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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ATLANTIS ARISEN; OK, TALKS OF A TOURIST AnOL'T OREGON AND WASHINGTON HY M1 Inn " (iRAY's Harbor, from Hoqbiam 281 Mai' of Tacoma 288 Where Ships are Lo.vdku Northern Pacific Railroad Yards, Tacoma 5J86 Opera-IIouse Corner, C Street, Tvcoma 292 •Jug Old Tacoma's Bell-Iower - 303 Seattle Water-Front Map of Seattle and Harbor 323 In the Straits 829 Among the Islands . . 868 A Suburb of Spokane 887 Middle Channel, Post Falls 871 Lake Pknd d'Oreille „ ,, 876 Fort Sherman • • ■ 382 Clarke's lov-rv of the Columbia One Day's Hunt ".■■■'■' ATLANTIS ARISEN; OR, • ■ • TALKS OF A TOURIST ABOUT OREGON AND WASHINGTON. CHAPTEE I. A TALK ABOUT DISCOVERY. From the year 1513, when Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean at Panama, the navigators of Spain, and of ev^ery r'vul naval power whicli arose for the following two hundred and seventy-nine years, were searching for some strait, or river, which would furnish water communication between the two great oceans that border the American continent. The Strait of Magellan, discovered soon after the Pacific, afforded a ^vay by which vessels could enter this ocean from the western side of the Atlantic ; but it was far to the south, crooked and dan- gerous. After the discovery by the English buccaneer, Drake, of the passage around Cape Horn, the search was continued with redoubled interest. Not only the Spanish and Portuguese entered into it, but the Engli-sh, who had found the great in- land sea of Hudson's Bay penetrating the continent towards the west, endeavored, by offering prizes, to stimulate the zeal of navigators in looking for the Northwest Passage. A rumor continued to circulate through the world, vague, mystical, and romantic, of half discoveries by one and another power; and tales, wilder than anything but pure fiction, were soberly listened to by crowned heads, — all of which went to confirm the belief in the hoped-for straits, which one pretender to discovery even went so far as to name, and give latitude and longitude. The Straits of Anian he called them; and so, all the world was looking for Fretum Anian. 11 / 12 ATI.AVTIS ARISEN. |!|< M All this agitation could not go for nothing. By dint of sail- ing up and down the west coast of the continent some iictiial discoveries of importance were made, and other hints of things not yet discovered were receiv;^d. There even appeared upon the Spanish charts the name of a river somewhere between the fortieth and fiftieth parallels, — the San Eoque, — supposed to be a large stream, possibly the long-sought channel of com- munication with the Atlantic; but no account of having entered it was ever given. Then vague mention began to be made of the "Eivor of the West," whose latitude and longitude nobody knew. Just before the War of the Revolution, a colonial captain, one Jonathan Carver, being inspired with a desire to know more of the interior of the continent, travelled as far west as the head-water.s of the Mississippi. While on this tour, he heard, from the Indians with whom he conversed, some mention of other Indians to the west, who told tales of a range of moun- tains called Stony Mountains, and of a great river rising in them, and flowing westward to the sea, which they callled Oregon, or Origan. After the War of the Eevolution, Great Britain resumed her voyages of discovery. A fleet was fitted out to survey the northwest coast of America, which it was thought might be claimed by her on account of the voyage to it by Captain Cook, some years previous. The surveys conducted by Captain Van- couver were elaborate and scientific. He, too, like those who had gone before him, was looking for the " River of the West," or the Northwest Passage. But that obtuseness of perception which sometimes over- takes the most sharp-sighted overtook Captain Vancouver when his vessel passed the legendary river; for it was broad daylight and clear weather, so that he saw the headlands, and still ho declared that there was no river there. — only a sort of bay. Fortunately, a sharper eye than hia had scanned the same opening not long before : the eye of one of that proverbially sharp nation, the Yankee. Captain Robert Gray, sailing a vessel in the employ of a firm of Boston traders, in taking a 1 )ok at the inlet, and noticing the color of the water, did think A TALK ABOUT DISCOVERY. u thera was a rivor there, and so told the English captain when his vesizel was spoken. Finding that his impressions were treated with superior scapticism, the Yankee captain turned back to talie another look. This second observation was con- clusive. He sailed in on the 11th of May, 1792. From the log-book of the " Columbia," Captain Gray's ship, we take the following extracts: At four o'clock, on the morning of the 11th, "'beheld our desired port, bearing oast-southeast, dis- tant six leagues. At eight a.m., being a little to the windward of the entrance jf the harbor, bore away, and run in east- north- east, between i he breakers, having from five to seven fathoms of water. When we were over the bar, we ibund this to be a large river of fresh water, up whicli wo steered. Many canoes came alongside. Atone p.m. came to, with the small bower, in ten fathoms; black and white sand. The entrance between the bars bore west-southwest, distant ten miles ; the north side of the river, distant a half mile fi-om the shij) ; the south side of the same, two and a half miles distant; a village on the noith side of the liver, west by north, distant three-quarters of a mile. Vast numbers of the natives came alongside : people em- ployed pumping the salt water out of our water-casks, in order to fill with fresh, while the ship floated in. So ends." No, not so ends, modest Captain Gray, of the ship " Columbia !" The end is not yet, nor will bo until all the vast territory, rich with every production of the earth, which is drained by the waters of the new-found river shall have yielded up its inimit- able wealth to distant generations. The " Columbia's" log-book certainly does n((t betray any great elation of mind in her oflScers on reaching the "desired port." Everything is recorded calmly and simply, — quite in the way of business. Only from chance expressions, and the determina- tion to make tlie '' desired port," does it appear that Gray's lieart was set on discovering the San Eoque of the Spanish navigators, — the "Kiverof the West" of the rest of mankind. No explorer he, talking grandly of '• minute inspections'' and of "unalterable opinions 1" Only an adventurous and, withal, a prudent trader, looking out for the main chance, and, perhaps, emulous of a little glory. No doubt his stout heart quaked a little with excitement as 14 ATLANTIS ARISEN. Il I he ran in for the " opening." We could pardon him if it shrank somewhat at sight of the hungry breakers; but it must have been a poor and pulseless affair of a heart that did not give a throb of exultation as his good ship, dashing the foam from her prow, sailed between the white lines of surf safely — through the proper channel, thank God I — out upon the broad bosora of the most magnificent of rivers. We trust the morning was fine, and that Captain Gray had a perfect view of the noble scenery surrounding him : of a golden sunrise from a horizon fretted by the peaks of lofty hills, bear- ing thick unbroken forests of giant trees; of low shores em- bowered in flowering shrubbery; of numerous mountain spurs putting out into the wide bay, extending miles east and west, and north and south, forming numerous other bays and coves, where boats might lie in safety from any storm outside ; of oihor streams dividing the mountains into ridges, and pouring their tributary wateis into the great river, through narrow gaps that half revealed and half concealed the fertile valleys nestled away from inquisitive eyes; and that, as he ti'ied in vuiii to look be- yond the dark ridge of Tongue Point, around whose foot flowed the broad, deep current whose origin was still a mystery, he realized by a prophetic sense the importance of that morning's transaction. No other reward had he in his lifetime, and we trust he had that. From the ship's log-book, we learn that he did not leave the river for ten days, during which time the men were employed calking the pinnace, paying the ship's side with ta., j.ainting the same, and doing such carpenter- work as was needed to put the vepsel in repair after her long voyage out from Boston. All this time "vast numbers" of native^^ were alongside continually, and the captain must have driven a thriving trade in furs, salmon, and the like. On the 14ih he sailed up the river about fifteen miles, getting aground just above Tongue Point, where he mistook the channel among the many islands ; but the ship '• coming off without any assistance," he dropped down to a better anchoring-plaoe. On the 15th, in the afternoon. Captain Gray and Mr. Hos- kins, the first oflScer, " went on shore in the jolly-boat, to take a short view of the country." On the 16th the ship returned A TALK ABOUT DISCOVERY. 16 to hor first position off the Chinook village, and was again sur- rounded by the canooa of that people. The Chinook village i-emains to-day, but its people are no longer numerous. Captain Gray was thinking of getting to sea again by the 18th ; but on standing down the river towards the bar, the wind came light and fluttering, and again the anchor was dropped. Ho must now decide upon a name for this great stream, which from its volume ho knew must come from the heart of the con- tinent. The log of the 19th says, "Fresh and clear weather. Early a number of canoes came alongside : seamen and trades- men employed in their various departments. Captain Gray gave the river the name of Columbia's Eiver; and the north side of the entrance, Cape Hancock ; that on the south side, Point Adams." On the 20th of May the ship lifted anchor, made sail, and stood down the river, coining, as the following extract will show, near being wrecked: "At two the wind left us, we being on the bar with a very strong tide, which set on the breakers. It was now not possible to got out without a bi'eeze to shoot her across the tide; so we were obliged to bring up in three and a half fathoms, the tide running five knots. At three-quarters past two a fresh wind came in from seaward ; we immediately came to sail and beat over the bar,. having from five to seven fathoms water in the channel. At five p.m. we were out, clear of all the bara, and in twenty fathoms water." Captain Gray proceeded from Columbia's Eiver to Nootka Sound, a favorite harbor for trading vessels, but in dispute at that time between Spain and Groat Britain. Here he reported his discovery to the Spanish comandante. Quadra, and gave him a copy of his charts. In the controversy which afterwards happened between Great Britain and the United States con- cerning the title to the Oregon territory, the value of this precaution became apparent: for in that controversy the comandante's evidence destroyed the pretensions of Vancou- ver's lieutenant, Broughton, who, on having heai'd of Gray's discovery, returned to the Columbia River, and made a survey of it up as far as the mouth of the Wallamet, founding upon this survey the claim of Great Britain to a discoveryrtitle. The subterfuge was resorted to of denying that the Columbia was 16 ATLANTIS ARISEN. a river below Tongue Point: it was claimed that it was an iulet or sound. Were it not a fact patent to every one that a river must extend as far as the force of its current is felt, the pretence would still be perfectly transparent, since Gray must have passed Tongue Point, and been in what Broughton claimed to bo the actual river before he grounded. Years afterwards, the log-book of the obscure Yankee trader, and the evidence of Comandante Quadra, overbore all strained pretences, and mani- fest destiny made Oregon and its great river a portion of the American republic. Captain Bobert Gray was the first man to carry the flag of the United States around the world, having, in the spring of 1792, just returned from a voyage from Nootka to Canton, and from Canton to Boston, by vvay of the Cape of Good Hope. He continued to command a trading vessel up to the time of his death, in 1809. Gray's Harbor, on the coast of Washington Territory, was discovered and named by him, the name remain- ing as a memorial. Ought he not to have some other? In October, 1792, Vancouver having finished the survey of Puget Sound, in which the Spanish fleet was also engaged, Broughton was despatched to the Columbia River with the " Chatham," which grounded just inside Cape Hancock ; was got off' and anchored in a small bay on the north side of the river, known as Baker's Bay. In this cove he found, to his surprise, another vessel, the brig "J- any," from Bristol, England, com- manded by Captain Baker, from whom he had parted in Nootka Sound. The cove was thence named Bakex-'s Bay. From this time the Columbia continued to be visited by trading vessels up to the war of 1812, which interrupted this sort of traffic for the time. A SYNOPSIS OF EARL^ HISTORY, If CHAPTER II. A SYNOPSIS OF EARLY niSTOIlY. In the commonceinent of the present century, when we paid for our teas and silks with sealskins, cocoanut oil, and sandal- wood, not to mention turtle and abalone shells, the United States were bounded by the British provinces on the north, by the Spanish possessions, called Florida, on the south, and by the French possessions, called Louisiana, on the west. Our sea- coast extended only from the northern boundary of Maine to the southern boundary of Georgia; and the Mississippi River represented our western water-front, although the settlements in that part of our territory were chiefly French. Beyond the Mississippi was an expanse of country whose extent was un- dreamed of, as its geographical configuration was unknown. The explorations of the British fur companies in the north had revealed the existence of high mountains and great rivers in that direction ; while the little knowledge obtained of the sources of the Missouri, the Columbia, and the Colorado, together with the immense volumes of those rivers, at so great an appar- ent distance from their springs, was sufl3cient to stimulate public inquiry and scientific research. How long such inquiry would have been deferred, but for a fortunate turn in the public affairs of the United States, can only be conjectured. Our young republic had barely established her independence, and shaken off the lingering grasp of Great Britain from the forts and towns bordering on the Great Lakes, — had only just begun to feel the young giant's blood in her veins, and to trust her own strength when measured with that of an older and adroit foe, — when the nineteenth century dawned, in which so much has already been accomplished, though its ninth decade is but just completed. The first event of importance marking this period, and bear- ing upon the history of Oregon, was the purchase from France of the Louisiana territory. This was a vast area of country, 2 ^ n ATLANTIS ARISEN. drained by the waters of the Mississippi, and originally settled by the French from Canada, especially in its more northern parts. Notwithstanding the Spaniards had discovered the Lower Missisnippi, and claimed a great extent of country under the general name of Florida, King Louis XIV. of France, in consideration of the fact that the region of the Mississippi re- mained unoccupied by Spain, while it was gradually being settled by his own people, thought proper to grant to Antoine Crozat, in 1712, the exclusive trade of the whole of Southern Louisiana, the country included in this j^rant extending "from the sea- shore to the Illinois, together with the Rivers St. Philip (the Missouri) and the St. Jerome (the Ohio), with all the couiitries, territories, lakes in the land, and rivers emptying directly or indirectly into that part of the Hiver St. Louis" (the Missis- sippi). Spain not being able to offer any successful opposition to this extensive land-grant of territories to which she laid claim by the right of discovery, Crozat remained in possession of Louisiana, under the general government of New