/100 and 50/100 of an inch.