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Steep Trails-Part26_John Muir(1838-1914)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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the eastern boundary on the Snake River. Many a beautiful stream we

should cross in such a walk, singing through forest and meadow and



deep rocky gorge, and many a broad prairie and plain, mountain and

valley, wild garden and desert, presenting landscape beauty on a grand



scale and in a thousand forms, and new lessons without number,

delightful to learn. Oregon has three mountain ranges which run



nearly parallel with the coast, the most influential of which, in

every way, is the Cascade Range. It is about six thousand to seven



thousand feet in average height, and divides the State into two main

sections called Eastern and Western Oregon, corresponding with the



main divisions of Washington; while these are again divided, but less

perfectly, by the Blue Mountains and the Coast Range. The eastern



section is about two hundred and thirty miles wide, and is made up in

great part of the treeless plains of the Columbia, which are green and



flowery in spring, but gray, dusty, hot, and forbidding in summer.

Considerable areas, however, on these plains, as well as some of the



valleys countersunk below the general surface along the banks of the

streams, have proved fertile and produce large crops of wheat, barley,



hay, and other products.

In general views the western section seems to be covered with one



vast, evenly planted forest, with the exception of the few snow-clad

peaks of the Cascade Range, these peaks being the only points in the



landscape that rise above the timberline. Nevertheless, embosomed in

this forest and lying in the great trough between the Cascades and



coast mountains, there are some of the best bread-bearing valleys to

be found in the world. The largest of these are the Willamette,



Umpqua, and Rogue River Valleys. Inasmuch as a considerableportion

of these main valleys was treeless, or nearly so, as well as



surpassingly fertile, they were the first to attract settlers; and the

Willamette, being at once the largest and nearest to tide water, was



settled first of all, and now contains the greater portion of the

population and wealth of the State.



The climate of this section, like the correspondingportion of

Washington, is rather damp and sloppy throughout the winter months,



but the summers are bright, ripening the wheat and allowing it to be

garnered in good condition. Taken as a whole, the weather is bland



and kindly, and like the forest trees the crops and cattle grow plump

and sound in it. So also do the people; children ripen well and grow



up with limbs of good size and fiber and, unless overworked in the

woods, live to a good old age, hale and hearty.



But, like every other happy valley in the world, the sunshine of this

one is not without its shadows. Malarial fevers are not unknown in



some places, and untimely frosts and rains may at long intervals in

some measuredisappoint the hopes of the husbandman. Many a tale,



good-natured or otherwise, is told concerning the overflowing

abundance of the Oregon rains. Once an English traveler, as the story



goes, went to a store to make some purchases and on leaving found that

rain was falling; therefore, not liking to get wet, he stepped back to



wait till the shower was over. Seeing no signs of clearing, he soon

became impatient and inquired of the storekeeper how long he thought



the shower would be likely to last. Going to the door and looking

wisely into the gray sky and noting the direction of the wind, the



latter replied that he thought the shower would probably last about

six months, an opinion that of course disgusted the fault-finding



Briton with the "blawsted country," though in fact it is but little if

at all wetter or cloudier than his own.



No climate seems the best for everybody. Many there be who waste




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