France, until 1717, when, not finding the principality such a mine of wealth as he expected it to be, and having suffered a great pri- vate grief which took away the love of power, he relinquished his title, and Louisiana reverted to the crowji. The Illinois country was afterward added to the original Louisiana territory, and the whole once more granted to Law's Mississippi Company, whicii company held it until 1732, when the bubble of specula- tion being hopelessly flattened, Louisiana once more re^'crted to the French crown, and remained a Frencn pi'ovince urtil 1769. In the mean time, however, certain negotiation^ were being carried forward which were to decide the future boundaries of the United States. In 1762, on the 3d of November, a con- vention was held at Paris, to settle the preliminaries of peace between France and Spain on the one part, and England and Portugal on the other, in which convention it was agreed that France should cede to Spain " all the country known under the name of Louisiana, as also New Orleans and the island on which that city is situated." On the 23d of the same month this cession was formally concluded, giving to Spain, with the con- sent of Great Britain and Portugal, all the country drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries, except a small portion north A SYNOPSIS OF EAKLY HI8T0BY. 19 of tho Illinois country, which was never mentioned in the boundaries of Louisiana. In less than three months after tho cession of Louisiana to Spain a treaty was concluded in Paris between the same high contracting parties, by which Great Britain obtained from Prance Canada, and from Spain Florida, and that portion of Louisiana cast of a line drawn along the middle of the Missis- sippi, " from its source to the River Iberville, ,nd thence along the middle of the Iberville, and the Lakes Maurepas and Pont- chartrain, to the sea." This treaty defined the limits of the territories be*longing to Great Britain, and set aside any former grants of English kings, made when the extent of the continent was not oven surmised. Thus, at the close of the Revolutionary War, when the United States became heirs of all the British possessions south of Canada, thoir ostern boundary, as before mentioned, was the Mississippi, as far south as the River Iberville and Lake Pontchartrain, — New Orleans and the mouths of the Mississippi belonging to Spain. Florida, during the time it was in the hands of Great Britain, had been divided into two provinces, separated by the Appa- lachicola River, and settled chiefly by emigrants from the south of Europe, to whose numbers, also, a few Carolinians were added. This colony of foreigners was used, in connection with the savage natives of Florida, with great effect against the southern colonies during the War of Independence. However, while they were directing their energies against Georgia, the Spaniards of Louisiana seized the opportunity for making in- cursions into these nondescript British provinces, and captured their chief towns, thereby rendering them worthless to Great Britain ; and in 1783 Florida was retroceded to Spain, in whose hands it was in the beginning of the nineteenth century, then forming the southern boundary of the United States. In all these transactions the limits of neither Florida nor Louisiana had ever been distinctly defined; the southern bound- aries of the latter infringing upon the western boundaries of the former territory. In 1800, when Spain retroceded Louisiana to France, it was described in the treaty as being the " same in extent that it now is in the hands of Spain, and that it had been 20 ATLANTIS ARISEN. when France possessed it" — that is, embi-acing the whole torri- torj' drained by the Mississippi and its tributaricH, "directly or indirectly." In 1803, April 30, this vast extent of country was ceded to the United States by France, "with all its rights and appur- tenances, as fully, and in the same manner, as they had been acquired by the French republic," by the retrocession of Spain. By this transfer on the part of France the Spanish government seemed at first disposed to be offended, and to offer obstacles to the settlement of the Americans in their newly-acquired terri- tory. Doubtless, this feeling arose from the unsettled condition of the boundary questions, and a fear that the United States would, as they did, demand the surrender of the whole of the original territciy of Louisiana, called for by the treaty. Spain then undertook to prove that the pretensions of France to any territories west of the Mississippi could not be supported, and that the French settlements were only tolerated by Spain for the sake of peace. Such a discrepancy between the views of the two nations forbade negotiation at that time, and the matter rested, not to be revived until 1817. In the mean time, however, the United States, in 1811, feeling the necessity of holding the principal posts in the disputed territorj' against all other powers, took possession of the country west of the Perdido River, which was understood to be the western limit of Florida. But a British expedition having fitted out from Pensacola during the second war with Great Britain, the United States sent General Jackson to capture it, which he did in 1814, and again in 1818, as also the Fort of St. Mark. These repeated demonstrations of the spirit of the United States led to further and more sticcessfid negotiations with Spain, which power finally ceded to the American government the whole of the territory claimed to belong to Florida, February 22, 1819, the boundaries being settled as follows : "Article 3. The boundary-line between the two countries west of the Mississippi shall begin on the Gulf of Mexico, at the mouth of the River Sabine, in the sea, continuing north, along the western bank of that river, to the 23d degree of lati- tude; thence, by a line due north, to the degree of latitude where it strikes the Rio Roxo of Natchitoches, or Red River ; A SYNOPSIS OF EARI.Y HISTORY. fil then, following the course of the Rio Roxo westward, to the degree of longitude 100 west from London and 23 from Wash- ington; then, crossing said Red River, and running thcnco, by a lino due north, to the River Arkansas; thence, following the course of the southern bank of the Arkansas, to its source in latitude 42 north ; and thence, by that parallel of latitude, to the South Sea." Other particulars are added in the article quoted, the meaning of which is the same as the foregoing: intended to fix the western boundary of the TTnited States, as regarded the Spanish possessions, and the eastern and northern boundaries of the Spanish possessions, as regarded the United States. Spain had never withdrawn her pretensions to the northwest coast; but, being unable to colonize this distant territory, and still less able to hold it by garrisons in forts, she tacitly relin- quished her claim to the United States, by making the forty- second parallel the northern limit of her possesnions on the Pacific. The United States were then at libert}* to take posses- sion of that which Spain relinquished in their favor; in fact, had the same right to this remote territoiy that they had to the Florida and Louisiana territories, which were obtained by treaty from nations claiming them by the right of discovery. But the claims of the XTnited States to the so-called Oregon territory had even better foundations than this, if it be con- sidered that Spain had actually abandoned her possessions in the northwest; for, in that case, the Oregon territory was theirs by the right of discovery and actual occupation, as well as by contiguity, by treaty, etc. At the time that Gray discovered and named Columbia's River, important as the discoveiy was, it awakened but little thought in the American mind; because, as yet, we had not acquired Louisiana, stretching to the Rocky Mountains, nor even secured the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, which was much more of an object, at that time, than the coast of the Pacific. However, when Louisiana became ours, the national mind awoke to the splendid possibilities of the nation's future. It was not for naught that a company of Boston merchants had opened a trade between China and the north- west coast; albeit, their captains gathered up trinkets of all sorts to add to their stock in trade, should furs fiill short of the 39 ATLANTIS AUIHEN. imirkot. Not in vuin htul tho prying Boston ttudorM jieoroii into nil inlotM, bays, and rivers ■>n tho northwest coast. When it came to discovery-rif^hts, they had more claims than any pe()l)lo, tho original discoverers excepted; and when Captain Vancouver's journal was published, it only convinced them that they should be fools not to ])roflt by what it was so evidently fair thoy should |)rotit by, though they did not quite see tho way clear to tho occupancy of the country which Columbia's Biver was bolievod to drain, nor of the islands and bays which thoir trading ships had ex))lored. If Spain chose to hold posses- sion of these coasts, they would not interfere; but if Great Britain attempted to override both Spain and America, in laying claim to the Pacific side of the continent, something might be done by way of i)reventing this attempt. Such must have been the thought, half indulged, half repressed, in tho A.morican mind previous to tho acquisition of tho groat Louisiana territory. Afier that acquisition it became more de- cided. Tho fact that Gray had discovered tho great rivor of tho west, which for a century had been sought after, tho in- creasing evidences of tho incapacity of Spain to hold this far- off coast against intruders, tho fooling that Groat Britain had no right to tho countries she had so pompously taken posses- sion of in the face of thoir actual discoverers, — all those reasons, joined to the probable fact that tho Louisiana territory bordered upon that drained by the groat western rivor, which an Ameri- can was first to onior and explore, at length shaped the policy of a few loading minds among American statesmen. It was even contended by some that, as the western boundary of Louisiana had never been fixed, and, indeed, was entirely unknown, — since tho Missouri and its tributaries had never been explored,- the limits of the newly-acquired territory might be considered as extending to tho Pacific ; and if one were to consult the old French maps for confirmation of such an opinion, he would find iVew France, to which Louisiana belonged, ox- tending from ocean to ocean. Yet, a perfectly candid mind would ignore the authority of maps drawn from rumor and imagination, and wish to found an opinion upon facts. It was to secure such facts and to carry out, as far as possible, the lately-formed policy of leading statesmen, that President Jeffer- A 8Ym/P8I8 OF EARLY HISTORY. Bon, ovon before the tninsfor of Louinianft was complotod, ad- dressed a confidontiul moHsugo to Congress, urgiiij^ that meann should be immodiuti'ly taken to explore the sources of the Missouri and the Datle, and to ascertain whether the CyV)hnul)ia. the Oregon, the Colorailo, or any other river, offered a direct and practicable water-conimunicutiou across the continent, for purposes of commerce. The sui^gestions of the President bein^ approved, commissions were issued to Captains Merriwcther Lewis and William Clarke to perform this service. Captain Lewis made immediate preparations, and, by the time that the news of the ratification of the treaty had been received, was ready to commence his journey to the unknown West. It was already summer when this news was received, and, although the party were ready to advance into the Indian cou'itry, it wnf too late to accomplish much of their journo}- beioro wintoi ; besi«'o8 which, some delay occurring in the sur- render of no coun >y west of the Mississippi, the party were not able ;.j cross .hat river until December, in consequence of which detention, tlio ascont of the Missouri could not be under- taken beioro the midulo of May of the following year. The exploring par'y Oorxsisted of but forty-four men, — an insignifi- cant force to send into an Indian country, — yet, perhaps, all the safer for its insignificance. They had to make the ascent against the current of the Mad River in boats, three of which sufficed to accommodate this adventurous expedition, liy the end of October they had arrived in the Mandan country, near the fortj'-eighih degree of hititude, or sixteen hundred miles from the Mississippi, whore f'ley mado tli)ir winter camp. As every school-library is furnished with the printed journal of Lewis and Ciarke. it is unnecessary to dwell upon the incidents of their memorable journey across the continent. It is only with its results that we have to deal in this sketch. One of its results was developed at this early period, or during their stay at the Mandan village : which was, to alarm the Northwest Fur Company, and, through them, the English government, as *^ the designs of the Americans concerning the northern coa* of the Pacific. It has been before stated that the Northwest Company had been compelled reluctantly to res',?... the posts along the Great Lakes, belonging to the United 24 ATLANTIS ARISEN. States, after the Eevolutionary War. They still continued to hunt and trap, and had established their trading-posts in all thut country lying about the heu i-watere of the Mississippi ; and their employees were scattered throughout the region east of the Missouri, and west of the Lakes, even having penetrated, on one occasion, to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. It happened that, while Lewis and Clarke were at the Man- dan villages, the fact of their visit, and the object of it, which had been explained to the Indians, were communicated to some members of the Northwest Company, who had a post about three days' journey from there. So much alarmed was Mr. Chaboillez, who resided at this post, that he wrote immediately to another partner, Mr. D. W. Harmon, a native of New Eng- land, and, upon receiving a visit from him, urged Mr. Harmon to set out in the following spring upon the same route pursued by Lewis and Clarke, accompanied by Indian guides, doubtless with the intention of arriving at the head-waters of the Mis- souri, in advance of the American expedition ; but in this praiseworthy strife for precedence they were in this instance defeated, — Mi-. Harmon proceeding no further than the Mandan villages, while Lewis and Clarke prosecuted their undert'iking with diligence, leaving the Mandan country on the 7th of April, 1805, and arriving at the Gi'eat Falls of the Missouri on the 13th of June. The reader need not be reminded of the dilficul- ties attending such a journey as the one undertaken by our exploring party, when, the course of navigation being inter- rupted, boats had to be abandoned, toilsome portages made, now boats constructed, and all the novel hardships of the wilderness endured. Such tests of courage have been encountered by thousands since that time, in the settlement of the Pacific Coast; but that fact does not lessen the glory which attaches to the fume of the great pioneers commissioned to discover the hidden sources of America's greatest rivers. Those faithful services secured to us inestimable blessings, in extended terri- tories, salubrious climates, and exhaustiess wealth of natural reaourceH. Lewis and Clarke, having re-embarked in canoes hollowed out of logs, arrived at tiio Gate of the Mountains on the 19th of July, in the very neighborhood where thousands of men are to- A SYNOPSIS OP EARLY HISTORY. 