Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1856-12-17
4 MOIST CLL4MATE.

Magazine, has been sojourning IN Oregon, and
thus gives utterance to his experiences in
that climate, in a letter Of an August date,
from Portland, Oregon Territory:
1t gives me unfeigned pleasure to inform
You that am about to quit the gloomy and
never-to-be-dried-up sky Of Oregon, and "re-
pair without unnecessary delay" to D,
on our borders. Yes, sir, I'm off: services y
no longer required on these inclement shores
shores which when YOU read Of Irvng's
"Astoria," you naturally wish to behold, and
admire old Astor's pluck in making establish
ments thereon, and which, when you reach,
you wish you hadn't, and admire still more
old Astor's good sense in breaking his estab-
lishments up and quitting while there was yet
time.
Rain is an exceedingly pleasant and graft
fying institution in its way, and in moderation.
1t causes the grass to grow, the blossoms to
flourish, and is a positive necessity to the UNI
brella-maker; but when you get to country
where it rains necessarily twenty-six hours a
day for seventeen months in the year, you
cannot resist having the conviction forced
upon your mind that the thing is slightly
overdone. That's the case in Oregon. 1t
commenced raining pretty heavily on the third
of last November and continued up to the
fifteenth of May, when it set in for a long
storm, which isn't fairly over yet. There's
moisture for you Congress has named the
northen half of it, the new territory, WASH
inq-ton, on account of its wetness, suppose,
as I can divine no other reason for giving
that name to country on Puget's Sound,
Pacific shore.
The consequences of this awful climate are
just what might be supposed. The immense
quantity of the protoxide squirted about here
causes trees, buildings, streets, every thing to
present diluted appearance. The women
lose their color, the men their hair (washed
of, sir), and the animals, by constant expo
sure, acquire scales and fins like the natives
of the deep. In fact, all the inhabitants Of
this Territory have a general scaly appear
ance and rejoice in a peculiar smell, combi-
nation, should say, Of fsh-ball and afresh
mudsucker. The rains of Oregon beat every
thing in that Incl ever beheld or conceived
of. Those that fell on Noah's Ark were not
more heavy; those Of Nero, Caligula, and
i. INcSll uOI iiiOiS oNiiAciSt NV 1iOOS
of Lady Suffolk and Moscow longer or strong
err, which is slightly mixed metaphor of a
very happy description. So, upon the whole,
I'm quite glad Pm off; yes, am quite sure
of it; and long to get to D, where the
people enjoy the light Of the blessed sun, and
where can enjoy it also, and dry my things,
and read Irvings Astoria"
Howbeit there are many interesting and
curious things in Oregon; many~odd and en-
tertaining people also therein; and have
seen much that was funny, and laughed there
at. And should have had laughed louder and
longer if my mouth had not filed with
rain before l had half finished; and | might
perhaps regret leaving country in which |
have had so much positive enjoyment were it
not that l have chronicled all these amusing
things and pecularities, and shall be glad
to get to somewhere where | can have a dry
laugh over them. Such thing as dry hu-
NOR in Oregon rs of course physical i'm
possibility.
NEW FERRY BoAT.-The hull Of the ferry