1841.] TIMBER. 423 



towards the last of August ; but the latter are owing to the 

 proximity of the mountains, which cause a fall in the tem- 

 perature, yet they are never severe. Rains are quite fre- 

 quent, especially from November till March, though not often 

 heavy. It is well known that isothermal lines, or lines of 

 equal temperature, traverse the earth with varied eccentricity ; 

 and it is much warmer on the Pacific coast, than in the same 

 latitude on the Atlantic ; hence, fruit trees blossom early in 

 April at Nisqually, and green peas and strawberries are 

 abundant in May, while south of the Columbia grass grows 

 all the winter long, and the cattle are not housed, and only 

 confined in pens at night to protect them from the wolves and 

 other wild animals. 



Fever and ague, occasioned by the decomposition of the 

 vegetable matter turned up by the plow on the prairies, and 

 some pulmonary complaints, are the principal diseases to 

 which the inhabitants are subject. The first is quite fatal 

 to the Indians, solely on account of bad treatment, however ; 

 and small-pox has made dreadful ravages among them. 



Most conspicuous among the productions of Oregon are the 

 timber trees. These are truly giants. Near Astoria, in the 

 primeval forest, there are fir trees over forty feet in circum- 

 ference, three hundred feet long, and rising to the height of 

 one hundred and fifty feet without giving off a single branch 

 A pine in the same vicinity, measured by the officers of the 

 Exploring Squadron, was thirty-nine feet six inches in cir- 

 cumference eight feet above the ground, two hundred and 

 fifty feet high, perfectly straight and sound, and had a bark 

 eleven inches thick. On the banks of the Umpqua, a fir tree 

 is said to have been measured that proved to be fifty-seven 

 feet in circumference, and two hundred and sixteen feet in 

 length below its first branches. Among the evergreens are 

 the pine, fir, spruce, arbutus, iirbor vitae, cedar and yew. 

 The principal deciduous trees are red and white oaks, hard 

 and soft maples, the alder, poplar, elm, and cherry. The ash, 

 here and there, scatters its winged seeds upon the wind ; and 

 in the forests of southern Oregon, the long strings of balls of 