25 day probing the earth for her concealed treasures of gold and silver. Proceeding on to the several forks of the Missouri — the Jefferson, the Madison, and the Gallatin — and finding them selves in the midst of the mountains, the two captains loft a portion of their men to explore the largest of these, while thoy, with the remainder of the party, pushed on through the moun- tains until they came to streams flowing towards the west. At this intimation that their laboi'S were about to be crowned with success, they rejoined their part}' at the head of the Jefforson Fork, and prepared for the rugged work of crossing that majestic range, now become so familiar. Concealing their goods and canoes in caches, after the fashion of all knowing mountain- eers, and being furnished with horses and guides by the Sho- shones, or Snake Indians, whose later hostility to the whites makes us wonder at their early friendship for Lewis and Clarke, the party commenced the passage of the Rocky Mountains on the 30th of August. Severe was their toil, and great were the sufferings Lhey endured from hunger and cold ; but, at length, their trials passed, they arrived at a stream on which their Indian guides allowed them to embark. Th'.s was the Clear- water Eiver, the banks of which have since become historic ground. The party were glad again to be able to resume water naviga- tion, and hastened to build their canoes, and place their horses in charge of the Chopunish, or Nez Perce tribe of Indians, whose extraordinary fidelity to the treaty formed at that time with Lewis and Clarke is one of the wonders of history. On the 7th of October they began to descend the Clearwater, and three daj's later entered upon that great branch of the Colum- bia whose springs they had, indeed, tasted in the mountains, but upon whose bosom no party of civilized men had ever before embarked. Men are apt to dwell with enthusiasm upon the pride of a conqueror ; but, certainly, there must be that in the exultation of a discoverer, which is far more pure, elevated, and happifying. To have succeeded, by patient research and energetic toil, in securing that which others secure by blood and devastation only, is justly a subject of self congratulatio*i^ as it is also de- serving of praise. The choicest wine, from the costliest chalice, 26 ATLANTIS ARISEN. I ■• I could hardly have been so sweet to the taste of our hardy exploring party as the ice-cold draught of living water dipped from the mountain reservoirs whose streams "flowed towards the west." With equal pride must they have launched their frail canoes on that river which now bears the name of the chief of the expedition. As they descended to the junction with the northern branch, and found themselves at last fairly embarked on the main Columbia, when they beheld the beauty and magnitude of this King of Rivers, and remembered that their errand, so successfully carried out, was to find a " highway for commerce," their toils and privations must have appeared to them rather in the light of pleasures than of griefs. As the first party of white men to pass through the magnificent moun- tain-gap where the great river breaks through the Cascade Rar^ge, and to meet the tides of the Pacific just on the west- ward side, the party of Lewis and Clarke have won, and ever must retain, r honorable renown. The voyage from this point to the mouth of tbo Columbia was soon accomplished. On the 15th of November the ex- pedition landed at Cape Hancock, comm.only called " Disap- pointment," on the north side of the river, having travelled a distance of more than four thousand miles from the Mississippi River. The rainy season, which usually sets in about the 18th of November, had already commenced, so that our explorers had some difiiculty in finding a suitable winter camping-ground. At first they tried the peninsula north of Cape Hancock, but were driven from the'r ground by the floods. Then they resorted to the south side of the river, somewhat farther back from the ocean, building a log fort on a small stream which is still called "Lewus and Clarke River." There they contrived to pass the winter without actual starvation, though they were often threatened with it, from the difficulty of obtaining food at this season of the year. Game was scarce, except in the coast mountains, which are very rugged and thickly wooded ; while fishing could not be carried on successfully except with other boats than their slight canoes, which were entirely unfit for the winter winds and waves of the lower Columbia. The Indians among wh'>m they wintered called themselves "Clatsops," and were sufficiently friendly, but had no food to spare, save at the A SYNOPSIS OF EARLY HISTORY. 27 and very highest prices. The Chinooks, on the north side of the Columbia, the same people Captain Gray had traded with thir- teen years before, were equally exorbitant in their prices, and exercised a monopoly of the necessaries of life quite equal to that of the most practised extortionists. Nothing could be effected in the way of explorations of the country during the winter of 1805-6, on account of the rains, which were constant and excessive; and the party, however un'villingly, remained at Fort Clatsop until the middle of March, going no farther away than to Cape Lookout, about fifty miles down the coast. As soon as the rainy season had closed, Lewis and Clarke re-embarked their men, and returned up the river, surveying the shores on their voyage. On this passage they discovered the Cowlitz Eiver, the principal tributary emptying into the Columbia from the north side anywhere west of the Cascades. The Wallamet Eiver was also discovered, but re- mained unexplored, from the anxiety of the expedition to return to the United States. By the middle of April the party had abandoned their canoes at the gap in the Cascade Mountains, whero the river forms dangerous rapids ; and, purchasing Indian horses, continued the journey on horseback to the Nez Perces country, where 1*1686 faithful allies met them on their return, not with friendship only, but with the animals confided to their care the preceding autumn, — an example of Indian integrity worthy of mention, and, as it proved, indicative of a character shown in the events of succeeding yeai'.s. After crossing the Eocky Mountains to Clarke's Eiver, the two leaders of tlie expedition separated, — Captain Lewis going northward, down the Clarke Eiver, and Captain Clarke ])ro- ceeding towards its source. On the 12th of August the two captains met at the mouth of the Yellowstone, having explored that river, as well as the Clarke, and ti-aversed a gi-eat extent of country then unknown to white men, but where white men to-day are suffering the flushes and the rigors of that most in- fectious and fatal comph'int — the gold-fever — in the territory of Montana. At about the mouth of the Maria Eiver, Captain Lewis had an encounter with the Blackfeet, the most savage and dreaded 28 ATLANTIS ARISEN. 1 I III of the mountain tribes. In this conflict one of the Indians was killed, which caused the others to desist at that time ; yet, no doubt, many a white man's scalp has been taken in revenge, according to savage custom, and the wonder still remains that the party escaped alive out of the country. After re-uniting their forces — their mission being accomplished — the expedition once more embarked on the Missouri Elver, and arrived at St. Louis September 23d, having travelled in less than three years, by canoe and saddle, carrying their own sup- plies, more than nine thousand miles. Of the results of the expedition of Lewis and Clarke, it may be said that it was the first great act, wisely conceived and well executed, which secui-ed the Oregon territory to the United States. It wa"", the beginning, too, of a struggle for possession between this country and Great Britain, dating from the meet- ing of the Northwest Company's men with the men of the American expedition at the Mandan villages. Happily all these struggles for precedence are matters of past history now ; and to-day both English and American citizens seek and find homes on Oregon soil, where, according to a wise act of Congress, one may be had for the taking. The fii-st attempt that was made to form a settlement on the Columbia River was by the Winship brothers, in 1810. On the 7th of July, 1809, there sailed from Boston two ships, — the " O'Cain," Captain Jonathan Winship, and the " Albatross," Cap- tain Nathan Winship. The " O'Cain" proceeded direct to Cali- fornia, to trade out a cargo of goods with the padres of the Missions and their converts; and the "Albatross" sailed for the Sandwich Islands, with twenty-five persons on board. At the Islands she provisioned, and took on board twenty-five more men, leaving port for the Columbia March 25, 1810. Arriving in the river early in the spring. Captain Winship cruised along up, for ten days, finally selecting a site on the south side, about forty miles from its mouth and opposite the place now known as " Oak Point," though its name is borrowed from Captain Winship's place. Here he commenced founding an establishment, and for a time everything progressed satis- factorily. A tract of ground, being cleared, was planted with vegetables ; a building was erected ; and, while the river banks w A SYNOPSIS OF EARLY HISTORY. 29 were gay with the blossoming shrubbery of early summer, our captain and his fifty workmen rejoiced in the promise of a speedy consummation of their plans of colonization. Their hopes, however, were soon overthrown b}- an unlooked-for occur- rence; and the daring pioneers, who feared the face of neither man nor beast in all that wilderness, found themselves con- fronted with an adversary against which it was useless to con- tend. The snows had melted in the mountains a thousand miles eastward, and the summer flood came down upon their new plantation, washing the seeds out of the earth and co\ >ring the floors of their houses two feet deep with water, demon- strating conclusively the unfitness of the site selected for their settlement. Without doubt, this company of adventurers were by turns wroth and sorrowful. Their seeds were lost; their residences made uninhabitable, even had they desired to remain, which they did not. Captain Winshi|. at once re-embarUed his men, and sailed for California to consult with his brother. Here he was met by the intelligence of the formation of the Pacific Fur Compan}-, with John Jacob Astor at its head, and the intention of this company to c"cupy the Columbia Eiver. Competition with so powerful an association was not to be thought of, and the brothers Winship abandoned their enterprise. As men of large ideas and fearless action, they should be remembered in connection with the history of the Columbia River. In March of the following year, that portion of Mr. Astor's expedition which was to come by sea did ai-rive on the Columbia — not, however, without the loss of eight men on the bar, through the impatience and overbearing temper of the com- mander of the " Tonquin," Captain Thorne. Subsequently, the Indians of the Straits of Fuca destroyed the " Tonquin," massa- cring all her officers and crew, twenty-three in number. The land expedition suflered incredible hardships : supply vessels failed to arrive ; war with Great Britain broke out, preventing Mr. Astor from carrying out his plans ; the Canadian partners took advantage of the situation to betray Mr. Astor's interests ; and, after two years of hope deferred, the establishment at Astoria was sold out to a British company, and the enterprise abandoned, the place having been " captured" by the British. 30 ATLANTIS ARISEN. Ill ll 1 i 1 i I i After tho close of the war of 1812, Astoria was restored to the United States, and Mr. Astor would have renewed his enter- prise, notwithstanding his heavy losses, had Congress guaran- teed him protection and lent its aid ; but the government pursued a cautious policy at this time, and the Oregon territorj' remained in the hands of the British fur-traders exclusively for the twenty years following, notwithstanding a treat}' of joint occupation. To follow the chain of events, and record the incidents of a long struggle between Great Britain and the United States to substantiate a claim to Oregon, is the work of the historian. Enough for us that we know which claim prevailed; and let us proceed to the more congenial contemplation of the physical features which the country presents, touching lightly now and then upon its history, as tou sts may. CHAPTEE III. ., . > ABOUT THK MOUTH OP THE COLUMBIA. Where the Columbia meets the sea, in an almost continuous line of surf, is so^ne distance outside the capes ; but from the one to the other of these — that is, from Cape Hancock to Point Adams — is seven miles. Should the sea be calm on making the entrance, nothing more than a long, white line will indicate the bar. If the wind be fresh, the surf will dash up handsomely ; and if it be stoi'm}?^, great walls of foam will rear themselves threateningly on either side, and your breath will be abated while the qTiivering ship, with a most " uneasy motion," plunges into the thick of it, dashes through the white-crested tumult, and emerges triumphantly upon the smooth bosom of the river. The north channel, which is now little used, comes in pretty close under a handsome promontory. This promontory is tho Cape Hancock of Captain Gray and the United States govern- ment, and the Cape Disappointment of the English navigators and of common usage, since the long residence in the country of the Hudson's Bay Company. ABOUT THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA. 31 Inside the base of the cape, we find ourselves in a pretty little harbor, called Baker's Bay from its discoverer, with an island or two in it, and surrounded by sloping shores, originally densely covered with a growth of spruce, fir, and hemlock, with many varieties of lesser trees and shrubs. Along the strip of low land, crescent-shaped and edged with a sandy beach, are the recently abandoned quarters of the gari'ison of Fort Canby. foi- the cape was fortified during the civil war — when our govern- ment had some distrust of the friendliness of the English and French powers, and some fears of Confederate cruisers — with several powerful batteries. There is also a light-house at the point of the cape, in which a first-class Fresnel light is kept, tended by the resident of a modest mansion under the she'ter of the hill, and we are tempted to take the path winding around and about up to the top of the promontory. What fine trees ! What a luxuriant undergrowth ! Sauntering, pulling ferns and wild vines, exclaiming at the shadows, the coolness, the magnificence of the forests, we come at last to the summit, and emerge into open ground. Here all is military precision and neatness : gravelled walks, grassy slopes and terraces, whitened walls. When we have done with the contemplation of guns and earthworks, we turn eagerly to gaze at the sea; towatch the restless surf dashing itself against the bar ; to catch that wonderful monotone — " ever, forever." The fascination of looking and listening would keep me long spellbound; but our escort, vfho understands the symptoms, politely compels us '-to move on," and directly — very oppor- tunely — we are confronted with the light-house keeper, who offers to show us his tower and light. Clambering up and up, at last we stand within the great lantern, with its intense reflec- tions, and hear all about the life of its keeper, — how ho scours and polishes by day, and tends the burning oil by night. When wo ask him if the storm-winds do not threaten his tower, he shakes his head and smiles, and says it is an eerie place up there when the sou'westers are blowing. But, somehow, he likes it ; he would not like to leave his place for another. Then we climb a little higher, going out upon the iron bal- cony, where the keeper stands to do his outside polishing of the m 32 ATLANTIS ARISEN. glass. i The view is grand ; but what charms us most is a minia- ture landscape reflected in one of the facets of the lantern. It is a complete copy of the northwestern shore of the cape, a hundred times more perfect and beautiful than a painter could make it, with the features of a score of rods concentrated into a picture of a dozen inches in diameter, with the real life, and motion, and atmosphere of nature in it. While you gaze en- chanted, the surf creeps up the sandy beach, the sea-birds circle about the rocks, the giant firs move gently in the breeze, shadows flii over the sea, a cloud moves in the sUy ; in short, it is the loveliest picture your eyes ever rested on. When we ask the light-keeper, " What do j'ou do when the thick fogs hang over the coast?" he shows us a great bell, which, when the machinery is wound up, tolls, tolls, tolls, sol- emnly in the darkness, to warn vessels off the coast. '• But," he says, " it is not large jnough, and