u 
tions, and the temperature is much higher than that of corrcs* 
ponding parallels on the Atlantic slope ; it is similar to that of 
the British islands. The warm stream from the Indies spends 
its force in those regions. This great current, originating in the 
warm waters of the tropics, rushing to the northward, bathing 
the shores of eastern Asia, crossing the north Pacific, laving 
the southern shores of the Aleutian islands, the peninsula of 
Alaska, the Kadiak bend and Sitka bight, wastes its strength on 
the coast of British Columbia, and finally subsides in the valley 
of Puget Sound. The winds from the westward accompanying 
this warm current, absorb its thermal qualities, fans our shores, 
rushes through the Cascades, lights upon the basin of the Co¬ 
lumbia, dissolves mountain snows and valley frosts, stimulates 
vegetation and makes the passes of the Pocky Mountains, even 
in the winter season, the chosen pastures for the buffalo and 
grass-feeding animals from the frigid regions in the south. 
In another portion of this work we stated some of the most 
prominent indications arising from the westerly winds in the 
eastern division of Washington Territory and in British Colum¬ 
bia. The same agencies are ever manifest along the Puget 
Sound valley. We claim a more genial climate and a higher 
temperature thap. prevailing along the shores of Oregon and 
Northern California. In the severe seasons of the most rigid 
winter months thousands of cattle and sheep have perished in 
those States. We have not witnessed any heavy losses in stock 
from cold or hunger during our sojourn of ten years in the Puget 
Sound country. “The climate of western Washington differs 
essentially from that experienced east of the Cascade mountains. 
. . . Properly speaking there are but two seasons on the 
borders of Puget Sound — the rainy and the dry. The grades 
of temperature and the accompaniment, which in other countries 
on the same latitude ascribe the features and title to the four 
seasons —* spring, summer, autumn and winter, are here in a 
great measure obliterated, or at least so dimly marked that the 
seasons imperceptibly run into each other and lose their dis¬ 
tinctive line of division. It is not unusual for the three winter 
months to be mild, without snow or ice, the grass growing mean¬ 
while. In February the weather may occur mild and genial as 
May, to be succeeded in March or April with colder weather. 
The maximum temperature of some days in July and August 
will reach 00° or 100°, sometimes followed by cold nights. 
