pends, partially, upon the information of others, together with our knowledge of the general character of the country. A great portion of this habitable region lies North of the forty second parallel of North latitude, and is, consequently, in the Oregon Territory.
But there is a large portion of the desert region, of which there is little or nothing known. What is known concerning it has been learned by merely passing through it in a few places by routes separated from each other by great intervening distances; yet from the dreariness of every track that has yet been tried may be inferred, with a good degree of certainty, what those portions are which have yet either repelled the efforts of the traveler, the trader, and the trapper, or deterred them by their very appearance from attempting to break in upon the secrecy of their gloomy and forbidding solitudes.
With a very few exceptions, in this whole vast scope of territory lying immediately beyond the Rocky Mountains, extending west several hundred miles, and to an uncertain distance North and South, there can never locate any civilized society. Their inhabitants will be like those in the Deserts of Arabia and in the Sahara of Africa.
The climate of California, like that of Oregon, is much milder than in the same latitudes anywhere East of the Rocky Mountains. In fact, it is in every respect very similar to the climate of Oregon, excepting only that it is warmer in proportion to its difference of latitude and is dryer, there being not so much rain during the winter season and scarcely any during the summer. It is very mild, ice seldom ever being seen in the valleys, or snow except upon the mountains. The extremes of heat and cold are not great, nor is the climate subject to any great and sudden changes. The atmosphere is so pure that whole beeves will remain sweet and good in the open air