cannot be heard any great distance. Vessels usually keep out to sea in a fog, and ring their own bells to warn off other vessels." Then he shows us, at our request, Peacock Spit, where the United States vessel of that name was wrecked, in 1841 ; and the South Spit, nearly two miles outside the cape, where the " Shark," another United States vessel, was lost in 1846. The bones of many a gallant sailor and many a noble ship are laid on the sands, not half a dozen miles from the spot where we now stand and look at a tranquil ocean. Nor was it in storms that these shipping disasters happened. It was the treacherous calm that met them on the bar, when the current or the tide carried them upon the sands, where they lay helpless until the flood-tide met the current, and the ship was broken up in the breakers. Pilotage and steam have done away with shipwrecks on the bar. We are glad to think that it is so. Having exhausted local topics for conversation, we descend the winding stairs, which I'cmind us of those in the " Spider and the Fly," so hard are they to " come down again." How still and warm it is down under the shelter of the earth-works! Descending by the military road, we come out near the life-boat house, — for there is a life-saving station here, — and, being invited, go in to look at it. We find it well furnished for its duties, which evidently ABOUT THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMHIA. 3.3 have been well performed, for hero are the names of half a dozen vessels of different sorts which have been rendered service in their hour of peril. There is annually great loss of life among the fishermen at the mouth of the Columbia, and it is here principally that the life-saving station is most useful. The number of men rescued during some seasons has reached half a hundred. The fisher- men have recognized this service by presenting the captain of the crew with a powerful glass, and the men wear medals of which they are vory proud. Having inspected the well-kept boats, ropes, and buoys, we take a look at the fishing-tackle, with which the light-house keeper goes outto troll forsalmon. Glorious sport ! The great, delicious fellows, to be caught by a fly I But we, humans, need not sermonize about being taken by small bait. Baker's Bay is not without its little history ; albeit, it is nothing romantic. In 1850 a company conceived the plan of building up a city, under shelter of the cape, and expended a hundred thousand dollars, more or less, before they became aware of the fruitlessness of their undertaking. By mistake, portions of their improvements were placed on the Government Reserve, to which, of course, they could have no title. Yet this error, although a hinderance, was not the real cause of the company's failure, which was founded in the ineligibility of the situation for a town of importance. The buildings went to decay, and the site was finally overgrown with a young forest of alders, spruce, and hemlock. But after many years the title to the land was confirmed to the early speculator, and the town of Ilwaco, a summer resort, has grown up on the site of obsolete "Pacific City." •■ There is a fine beach-drive of twenty rniles from the cape up to the entrance of Shoalwater Bay. and several seaside resorts are scattered along it. From Ilwaco to Sea-Land is sixteen miles, this distance being traversed by the Ilwaco and Shoalwater Bay Railroad, which has several stations, namely, Stout's, Cen- treville. Tinker's, Loomis, Ocean Park, and Sea-Land, the pres- ent terminus. The cottages of summer residents are scattered along for two miles from Ilwaco, after which the road runs past waving fields of grass and grain, and thrifty vegetable gardens. For ft part of the distance the ocean is in full view, its long -■.8 rTi 34 ATLANTIS AEISEN. rollers scorning to attack the beach with a purpose to demolish it, receding and renewing the onslaught perpetually. The Hcene is rendered more wild by the dense growth of dwarf timber covering the low land stretching back to an arm of Shoalwater Bay lying to the east. Many fpohh-wator laives or lagoons dot this long peninsula, which, with its black, i-ich soil, would make profitable cranberry fields. At Ocean Park there is a grove of gnarled spruce-trees through which streets have been cleared from the railroad to the beach, making beautiful vistas through which one may catch glimpses of the sparkling sea. The trees which brave the heavy northwest wind of summer, and the terrible strength of the winter's southwest storms, lean inland, and have a stunted appearance very different from the straight, tall timber of the river bottoms and mountains. Sea-Land is situated in a spruce forest, on the inner shore of the peninsula, fronting Shoalwater Bay, the clearing being of very recent date. It has a wharf and warehouse extending half a mile into the bay. Several small steamers ply on these waters, canying passengers to and from towns on the mainland side, whence raili'oads in the near future will convey them to Gray's Harbor, or into the interior of Washington. To a sportsman with sufficient hardihood to invade the rugged and heavily-timbered mountains on the east side of Shoalwater Bay, bear, elk, and deer offer temptations. Bear are numerous, and keep fat on the wild fruit of this region, — whortleberries, sallal, and salmon berries. They also invade the apple-orehai'ds of the settlers, and have to be trapped "or their pres .inption. Returning as we came, we take the " General Canby" at Ilwaco to 3ross the Columbia. Such is its expanse that, although its course brings us off Chinook Point, we have but an indistinct view of it. Not as it was eighty years ago, as Franchere and Irving and Cox wrote about it, — a populous In- dian village, — the dwellings of the white invader overshadow the ancient wigwams. Even its burial-ground, memelose illihee, which freely translated means " spirit country," is profaned. Alas! nothing of one race is sacred to another; least of all is there anything in common between the white and the red man. I ft '4 i I omolish . Tho ■ dwarf iirm of lakes or rich soil, ico-trces Iroad to ►no may :;h brave strength 1 Blunted or of the shore of being of xtending on these mainland ' them to vado the ; side of 18. Bear is region, so invade ippc'I "or >anby" at nse that, have but rs ago, as pulous In- ^ershadow ose illihee, profaned, t of all is I red man. < m > en H O a o o X z o en m > > 3) a ■f-^ II A TALK AllOUT A8TOU1A AND VICINITY. 86 CHAPTER IV. A TALK AHOUT A8T0HIA AND VICINITY. The Hituation of Asloi-iu, in point of beauty, is certainly a very fine one. The necic of land occupied by the town is made a peninsula by Youn<>;'s Bay on one Hide and the Columbia Iliver on the other, and points to the northwest. A small cove makes in at the east side of the neck, just back of which the ground rises much more gently and smoothly than it docs a little farther towards the sea. The whole point was originally covered with heavy timber, which came quite down to high- water mark ; and vvluitevor there is unlovely in the present aspect of Astoria arises from the roughness always attendant upon the clearing up of timbered lands. Standing facing the sea or the river, the view is one of un- surpassed beauty. Towards the sea, the low, green point on which Fort Stevens stands — the Cape Frondosa (loafy cape) of the Spanish navigators — and the high one of Cape Hancock, topped by the light-house tower, mark the entrance to the river. Above them is a blue sky ; between them a blue river celebrat- ing eternally its union with the sea by the roar of its breakers, whoso white crests are often distinctly visible. There is a sail or two in the offing, and a pilot-boat going out to bring them over the bar; perhaps the vessel is from " far Cathay," with the silks and spices of the Ind. While we gaze, there is seen against the horizon the black smoke of a steamer. On she comes over the bar, breathing asthmatically and beating the waters with her great wheels in a steady rhythm, until at last the boom of her gun gives notice to the custom-house officials of her arrival, and all the town hastens to the wharf to learn of her cargo and her passengers, and tv; question what sort of a voyage she has had. Towards night, when the sun is setting behind the light-house cape, and gilding sky and sea beyond the bar, there suddenly appear upon the river hundreds of fishing-boats, whose white T= 36 ATLANTIS ARISEN. 'i'l sails dot its blue surface as summer clouds a Juno sky. They are going out to their night's fishing with drag-nets. Opposite us, and distant four miles, is the northern shore, — a line of rounded highlands, covered with trees, with a narrow, low, and level strip of land between them and the beach. The village of Chinook is a little to the northwest ; another village, Knappton, a little to the northeast. Following the opposite shorto-line with the ey^_ o.^ far to the east as the view extends, a considerable indentation in the shore marks Gray's Bay, where the discoverer of the river went ashore with his mate, to " view the country." On the Astoria side the shore curves beautifully in a north- east direction, quite to Tongue Point, four miles up the river. This point is one of the handsomest projections on the Columbia. Connected with the ma'n-lund by a low, naiTow isthmus, it rises gi'adually to the height of fifty or sixty feet, and is crowned with a splendid growth of trees. Between Tongue Point and Astoria was erected the first custom-house in Oregon ; the build- ing and wharf have gone to decay, and 'Upper Astoria" has become united to the main town by a line of fish-canning estab- lishmeh's. Following down the curving shore, I inquire for the site of the Astor establishment of 1811 and the cove where the "Dolly" was launched. A few years ago, 1 am told, the foundations of Fort George, as the place was named by the English successors to Astor, could have been traced, but they are now built over, and the cove in front is also concealed from view bj' a wilder- ness of wharves. In 1849, a company or t'vo of Unitpd States soldiers being temporarily quartered in the old " Shark" house, a squared-log mansion built to shelter the orew of the United States schooner wrecked on the bar i'l 1346, the canoes of eight hundred native wari'iois of the Chinooks covered the water in Astor Bay, curious, as riavages always are, to watch the acts and note the customs of civilized men. Not a canoe is novv in sight. The V. hite race are to the rod as sun to snow : as silently and surely the red men disappear, dissipated by the beams of civilization. Among those who came to gaze at the ovt.-rpov»'ering white race on that occasion was an olJ Chinook chief, named Waluska, the ! ,^l A TALK ABOUT ASTORIA AND VICINITY. 37 They view bus number of whose years was one hundred. His picture, which some one gave me, shows a shrewd character. So, no doubt, looked Com-com-ly, the chief whom VV^ashingion Irving describes in his " Astoria," and whose contemporary this venerable savage must have been. His then sightless eyes, in his early manhood beheld the entrance into the river of that vessel whose name it bears. Between that time and the day of his death ho saw the Columbia Eiver tribes, which once numbered thirty thousand souls, decimated again and again, until they scarcely counted up one-tenth of that, number. Only a few years ago, I am told, there might have been found, on a prelty, level. piece of land around Smith's Point west of Astoria, away from the shingly beach, and where on the edge of the forest thickets of wild roses, white S|,'r8ea, woodbine, and mock-orange made a charming solitude, an Indian lodge, the residence of the native Clatsop. Exteriorly, the Clatsop residence could not be praised for its beauty, being made of cedar planks, set Upright and fastened to a square or oblong frame of poles, and roofed with cedar bark. Outside were numberless dogs, ar.d some pretty girls of ten and twelve years of ago, with glorious great, black, smiling eyes. Inside might be soon throe squaws of various ages, braiding baskets and tending a baly of tender age, with two " warriors" sitting on their haunches and doing nothing; and salmon eveiy- wiiere, — on the fire, on the walls, overhead, dripping grease, and smelling villanously, salinun, — nothing but salmon. A conversa- tion with the mother of the little stranger, in jargon, related to the fair complexion of the tillicum. One of the warriors, pre- sumed to be its papa, laughed and declared it all was as it should be. Such are the benefits of civilization to the savage I I went in search of this aboriginal family and fell in with a ditterent sort of savage, — an Irishman, on a little patch of ground which he cultivates after a fashion of his own, at the same time doing his housekeeping in preference to being '-bothered with a woman." He is cooking his afternoon meal, which consists of soup made from boiling a ham-bone, with thistles for greens, and a cup of spruce tea. Think of this, unlucky men, bothered with womcii, who, but for them, might yourselves be subsisting on thistles and spruce tea I ••■ Young's Bay, which forms the southwest bouni'nvy of Smith's ■I i ,) n m 38 ATLANTIS ARISEN. Point, is a deep i^'.et of the Columbia, and receives the waters of Young's Eiver, Lewis and Clarke's Kiver, and the Skipanon, all which flow I'rom the south ; Young's River, however, having two considerable branches coming in from the east. The penin- sula formed by Young's Bay and the ocean is a sandy plain, roughened with nriany hummocks, cut up by tide-sloughs, lakes, and marshy hollows, and timbered near the sea with scrubby pines. It has two rivers rising in the Cf^ast Eange, — one, Lewis and Clarke's, emptying into Yoni /'' ] and one, the Neah- canacum, flowing into the ocean, i ^iv :poD the spot beside the former where the bravo explorers Lc »vis and Clarke wintered in 1805-6, subsiBting themselves and thcii' company on clk-n'.eat obtained on this peninsula. There they listened to Indian tales of the Yankee traders who had been in the river in past times, and even learned their names and the names of their vosselr, so well had they been remembered by the natives. The Neah- canacum is a beautiful mountain stream, overhung with trees, rapid and cold enough for trout-fishing, and deep enough for boating. Very singularly, it runs parallel to the ocean and very near it, and is one of the most charming features of the sum- mer resort known as Clatsop Beach. There is go d hunting in the coast mountains bordering on Clatsop Pla' ■ aTid this sea-bathing place has for many yea; v > ; tion-iji'ound of Portlanders in the dry montl .; . , and Septombei', a distinction now shai'od by simi.. the beach north of the Columbia. Steamers leave Purii-und late in the evening, arriving at Astoria in the morning, throughout the week ; and on Saturdays leave the city early enough to reach their destination the same evening and give business men a Sunday with their families at the sea-side, to which they are conveyed by >^oat and train ftv • i .^.storia. From Young's Bay there is a ew of S ■ 'He Mountain, the highest of its twin peaks, Neah-car-ny, J i>^ - the subject of a tradition preserved among the Indians oi .^ • ;t 'el once cast ashore near the mouth of their rivor, the crew of which were saved, together witii the' • private pi'opert}', and a bo.K which they carr.-d ashov and bu'i^d on Mount Neah-car-ny, with much cai'e, leaving two s'.vjius placed on it in the form of a cross. the south, i ':h'j reci'ea- H'.-\ August, Ttworts on A TALK ABOUT ASTORIA AND VICINITY. 39 Anothei* version is that one of their own number was slain, and his bones laid on top of the box when it was buried. This, were it true, would more effectually keep away the Indians than all the sw^ords in Spain. The story sounds very well, and is firmly believed by the Indians, who cannot be induced to go near the spot, because their ancestors were told by those whe buried the box, that, should they ever go near it, they would provoke the wrath of the Great Spirit. The tale corresponds with that told by the Indians of the upper Columbia, who say that some shipwrecked men, one of whom was called Soto, lived two or three yeai's with their tribe, and then left them to try to reach the Spanish countries overland. It is probable enough that a Spanish galleon may have gone ashore near the mouth of the Columbia, and it agrees with the character of the early explorers of that nation that they should undertake to reach Mexico by laud. That they never did, ce feel sure, and give a sigh to their memorj'. If the tourist is so fortunate as to secure an old Astorian for a guide, he ma}'-, if he chooses, call up manifold " spii'its from the vasty deep." One of the stories of wreck a century or so ago relates to our almond-eyed neighbors at the antipodes. The story-teller will most likely take from his pocket, where he must have placed it for this purpose, a thin cake of beeswax, well sanded over, which he avers was a portion of the cargo of a Japanese junk, cast ashore near the Columbia in some time out of mind. When we have wondered over this, to us, singular evidence of wrecking, he produces another, in the form of a waxei: tube. At this we are more stultified than before, and thon art. <^ol'i that this was a large wax candle, such as the Japanese priest, as well as the Eoman, uses to burn before altars. The wick is entirely rotted out, leaving the candle a hoilow C3linder of wax. By this self-evident explanation we are convinced. Certain it is that for years, whenever there has been an unusually violent storm, portions of this waxen cargo are washed ashor •, ground full of sand. A 3 beeswax is a common commodity in Japan, wo see no reason to doubt that this, which the sea gives up from time to time, originally came from there. The suppo- Tjrsp" Ban 40 ATLANTIS ARISEN. 1 Ij: i- (I 1 ■ 1 1 ll rtition is the more natural, as the mouth of the Columbia is exactly opposite the northern extremity of that Island Empire, and a junk, once disabled, would naturally drift this way. Tbc thing has been known to occur in later years ; and that other wrecks, probably Spanish, have happened on this coast, is evidenced by the light-haired and freckle-faced natives of some portions of it farther north, discovered bj- the earliest traders. Fort Stevens, on the north shore of the Clatsop Peninsula, is a military post occupying a low, sandy plain, just inside the projection of Point Adams. It is one of the strongest and best- urnicd on the Pacific coast. Its shape is a nonagon, surrounded by a ditch, thirty feet wide. This ditch is again surrounded by earthworks, intended to ,protect the wall of the fort, from which rise the earthworks supporting the ordnance. Viewed from the outside, nothing is seen but the gently-inclined banks of earth, smoothly sodded. The officers' quarters, outside the fort, are very pleasant ; and, although there is nothing attrac- tive in the location of the fort, or in ity surroundings, it is an interesting place in which to spend an hour. The view from the embankment is extensive, commanding the entrance to the river, the fortifications of Cape Hancock, o^jposite, and the handsome highlands of the north side, as well as of a portion of Young's Bay. The troops quartered here have been teni- poraril}- withdrawn to accommodate the officers and men con- nected with the engineer department of the United States Army, who are at work upon a jetty built by the government to improve the south channel of the Columbia, Avhich extends from Fort Stevens four miles out towards deep water, and will probably be still further extended, the improvement in the channel bjing manifest. This Avork was commenced in 1885, before which the channels over the bar were capricious in loca- tion and variable in depth, the water on the bar being from nineteen to twenty-one feet, and the channels from one to thi'co ■ in number. The cifcct of the jetty has been to build up Clatsop spit, and concentrate the waters on the middle sands, which have been removed, leaving from eighteen to twenty-five feet of water in their place. Between three and four square miles of ground in front of Fort Stevens have been built up, where A TALK ABOUT ASTORIA AND VICINITY. 41 formerly it was being eaten away by the impingement of the current upon the shore-line. Tansy Point, on the northeast corner of the Clatsop Penin- sula, and adjoining the military reservation, has recently been laid off in town lots, and named New Astoria. This brings to mind the project of some adventurers of 1839, one of whom was J. T. Farnham. author of the " History of Oregon Terri- tory," and another, Medorum Crawford, of Salem, in this State, to build a city to bo a second New York, on chis identical point. We build cities with wonderful rapidity in these days, with every force made available. But what courage and what imag- ination must these young fellows have had, who crossed the continent " by hook and by crook" to found a New York at the mouth of the Columbia ! Few of them ever saw their destina- tion. Another recent town enterprise is East Astoria, laid out above Tongue Point, at the mouth of John Day River, an affluent of the Columbia. As a suburb of Astoria it will in time be settled up, but as an independent site it has no apparent advantages. A local railway line has been projected which is to connect New Astoria with old Astoria by following around the shore of Young's Bay to Smith's Point, which is also now laid off in city lots. A siadlar connection will probably be made with the eastern addition. Astoria, although the oldest American settle- ment on tliG Fuciflc coa3t, has been very slow of development. The situation for a commercial entrepot, although in some re- spects a fine one, had its drawbacks, being cut off from the interior by the densely-timbered mountains of the Coast Range, and having apparently few resources outside of salmon canning, which business is of comparatively recent date. If you had asked an Astorian in 1870 what constituted the importance of his town, present or future, he would have told you that it had a commodious harbor, with depth of water enough to accom- modate vessels of the deepest draft, with good anchorage, and shelter from southwest (winter) storms. He would have pointed to the forts at the mouth of the river, which made business; to the custom-house, which brought business; to the pilotage of all incoming and outgoing vessels; to a certain amount of lumber manufactured here, and oement manufactured '■"I!, ■IT""" ■#| 42 ATLANTIS ARISEN. at Knappton, by workmen who spent their wages in Astoria, and so on. If you had inquired what back country it had to support it, he would have pointed to Clatsop, and the valley of the Ne- halem, south of it; and have told you that it is but seven^^v miles into the great valley of Western Oregon, and that a rau road is to be built into it from Astoria, through the coast moun- tains. Ho would mention, besides, tha' there are numerous small valleys of streams running into the Columbia within twenty miles, which are of the best of rich bottom-lands, and only need opening up. This was the Astorian's view of his town, and nothing to the contrary could be seen. That there were in the neighborhood of Astoria many elements of wealth, both mineral and agricultural, which only required time and capital to develop, could not be doubted, even then. The same conditions remain, but the resources then modestly claimed have been considerably developed. To fishing, more than to any other, or all other, business, Astoria owes its prosperity from 1870 to the present time. The first fishery established on the Lower Columbia since 1834, when Wyetb failed, was in 1862, by Captain John West, of Westport, some distance above Astoria; the first cannery in 1867, by Hap- good and Hume, on the north side of the river, also above Astoria. A fishery proper is understood to mean a barrelling establishment, while a cannery is one where fish are preserved in cans, either fresh or spiced, and pickled. Often they are combined. The fishing season begins in May, and ends in August. Tiie manner of taking salmon in the Columbia is usually by drift- nets, from twenty to a hundred fathoms long. The boats used by the fishermen are similar to the Whitehall boat. According to laws of their own, the men engaged in taking the fish, whore the drift is large, allow each boat a stated time to go back and forth along the drift to hook up the salmon. The meshes of the nets are just of a size to catch the fish by the gills, when attempting to pass through ; and their misfortune is betrayed to the watchful eye of the fisherman by the bobbing of the corks on the surface of the river. When brought to the fishery, they are piled up on long tables A TALK ABOUT ASTORIA AND VICINITY. 43 which project out over the water. Here stand Chinamen, two at each table, armed with long, sharp knives, who, with great celerity and skill, disembowel and behead the fresh arrivals, pushii'g the offal over the brink into the river at the same time. After cleaning, the fish are thrown into brine vats, where they remain fiom one to two days to undergo the necessary shrink- age, which is nearly one-half. They are then taken out, washed thoroughly, and packed down in barrels, with the proper quantity of salt. That they may keep perfectly well, it is necessary to heap thetn up in the barrels, and foi'ce them down with a screw-press. The canning process, which was kept secret for one or two seasons, is a much more elaborate one, requiring a large outlay many hands, and much skill and precision, for its success. Such was the profit derived from this business that canneries multiplied rapidly until 1880, when it reached its height, since which time there has been a decrease in the output, owing to over-fishing. The legislatui*e has come to the protection of salmon with a law confining fishing to a period from the first of April to the first of August. A hatchery is also in operation on the Clackamas Eiver, a branch of the VVallamet, where spawn is cared for and developed, the young fish being place 1 in the river at a proper stage of growth. With these precautions, it is hoped to save this industry from further loss, and even to excel its former yield. There are nineteen canneries at Astoria, in which are invested two million dollars, and almost as many more which are tribu- taiy to it, the capital operating them being furnished by Astoria. Shipments are made direct to foreign countries, as well as to domestic ports. In 1889 one cargo of salmon which was cleai'ed for Liverpool was valued at three hundred and fourteen thou- sand three hundred and three dollar^, ihe largest cargo, with one exception, ever cleared direct, by sail, for a foreign port from the Pacific coast. Astoria is the greatest salmon-fishing station in the world, the canneries using between four hun- dred thousand and five hundred thousand salmon annually, and Astoria sends out larger cargoes by sailing-vessels than San Francisco of fish and wheat; There is no part of the Pacific coast so well adapted to fish- ^ '-IPW" 44 ATLANTIS ARISEN. curing as Oregon and "Washington. The climate, either north or south of their latitude, is either too moist or too dry. Wood for barrels is close at hand ; and, not yet utilized, close at hand, too, is the best salt in the world for curing meats of any kind. Seeing to what an immenso business salmon-fishing is growing, one cannot help wishing that Nathaniel Wyeth, who tried so hard, in 1832, to establish a fishery on the Columbia, and failed through a combination of causes, could see his dream fulfilled, of making the Columbia famous for its fisheries and its lumber trade. But he, like most enthusiasts, was born too soon to behold the realization of the truths he felt convinced of There are several species of salmon and salmon-trout which are found in the Columbia. Of these, three species of the silvery spring salmon, known to naturalists as Salmo quinnat, S. gairdneri, and S. paucidens, are those used for commercial purposes, and known as the " square-tailed" and " white salmon," — the third species being considered as smaller individuals of the same kinds, though really distinct in kind. When they enter the river, near its mouth, they may be caught by hook and bait. The Indians use small hei'ring for bait, sinking it with a stone, and trolling, by paddling silently and occasionally jerking the line. Near the mouth of the Columbia they can be taken with the fly ; but, as salmon do not feed, on their annual journey up the river to spawn, it is useless to oflfer them bait. They can only be caught at a dis- tance from the ocean by nets and seines, or by spearing. The natives usually take them by using scoop-nets, which they dip into the water, at random, near the falls and rapids, where large numbers of salmon collect to jump the falls. As these falls are all at a considerable distance from the sea, by the time they arrive at them the fish are more or less emaciated, from fasting and the exertion of stemming currents and climbing rapids, and, consequently, not in so good a condition as when caught near the sea. Hence the superior lality of Chinook salmon. The numbers of all kinds of salmon which ascend the Columbia annually is something wonderful. They seem to be seeking quiet and safe places in which to deposit their spawn, and thousands of them never stop until they reach the great falls of the Snake Eiver, more than six hundred miles from the A TALK ABOUT ASTORIA AND VICINITY. 45 sea, or those of Clarke's* B\)rlc, a still greater ciiHtance. All the Bmall tributai'ies of the Snake, Boise, Powder, Burnt, and Payette Rivers swarm with them in the months of September and October. Great numbers of salmon die on having discharged their in- stinctive duty ; some of them, evidently, because exhausted by their long journey, and others, apparently, because their term of life ends with arrival and spawning. Their six hundred miles of travel against the current, and exertion in overcoming rav' Is, or jumping falls, often deprives them of sight, and wears off theii- noses. Of course, all these mutilated individuals perish, besides very many others ; so that the shores of the small lakes and tributaries of both branches of the Columbia are lined, in autumn, with dead and dying fish. But they leave their roe in the beds of these interior rivers, to replace them in their return to the sea bj- still greater numbers. The fisheiy business has developed vastly improved methods of taking the salmon, including "salmon wheels," wliich, placed in the narrower portions of the Columbia, as at the Cascades, scoop them up by the hundreds every minute. The fishermen who supply the Astoria canneries, however, do so by means of boats and nets, which are thrown out at night, and drawn in at an early hour in the morning. It is a perilous occupation about the mouth of the Columbia, where currents, tides, and winds must be encountered. Formerly the men were employed and furnished with boats and nets, an outfit costing several hundred dollars. But in 1880 the fishermen, chiefly Scandinavians, com- bined to sell their fish by the piece, at fifty cents each ; and this year they have asked a dollar, and a dollar and a quarter. At the same time, owing to the great amount of fish unconsumed in the market, from last year's catch, a low price for canned salmon is prevailing, and this year's business will not prove as remunerative as in former seasons. About four thousand men are employed every season in the salmon fishing and canning. Besides the salmon of commerce, the Columbia furnishes a great many other species of edible fish, including salmon-trout, sturgeon, tom-cod, flounder, and smelt, — all of which are ex- cellent table-fish, ii their proper seasons. There are three large lumbei'-mills located at Astoria, manu- 46 ATLANTIS ARISEN. i facturing duily one hundred and fifty thousand feet of rough and dressed lumber; a planing-mill, and a box-factory turning out annually one million boxes ; besides half a dozen other mills in the vicinity. The limber to feed these mills is in the imme- diate neighborhood, and consists of fir, spruce, hemlock, and cedar. Spruce is used for boxes, owing to its being odorless and free from warping, Ship and bridge timber is also obtained from the adjacent forests. The material for manufacturing fur- niture is abundant, — namely, oalf, maple, ash, cedar, larcb, and alder, which is still unappropriated. Astoria has a largo iron and brass foundry, three machine-, two boiler-, and several blacUsmith-shops ; but the iron, coal, and limestone in its vicinity are unworked ; a tannery utilizes the helmlock bark found conveniently near ; these few manu- facturing enterprises being all that are represented in this city by the sea. It has a national and a private bank ; good schools and handsome school buildings ; eight church edifiros, and all the usual orders and societies ; two morning newspapers and one evening journal ; a chamber of commerce ; water- works, street-car Mnes, and most of the other accessories of modern urban comfort. The imports of Astoria for eleven months in 1889 amounted to one hundred and twenty-one thousand seven hundred and forty-nine dollars, on which the duties were forty-two thousand one hundred and thirty-seven dollars and fortj^-five cents, the heaviest bill being for tin plates used in manufacturing fish- cans. The value of cargoes of wheat, lumber, fish, flour, and miscellaneous exports shipped direct from Astoria was nine huvidred and thirty-three thousand six hundred and ninetj^-eight dollai's. The arrivals of vessels from January 1 to December 1 numbered ninety, with a total tonnage of ninety-throe thou- sand seven hundred and fifty-eight. The steamers, sloops, schooners, barks, and ships owned in this city number seventj'-- five. Within half a dozen years about one thousand acres of tide- land have been reclaimed by diking at Tansy Point on the Clatsop peninsula, the land proving immensely productive, and demonstrating that farming is not a lost art on the sea-coast. Other similar improvements will undoubtedly follow, giving, in NOTES ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER. 47 time, the Astoria of Oregon us beautiful environments as sur- round the Astoria of Now Yorlc. Only last year the first railroad from Astoria into the Wal- lamet Valley was commenced. This is the Astoria and South .Coast Eailwiiy, which begins at the west end of the town, crosses Young's Bay by a bridge a mile and a half in length, and, running west to Skipanon, turns south along the coast to the seaside resort at Clatsop Beach, a distance of eighteen miles, whence it takes a course southeast and east to a junction with the Southern Pacific's west-side line at Hillsborough, in Washington County, which gives it connection with trains for Portland or for the southern counties and San Francisco ; or by the Oregon Pacific for Eastern Oregon. This line will be completed in 1891, being already opened to Clatsop Beach. Another road under survey is the Albany and Astoria Railroad, which is to run south along the coast to Tillamook, and thence southeast through the west-side grain-fields to Albau}'. Another pro- jected line is the Salem, Astoria and Eastern, whose pet name will be the " Salem to the Sea road ;" while the Union Pacific has indicated its intention of building from Portland to Astoria along the Columbia. These are enterprises pointing to the ac- cession of groat shipping advantages by the city at the mouth of this great river which must affect it very advantageously. C H I: ER V. NOTES ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER. ' The river is the soul of the land to which it belonffs. Frino-inc its banks, floating upon its waters, are the interests, the history, and the romance of the people. Our ideas of every nation are intimately associated with our ideas of its rivers. To mention the name of one is to suggest the characteristics of the other. How the word Euphrates recalls the earliest ages of man's history on this globe! The Nile reminds us of a civilization on which the whole of Europe depended for whatever was 48 / ATLANTIS ARISEN. oiilightenod or refined anterior to the Christian era. The Tiber in rich in histoiic associations of the proudest empire the world over knew. What romances of Moorish ])Ower and splendor are conjured up by the mention of the Guadalquivir! The Ehine is so enwreathed with flowers of song, that the actual history of its battlomentod towers is lost from view ; and yet the mention of its name gives us a satisfying conception of the ideal Germany, past and present. So the Thames, the Ehone, the Danube, are so many words for the English, the French, and the Austrian peoples. In our own country, what different ideas attach to Connecticut, Hudson, Savannah, and Mississippi ! How quickly the pictures are shifted in the stereoscope of imag' tion by changing Orinoco for San Joaquin, Amazon for Saci to, or llio de la Plata for Columbia, upon our tongues. It ... uot that one is longer or shorter, or wider or deeper, than another: it is that each con- veys a thought of the country, the people, the history, and the commerce of its own peculiar region. In comparison with other rivers of equal size and geographi- cal importance, the Columbia is little known. That generation has not yet passed away which was taught that the whole of the Northwest Territory was Oregon, that it had one river, the Columbia, and one town, Portland, situated on the Columbia. Above Astoria, for some distance, there are no important settlements on the river. But the grandeur of the wooded high- lands, the frequently projecting cliffs covered with forest to their very edges, and embroidered and festooned with mosses, ferns, and vines, together with the far-stretching views of the broad Columbia, suffice to engage the admiring attention of the tourist. In consequence of fires, which every year spread through and destroy large tracts of timber, the mountains in many places present a desolated appearance, the naked trunks alone of the towering firs being left standing to decay. This remark applies to the north bank, on the lower po.tion of the river, for an archipelago of islands on the south rises not far above the surface of the river, covered with a luxuriant growth of trees, and in high water the river covers many miles of low land. Opposite Puget Island, the largest of the group, is Cathlamet, NOTES OX THE COLUMBIA RIVER. 49 and in Wasliinpfton, the seat of govcrnmont of AVuhkiaUuni County, und the seat also of a fish-canning ostablislunonl. It is perchol on a iiigh bluif, and has a small population. Tjio mountains approach tho river again on both hides at tho Nari'ows, and opposite to the Oak Point of Captain Winship is tho modern Oak Point, which seems to have borrowed tho name, and shifted it to the Washington side. Tho namo is pretty and distinctive, and ought never to be changed, as it marks the western boundary of tlie oak-treo in Oregon and Washington. Between this and the sea not an oak-tree grows. The only business at or about Oak Point is that of tho fisheries already mentioned, and a lumbering establishment erected in 18'48-49. It is run by v ter-power, and capable of manufacturing four million feet annually. About ten miles above Oak Point we come to the mouth of the Cowlitz Kiver. Just below it is a high, conical hill, known as Mount Coffin. This eminence, ttgother with Coffin Rock, seven miles above, on the Oregon side, formed the burial-places of the Indians of .his vicinity before the settlement of the country by wliites. Here tho dead were deposUed in canoes, well wrapped up in mats or blankets, with their most valuable property beside tliem, and their domestic utensils nung upon the posts which supported their unique coffins. Wilkes relates in his journal how his men accidentally set fire to the under- brush on Mount Coffin, causing t\ number of the ciinoes to be consumed, to the grief and horror of the Indians, who would have avenged the insult had they not been convinced of its accidental occurrence. The Cowlitz is a small river, though navigable for twenty miles when the water is high enough, and about half that dis- tance at all times. It rises in Mount St. Helen, and runs west- wardly for some distance, when it turns abruptly to the south. The valley of the Cowlitz is small, being not more than twenty miles long and four or five wide. It is heavily timbered, except for a few miles above its mouth, where the rich alluvial bottom- lands are cleared and cultivated. No finer soil could possibly exist than this in tho Cowlitz Valley. In 1838 the town of Monticello, four miles from the Columbia, was all swept away in a flood. It has been replaced by a fresher edition of its 60 ATLANTIS ARISEN. irHi M 11:1 ii! 14 m former self, however, and looks as cheerful and ambitious as if it '-inew there could be no second deluge. This portion of the Cowlitz Valley does not depend alone upon its fertility for its iuture importance. Th^ve are extensive deposits of coal in the mountains which border the river, besides other mii;eral deposits which an increase of population will eventually bring into notice. There is, too, a;) almost inex- haustible supply of the finest fir and cedai upon the mountains which hem it in. The river, as might be conjectured, is & rapid stream, and cold from the snows of St. Ile'en. Its waters in summer, when the snows are melting rapidly, are white, from being mixed with volcanic nshes, or some disintegrated infusorial marl or chalk. So disguised in a luxuriance of trees ar.d shrubbery is the mouth of the Cowlitz that, when we are in the open Columbia, we can scarcely detect the place of our exit from it. < rossing over to the Oregon side, we find ourselves at Eainier, where lumber is manufactured, chiefly for export. The location of Rainier is, in many respects, fine; but, at prosont, there seems 10 be little besides the lumber trade to give it business, though there are a few excellent farm>. in the vicinity. Along here, on the Oregon side, is a tract 01 level land, extending back from the Columbia for some distance. It answ i to the depression of the Cowlitz Valley; and it is remarkf uie that, wherever a stream comes into the Columbia largo enough to be said to have a valley, there is on the opposite side a i.^eak in, or a curvature of, the highlands, making more or less level country facing the valley perpondicular to it, so that the valleys of tlie streams may be soid to cross the Columbia, and, even, to be widest on the opposite side. Somewhere in here on the Oregon side is the Klaskanie, a stream with a fertile and cultivated valley on its head-waters, the mouth of the stream being far down the river, opposite Cathlemet. Advancing scvorai miles, we find ourselves abi'cast of Kalama, on the >Vashington side, the initial point of the Portland branch of tho Northern Pacific Railroad. Here it was that first the silent grandeur of the Columbia was made vocal with the shriek of "resonant steam es-gles" that speed from ocean to ocean, bearing the good-will of the nations of the world in bales of NOTES ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER. 51 merchandise. It is the dream of JeiFerson and Benton realized — only could the latter have had his wish fulfilled to live until this day! ;; ,; : -. A; .-. "In conclusion I have to assure you, that the same spirit which has made me the friend of Oregon for thirty years — which led me to denounce the Joint Occupation Treaty the day it was made, and to oppose its renewal in 1828, and to labor for its abrogation until it was terminated ; the same spii'it which led me to reveal the grand destiny of Oregon in articles written in 1818, and to support every measure for her benefit since — ti)i8 same spirit still animates me, and will continue to do so . while I live — which I hope will be lono enough to see an EMPORIUM OP Asiatic commercs at the mouth op your river, AND A STREAM OP ASIATIC TRADE POURING INTO THE VaLLEY OP the Mississippi through the channel op Oregon." — Letter of Benton to the People of Oregon, in 1847. But, Benton did not understand the geography of the coast; neither did he know much of the practical working of railroads in recognizing or ignoring any points but their own. He did not foresee the Central Pacific going to San Francisco, and the Northern Pacific to Puget Sound, and an emporium of Asiatic commerce at either of these termini, while a third great city distributed commerce along the Columbia and its tributaries, from its mouth to its sources. Twelve miles above Kalama the Cathlapootle or Lewis Eivor enters the CoJumbia. Like the Cowlitz, it rises in Mount St. Helen, and is a colH and rapid stream. Opening within a few hundred feet from tiie mouth of Lewis is Lake Eiver, not born of mountain gla^ .ord, but coming from a lake in the vicinity of Vancouver. It ,"s fed also by a creek from a high source which runs parallel with the South Fork of Lewis Eiver. Between tho latter and the Columbia, to Avhich it runs nearly parallel for a few miles, is a stretch of bottom-land, and, according to the rule I have laid down, the highlands recede on the Oregon side, giving room for two towns, Columbia ( ily and St. Helen, both occupying excellent sites, but never having n«ade the progress which might justly be expected of them. At this latter point, it is said, Wyeth had his fort and trading house in 1834, from which it was called " Wyeth's Eock" until it was settled upon, a ]U I 62 ATLANTIS ARISEN. i dozen years later, by H. M. Knighton, to whom it was patented by the United States. In the earlj^ years of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, this great corporation owned a wharf at St. Helen, and stopped its steamers there ; but the exigencies of commerce at that period compelled them to go to Portland. Just above this place lies Sauve Island, about eighteen miles long by six broad in the widest part ; having on one side of it the Columbia, and on the other one lower Wallamet Kiver, which is known as the '• Columbia Slough." At the junction of these two rivers is an inlet called Scappoose Bay, extending back towards the high hills a distance of seven miles, and navigable by small boats for that distance, but for sailing vessels only two or three miles. In 1851-52 a town named Milton was laid out on the low land adjacent to Scappoose Bay by a company of sea-captains. The first summer flood in the Columbia showed them their mistake, driving the inhabitants to the high bluff behind Wyeth's Eock. Not a vestige of Milton remains at this da}', and most of its projectors are gone the way of all the earth. '■ It should have been mentioned that the Columbia, at about the mouth of the Cowlitz, sixty miles from the sea, makes a decided bend, running from the upper end of Sauve Island to this point in a northerly course. The Wallamet has its upper mouth at the head of this island, entering the Columbia, where it makes another bend, the course of the river being in a gen- eral east and west direction for one hundred and eighty miles above this point. Passing the entrance to the Wallamet, we observe that the before-mentioned rule holds good here, and that the wide and fertile valley of this river seems to cross over to the Washington side, the flat country on both sides of the Columbia continuing from the lower mouth of the Wallamet to the foot-hills of the Cascades which border the great valley on the east. Though this level country is now covered with timber, it must, from its alluvial nature, when cleared, prove very excellent farming land. That portion of it nearest the river is subject to the annual ovei'flow ; but there is no difticulty in determining the limits of submersion, for, wherever fir-trees are found, there the high-water never comes. NOTES ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER. 53 patented ific Mail vharf at encies of and. 3en miles iide of it r, which of these ng back lavigable only two laid out npany of a showed igh bluff ns at this )£ all the at about , makes a Island to its upper bia, where in a gen- jhty miles that the wide and ashington ontinuing ills of the Though b, from its I farming ct to the ining the there the At a distance of about six miles above the Wallamct we come to the town of Vancouver, on the Washington side. This place is beautifully si treated on a sloiiing plain, with a strip of velvety-looking meadow land on its river-front. It is the old head-quarters of the Hudson's Bay Company in Oregon, wher ^ resided, for more than t\venty-fivo years, the governor and chief factors of that company, nominally holding "joint posses- sion," with the United States, of the whole Oregon Territory, out really, for the greater portion of that time, holding it alone. Here lived in bachelorhood, or with wives of Indian descent, a little colony of educated and refined men, who, by the condi- tions of their servitude to the London Company, were forced to lead a life of almost monastic seclusion. True, it happened sometimes that naturalists, adventurous tmvellers, and others drifted to this comfortable haven in the wilderness, and by their talk made a liltle variety for the recluses; and very hospitable the}' found them— reany to provide every civilized luxury their fort contained, ^''ihont money and withouL price, so long as it pleased their g to abide with them. There are few traces remaining of the old. stockaded fort. When the British conij)any ibandoned it the I nitod States gov- ernment took possession of Vnicouver i'< v a military post; and now the tourist beholds, scaiiored over ihe plain, a thriving town of two thousand inhabitants, and border ig on it the well- kept garrison groufids of the troops, -ith neuL officers' quarters encircling the parade. Vancouver; he seat of govei-nment of Clarke County, and possesses many advantages, which are to be brought more prominently to light by raili-oad communication with the Puget Sound region and F-a-^* ■■ ;i Washington in the near future. The Union Pacific ( ..pany will soon unite Washington and Oregon, at this point, b};- a steel bridge whose estimated cost reaches into the millions. Above Vancouver, for a distance of twenty miles, there are many beautiful situations all along on the Washington side, though the country is timbered heavily. The southern shore is lower : the Sandy — a stream coming down from Mount Hood — having its entrance into the Columbia above and opposite Vancouver, through alluvial, sandy bottoms. Beyond this the whole surface of the country becomes elevated, and we are 54 ATLANTIS ARISEN. among the .oot-hills of the Caacade Mountains. Not a mile of the passage has appeared monotonous from Astoria to this poiht. We have enjoyed river, forest, mountains, and snow- peaks, with little intervals of human interest, all along; and enjoyed these in abso'ute comfort, for the steamboat service on the Columbia is excellent, thanks to the original Oregon Steam Navigation Company, and its successor^^. ^ We arrive now at what the tourist must ever regard as the most interesting portion of the liver — the gorge of the Colum- bia. Here wonder, curiosity, and admiration combine to arouse sentiments of awe and delight in the beholder. Entering by the lower end of the gorge, we commence the passage, of fifty miles or more, directly through the solid mountain range of the Cascades. The snow-peaks, which looked so lofty at the dis- tance of eighty miles, as we approach them gradually sink into the mountain mass, until we lose sight of them entirely. The river narrows, and the scenery grows more and more wild and magnificent. Fantastic forms of rock — some with nfuucs by which they can be recognized — begin to atti-act our attention. Crow's Eoost is a single, detached rock on the right, which time and weather are slowly wearing down to the " needle" shape, so common among the trappean formations. It stands with its feet in the river, at the extremity of a heavily-wooded point ; and in the crevices about its base, and half-way up, good-sized firs are growing. Above the Crow's Eoost the mountains tower higher and higher. Frequently from lofty ledges and terraces of rock silvery ivater-falls are seen descending, hundreds of feet, to some basin hidden by intervening curtains of wooded ridges. From the steamer's deck they look like mere ribbons ; some of them, indeed, are dashed into invisible spray before they reach the bottom. One of the handsomest of these is Multnomah Fall, which has a straight descent of several hundred feet to a pool sui'- rounded by mosses, ferns, and droopint' foliage, after which the stream hastens impetuously to a seconri plut-ge over a ledge of rock, and speeds on to the Columbia. A rustic bridge spans the torrent just above the lo\ver fall. Somebody more given to ponies than to poetry, has named one of the highest of these NOTES ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER. 55 a mile to this d snow- tig ; and iviee on n Steam d as the Colum- ;o arouse 3ring by , of fifty je of the the dis- sink into ly. The vild and icli they Crow's ime and hape, so Avith its d point ; )od-8ized lis tower terraces s of feet, i ridges, some of }y reach 1, which ool sur- bich the ledge of )ans the ;iven to of these Cascade falls Horse-tail ; and another has the rather hackneyed name of Bridal Veil, which, of coarse, it does not in the least resemble. Above Multnomah Fall, on the Washington side, is a high, precipitous wall of needle-pointed, reddish rock,, coming quite down to the river, and curving in a rounded face, so as to form a little bay above. This is the Cape Horn of the lower Colum- bia — a point where the Wind Spirit lies in wait for canoes and other small craft, keeping them weather-bound for days to- gether. Fine as it is steaming up the Columbia in July weather, there are times when storms of wind and sand make the voyage impossible to any but a steam-propelled vessel. It is at our peril that we invade the grand sanctuaries of Nature in her winter moods. The narrow channel of the river among the mountains, the height of the overhanging cliffs, — which confine the wind as in a funnel, — and the changes of temperature to which, even in summer, mountaii- localities are subject, make this a stormy passage at some periods of the year. Sitting out upon the steamer's deck, of a summer morning, we ai'e not much troubled with visions of storms : the scene is as peaceful as it is magnificent. Steaming ahead, straight into the heart of the mountains, where they rise to a height of four thousand feet, each moment affords a fresh delight to the won- dering senses. The panorama of grandeur and beauty seemn endless. As we approach the lower end of the rapids, we find that at the left the heights recede and enclose a strip of level, sandy land, in the midst of which stands a solitary shaft of basalt called Castle Rock, about six hundred feet in altitude. How it came there, is the question which the beholder first asks himself, but which, so far, has never been satisfactorily answered. A mile or two beyond Castle Rock, situated on this bit of warm, sandy bottom-land, on the Washington side, is the little mountain hamlet known as the Lower Cascades. Why it is that one name is made to serve for so many objects, in the same locality, must ever puzzle the tourist in Oregon. At the Cas- cades the tautology threatens to overwhelm us in perplexity. Not only is it the Cascade Range, which the cascades of the river cut in twain, but there are no less than three points on 56 ATLANTIS ARISEN. the north side, within a distance of six miles, known as the Lower, Middle, and Upper Cascades. Pretty as the name is, we weary of it when it is continually in our mouths. It is a pretty spot, too, this Lower Cascades, surrounded by majestic mounJ;ains, and bordered by a foaming river; charm- ingly nestled in thickets of blossoming shrubbery, and can regale its guests on strawbei-ries and mountain-trout. Here the Oregon Eailway and Navigation Company has a wharf and warehouse, and here we take our seats in the cars which trans- fer us to the Upper Cascades, and another steamer. We find the change agreeable, as a change, anJ enjoy intensely the glimpses of the rapids we are passing, and the wonderful luxu- riance of vegetation on every side, coupled with the grandeur of the towering mountains. At the Upper Cascades is a block-house, reminding us of the Indian war of 1855-56, and another one about the middle rapids. The scene looks peaceful enough now to make the history of these forts seem very legendary. Aside from scenic features, there is a great deal to interest one at this place. One object of cui-iosity and surprise is the immense wheels for taking salmon, A wheel is generally forty feet in diameter, and eight feet from disk to disk. In place of paddles, there are three buckets or pouches of strong wire screening. The wheel, attached to a shaft, may be raised or lowered at the will of the operator; and the buckets are so con- structed that whatever enters them is thrown to the centre of the wheel, whore an opening above water-lino delivers them into a large tank.. Each bucket, when fish are running well, will turn into the tank seventy-five fish per minute, or two hun- dred and twenty five for one wheel every sixty seconds. As a wheel is kept going quite constantly through the season, and as there are about two dozen of them in motion on the river, we have an opportunity to exercise our arithmetical skill in esti- mating the quantity of salmon taken by this method every season. The rapids at the Cascades are five miles in length, and the fall of the river is about sixty feet, the bed of the stream being formerly choked up with rock in such a manner as to suggest recent volcanic agency. The government has expended some NOTES ON THE COLUMBIA KIVEK. 57 money iu removing the obstructions below tiie Middle Cascades, and a very large amount is being annually laid out in construct- ing a ship canal three thousand feet long around the upper rapids. This artificial channel, which is " making haste slowly," is a fine si^ecimen of engineering skill, and a solid piece of work. When completed it will remove the now existing monopoly of this mo intain pass, allowing boats to ascend and descend with- out rosliipmcnt of cargoes. One of the natural wonders of the gorge of the Columbia on the Oregon side is a moving mountain. This is a mass of basalt, with three peaks, extending six or more miles along the river, and^ rising two thousand feet above it. Its motion is not perceptible but it is certain. It slides both forward into the river, and downward towards the sea. In its forward movement it has carried below the surface of the Columbia a tract of timbered shore, the trees on which long ago wei'e killed by submergence, and stand dark and naked under the water, or when the river is low, projecting above it. The Oregon Eailway and Naviga- ^' .ailroad, which is carried along the side of this mountain, ib auable to keep its track in situ owing to this movement, the road-bed and rails having in some places been pushed, in a few years, eight or ten feet out of line. The explanation of this phenomenon is supposed to be that the great bulk of basalt which constitutes the mountain was poured out upon a sub- stratum of conglomerate, or softer subrock, which is being blowly disintegrated by the action of the current of the Colum- bia, or is yielding to the mighty pressure upon it from above, or possibly both. The lateral movement is explained in a similar inannei", by the concave shape of the rock foundation of the country to the west, and the yielding of the overlying softer strata. From the deck of the steamer waiting for us at the end of the railroad portage, a beautiful picture is spread out on every side. The river seems a lake dotted with islands, with low shores, surrounded by mountain walls. Almost the first thing which strikes the eye is an immensely high and bold, perpen- dicular cliiT of red rock, pointed at top with the regularity of a pyramid, and looking as if freshly split off from some other half which has totally disappeared. The freshly-broken ap- 58 ATLANTIS ARISEN. pearanco of this cliff, so different from the worn and mossy faces of most of the roclts that border the river, suijgested to the savage one of his legends concerning the formation of the Cascades: which is, that Mount Hood and Mount Adams had a quarrel, and took to throwing fire-stones at each other; and, with their rage and struggling, so shook the earth for many miles around that a bridge of rock which spanned the river at this place was torn from its mountain abutments, and cast in fragments into the river. So closely does legend sometimes border on scientific fact! While I am making this grave reflection upon the scientific ti'uth of legends, some one presents me with a story, in rhyii.e, which he assures me is the true, original Indian legend of the formation of those other notable points on the river, — the Dalles, Horse-tail Falls, Crow's Eoost, as also the Falls of the Wallamet and Mount Hood. Making all due allowance for poetic license in some of the details, the story and the manner of its telling are worthy of notice; and I give it as a pleasing chapter of the early, romantic history of this romantic country ! THE SONG OF KAMIAKIN. Should you ask me where I caught it — ' . Caught this flame and inspiration — Should you ask me where I got it — Got this old and true tradition — • :, . I would answer, I would tell you : • , Where the virgins of the forest ... Sit with quills thrust through their noses, Eating calmly cricket hashes ; Where the tar-head maid reposes ; Where the proud Columbia dashes. Hearing nothing but his dashing. Hias skookum* Kamiakin, Of the vale of Klikatata — Which I know each nook and track in As well as Johnny knew his daddy — Was the chief of all the Siwash, And the great high-cockalorem — As his fathers were before him — * Great, strong. I 3) > X o > o z o r- Z n > H H I n o > CO o > o m 09 i:5 n NOTES ON THE COLUMBIA RIVEU, Of the winding Wullametta, Which I sing— and »ay it surely As the jingling Juniata Sounds ft9 well ; but 'tis unpretty, Poets of the sunset sea-rim Flying off to Acropolis — Very absurd it is, and silly — While the glassy Umatilla, And the classic Longus Thomas, And the grassy Tuda-Willa, All do flush and flow before us. 59 >■:!• Well, my hero Kamiakin Was in love ; you know such folly Must go in, or something's lacking In all great, good rhymes emetic. Now, she dwelt in Walla Walla ; But her ma was awful stuck up ; And her pious dad, ascetic, 'Gainst our hero got his back up ; And he swore on stacks of Bibles, Higher than the hay you stack up, He would sue for breaches, libels ; He would sue him, shoot him, boot him- That, in fact, he didn't suit him— Didn't vote the proper ticket. ii II Now, it cost him like the nation Going from the land of cider (You know how these Navigation Fellows charge a horse and rider) ; And, though he was law-abiding, To be treated thus about her He declared was rather binding, And that he wouldn't go without her. So he strode a cayuse charger With white eyes, also white as Foam of creamy, dreamy lager From her nostrils to her caudle ; With a woolly sheepskin folding Back behind his jockey saddle, Where the girl could ride by holding. 60 ATLANTIS ARISEN. " Come back, come back, O Pickaninny- Back across the stormy water," Cried the old man, like a ninny. One hand skewed her water-fall up. While the other held her garter, As they set off at a gallop. Oh I she looked majestic, very. As she answered, " Nury, nary I" And the river so is flowing, . Though wider washed a foot or so. For this was in the gleaming, glowing, Gilded, golden long-ago. Then they fled far down the river, But the old man came upon them. And she cried, " O Lord, deliver I" And she blew a silver trumpet. And she cried, " hiac— jump it," Till the cay use jumped the river — Jumped the awful yawning chasms — With the lovers both astride her. • ' Ah, enough to throw in spasms Belles of this sweet land of cider I But the daddy, hot and snarling At the chief and chieftain's darling, Hip and thigh smote with his sabre. While the cuitan was crossing, And her silver tail was tossing ; And her long tail, white and shaggy, Cleft where Tam O'Shanter's carlin Caught the tail of faithful Maggie. And that horse-tail still is flowing From the dark rim of the river, Drifting, shifting, flowing, going. Like a veil or vision flurried. But is never combed or curried, As a body can diskiver. Then while dad on the piazza Read the latest act of Andy, And the maid on her piano Trilled a ditty for some dandy, m !J NOTES ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER. ' Chftco, chaco, cumtux mikii?"* From afar in tones coyote. " All, you bet you, cumtux nika,"t Sung the maiden Hotto voce. With this Hign the cliieftain sought her, For the old man's bull-dog Towzer Would have made it rather hot for Kamiakin, Thane of Chowder. Night and day they flew like arrows. Till they passed by sweet Celilo : " Bully," cried the chief; " tomollo's Sun will see us bias lolo."t But the old man missed his daughter; Vowing he would catch and score them, Took the steamer, and by water Reached the Dalles the day before them. " Stop, you bummer," yelled the dadily While the chief fled to the river ; And the dad pursued, and had a • Henry-rifle, bow and quiver. Then the chief wished him a beaver- Big or little, didn't mind him— But the gal, would you believe her, Stuck like wax, tight on behind him. Then she waved a wand of willow. And behold the mighty river (For the maiden was a fairy) ' . All did surge and shake and shiver, Till the banks did kiss, or nearly, And confine the foaming billow ; So they crossed without a ferry. "Verbum sat.," now yelled the daughter, As she with her lover vamosed ; And the dad sat in the water 'Till he chilled and died, and so was Turned to stone forever after. Now this dad a noble Crow was, And a chief of fame and power, 61 I' * Come, come, do you understand me ? 1 1 understand you. t ^^^ away. 62 AT7ANTIS ARISEN. And is known unto this hour As the " Crow-Rock" or the " Crow-Roost." Well, they tra"ened in a canter 'Till they reached the sweet Wallamet, And cried, " Boatman, do not tarry ; We will give three pound of salmon If you'll row us o'er the ferry." But he answered, " Nary, nary." Then the maiden cried oul, "' Dam it," And the stream was dammed instanter. So the chieftain reached his nation, And liis mother jave a party — Gave a July celehratioii — And they dinnered very hearty. All on kouse and salraon smoky, And then danced the hoky-poky. But her troubles grew the thicker, As in truth so did the maiden. For the chief began to lick her, And distract her with upbraiding; But she had to grin and bear it. For the gods had got so mad, they Said she never should repass the Place slie left her dear old daddy. So she went up in the hill-tops At the head of the Molalk, For to look at Walla Walh-, ; And by magic spells and lioo-doo — For, you kn'^v, she was a foiry — She did mana^*- soon to rear a Mountain like the pile of Cheops. And Jiwaah, who saw her mamiKuk,* Called the peak "Old Mountain Hoo-doo." But there camt a Jewish peddler, Packing head-g^ ar, hoods, and small t'ings (Says the Alma.iac McCormick), And who didn't care three fardings For this dear aad true tradition — As the learned lilre uie and y .^u do — And made the gross abbreviation Of Mount Hood from Mountain Hoo-doo. ^ NOTES ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER. 63 Turning from this bit of pleasantry with a smile, I am again absorbed in the beauty and majesty of the Columbia. The Hudson, which has so long been the pride of America, is but the younger brother of the Columbia. Place a hundred Bun- derbergs side by side, and you hr.ve some idea of these stupen dous bluffs; double the height of the P.'^iisades, and you can form an idea of these precipitous cliffs. Elevate the dwarfed evergreens of the Hudson highlands into firs and pines lilad a ti'a- dition concerning these winds, that they in the persons of two brothers on each side met and fought u duel to determine which should prevail, one of their anoient gods to be umpire. In the battle the Chinook brothers \/ere wors.'ed and beheaded. But an infant sen of the eldest being told of his father's fate, grew up with the desire for vengeance, and cultivated his streagth by such exercise as pulling up trees by the roots, beginning with saplings and increasing the size until he could tear up the largest trees of the forest. Then he sent a challenge to the brothers of tho cold wind, whom he overcame, and who were in titrn beheaded. But the god who sanctioned these contests declared that i+ was not good there should be no wind, and decreed that thereafter the cold wind should not blow with so much violence nor be so freezing ; neither should the Chinook break down trees or destroy houses. The Chinoolt might blow strongest at night, and the Walla Walla wind by J ly, which they still continue lo do. Thp mean temperature of East Oregon is about one degree higher than the western division ; but the short winters are cold„r and the long summers hotter than West Oregon. A peculiarity of the climate of everj^^ part of Oregon and Wash- ington is the comparative coolness of the uif^bts. No matter how warm the di^ys may have been, the nights always bring refreshing sleep, usually under a pair of blankets, even in sum- mer. Nor does the heat, however great, have that fatal effect which h does in the Atlantic States. Not only men, but cattle and horses, can endure to labor without e.vhaustion in the hottest days of summer, and sun-strokes are of very rai'e occurrence. There are two charges brought. against the Oregon country on account of climate. — namely, that it does not rain enough in Eastern Oregon, and that it rains too much in West Oregon. Humanity does sometimes tire of an overphis of rain from the monotony of it rather than because it is disagreeable. But the earth enjoys it. If j'ou do not belitrj i„, come with me to the SOME GENERAL TALK ABOUT CLIMATE. 77 woods, and I will prove it to you, — aye, in March. The turf in the flat or hollow places is soaked with water, like a sponge, and if you do not step carefully you will press it out over your shoe-tops ; hr,^. by dint of quick eyes and agile movement, you will escape a:i v- serious mishaps. Climbing over logs, jumping weather ditches, and crossing creeks furnishes the necessary excitement and exercise by which you keep off a chill; for if you were to sit down to summer reveries at this time of year, the doctor would be in requisition directly. Here we are at last, at the very foot of the mountain ; and what does this forest recess furnish us ? What magnificent great trees! Fir, cedar, and here and there along this little creek a yew, a maple, or an alder. Hardly a ray of sunshine ever penetrates this green and purple gloom. Spring and fall, winter and summer, are much the same here, — a diiference only of water. In summer the creek is within bounds, and you can lie on the mosses, if you feel disposed. "What! lie on the mouses, everyone of which seems such a marvel of beauty? What a wtmderful, what a charming spot I I never, in all my life !" No, of course you never saw anything like it. This is the only country out of the tropics where vegetation has such a remarkable growth. Here are a dozen kinds of elegant green mosses in a group, to say nothing of the tiny gray and brown and yellow varieties 'ith which we have always been familiar, besides lichens iuu aerable. Observe those fallen trees. Their immense trunks are swathed in elegant blankets of emerald brightness. See hero, I can tear them otf by the yard, — enough on one tree t^ carpet a room ! Look at the pendent moss, — two feet long at least, —and what a vivid yellow green ! Just step up a little higher: I will show you a wonder. Did you over dream of anything so marvellous as that bank of moss f Six inches high, branching like a fern, yet fine and delicate as that on the calyx of a moss-rose. Here is enough, if preserved, to furnish all the French flower-makers ; and glad would they be to get it. And ferns, — yes, indeed ! Just look at this maidenhair. It is of every size, from the delicate plant three inches high to the mature one of fifteen or eighteen inches. And here are some that have stood all winter in their autumn 78 ATLANTIS ARISEN. ft tti +1 dress. See how exquisitely thoy are tinted. — raw-sienna for the body color, and such delicate markirii^ in vandyke-brown on every leaf, or gold color, marked with liurnt-sienna, and all relieved so beautifully by the polished bla-k of their slender stems. But we must not stop long in this dense and damp shade ; there might be intermittent lurking in it for unaccustomed town-folk. But just note, as we retrace our steps, the great variety of plants, some of them very beautiful, that grow all winter long in these soljtary places. This handsome variegated leaf comes from a bulbous root, and bears a lily-sliaped flowe^' I am told ; but being new to me, I cannot yet classify it. We ar? still too far from open sunlight to be mucli among flowering ])lants. But directly we come to occasional opening.*!, or to higher benches of ground that get the light and drainage, we shall see adder-tongue, Solomon's-seal, anemone, wild violet, and spring-beauty, putting up their leaves, waiting for sunny days enough to dare to bring out their blossoms. Here, too. arc two species of creeping vines, very lielicate and graceful, trailing along the ground, with little fresh leaflets already growing. In April the twin-flower (Linna'a borealis) will blossom with dainty, ])inkish-white. trumpet-shaped flowers, very lovely to behold. Verba buena ' Micromeria Douglasii). vulgarl}'^ called Oregon tea, from the spicy flavor of its loaves, which make an agreeable infusion, is also a beautiful trailing plant of this season. Now we get down to the woods along the river-bank. Ah. here is really a blossoming shrub, the flowering currant. In haste to brighten the dull March weather with a touch of color over the green and brown and purple tints that are so melan- choly unde/ a cloudy sky, the cm*rant does not wait to put forth its foliage tirst, 'nit crimsons all over with thickest flowers, in racemes of nearly a finger's length. There are two varieties of the red and one of the yellow, all beautiful and ornamental shrubs. In company with this still leafless shrub is the glossy arbutus (misnamed laurel), with its fresh suit of brilliant green reflecting every ray of light from its polished surface. The arbu'.is grows all winter, putting forth its delicate shoots from Pecember to March, and flowering later in spring. Its cheerful SOME GENERAL TALK ABOUT CLIMATE. 79 light green makes it a pei'fect complement to the red of the currant when flowering ; and by not looking at all like an ever- green, which it really is, bewilders the beholder, who sees it growing luxuriantly all along the rivei- bunks, as to the time of year. Here is another elegant shrub that does its growing in the winter, and takes the long dry summer to ripen its fruit and be beautiful in, — ^the Berberis aquifolhim, or holly-leaved barberry, commonly known as the Oregon grape. It is looking as fresh and piquant in March as though it had all of April and May behind it. All around us, on every hand, are plants and shrubs or trees growing. Behold these graceful little yew-trees, two feet high. They look as though they had come up in a day, so delicate and 7iew they seem. E::amine the ends of the fir- boughs, and question the crab-apple, the sallal, and the wild- cherry. Do you see that line of silver down under the river- bank ? That is the glisten of the catkins on the willows {Salix acouleriana) that were out in February. It makes a jiretty con- trast to the red stems of a smaller species of willow which grows along the very margin of the river, with its roots in the water. I am not certain of the variety. There certainly is no lack of intere8tin/e one of the most fruitful portions of the Pacific Coast, ard the quality 8 Hi 82 ATLANTIS ARISEN. ]:i m- I of the soil really inexhaustible, — its alkaline propertiog supply- ing the place of many expensive manures. And yet the capacity of the plains for cultivation has only just begun to be comprehended. East Washington has a greater urea of lands which can be rendered productive by irrigation than East Oregon, but the area is large in both of the States. The hill-tops in transmontanc Oregon may be sown to grain and safely left to the encouragement of the soil and the elements, the former having more clay in it than the lower bench lands, and the atmosphere, perhaps, at night a little more moisture. At all events, good crops aie harvested on this higher ground without irrigation. Although in imagination we behold this country as it will appear in the happy future, in the very present hour the tourist is bound to prefer the western division, which is alread}' brought to perfection in so many particulars by the deft hand of natui'e. . All that has been said of Oregon climate, soil, and seasons applies equally to Washington, except where some local cause exists for a difference. For instance, there is a greater rain-fall at the mouth of the Columbia than at Gray's Harbor, or other points along the coast, until you come to Neah Bay, at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the cause of the excess of moisture being the same in both instances, — namely, a wide opening in the coast-line, through which the storm-winds are drawn as through a funnel. There is much less rain among the islands in the archipelago at the foot of Pnget Sound Knd along the northern coast of the mainland of Washington than in the southern counties, whioh are affected b}' the flliuute of the Lower Columbia. The mean annual precipitation at Ol^ inpia is 56.27 inches, and at Portland 50. S9 inches. The temperature of the Pnget Sound country is very slightly affected by latitude. The mean temperature of Portland in Oregon for the month of De- cember varies from 48° to 43°, although, in an exceptional year, it has been as low as 31°, und in tTanuary, 1888, the mercury fell to 2*^ below zero. There is a difference of about two degrees, mean temperature, lower, between Portland and Olym- pia, at the head of Puget Sound, and two or three degrees more at Tacoma and point-- farther north. The lowest temperature for the last five years at Portland THE WALLAMET AND ITS CHIEF TOWN. 83 was 9° above zero; at Tacoma, 5° above. The highest tem])er- aturo in the same time was 97° at Portland and 80° at Tacoma. The mean temperature of the two places is, Portland 52^ to 55°, and Tacoma 55° to 58°, the difference being slightly in favor of the latter place, taking the year together, owing to the influence of the Sound upon the climate, and to its sheltered position, away from the air-currents before spoken of. It is common to find roses and pansies in blossom until December in either place, although the stranger may find a chill in the moist atmosphere which he declares to be "cold," even though the mercury does not recognize it. A season usually braces him up to endure this, and he soon has only eulogies for an even climate, whose only +'aalt is that it is not cold enough to be dry in the Avinter months. CHAP TEE VII. A TALK ABOUT THE WALLAMET AND ITS CHIEF TOWN. The Wallamet — it is spelled WiWamette on the maps, though the common usage is still to pronounce the word as it was origi- nally spelled— is tiie river of West Oregon. Before proceeding to my observations upon this portion of the country, I am impelled to enter my protest against the violation of truth and good taste in giving to so sonorous and musical a word as Wallamet the French termination of ette, and, furthermore, substituting an i for the nobler-sounding a. The word is Indian in origin, and although the early writers differed somewhat in their spelling, they gave it the native pro- nunciation of Wal-la-met, the a in both syllables being very broad. Spoken pt-operly it is a beautiful name, but as corrupted it is a senseless jingle. The river has two mouths, one coming into the Columbia where Scappoose Bay sets in, just above St. Helen, the other about twenty miles above. That portion of the river '^elow the upper mouth is separated from the Columbia by an island from one mile to several miles in breadth, being a fertile and beauti- H 84 ATLANTIS ARISEN. III !fit ' ful outlying district of the great valley io which it belongs. The original name of this island was Wappatoo, from tiio abundance of a tuberous root of that name {Sagittaria sagitti- /oZw) which was used by the uutives for food. The first settler here was one Sauve, a French-Canadian, after whom the island was thenceforth called, but with the difference in spelling which makes it Sauvie's Island. To this lovely insular tract the Columbia maintains a claim, and asserts its right annually during its rise to submei-ge a goodly portion of it, driving the inhabitants to vacate their houses for a period of two or three weeks. But the farmer.s ai'e willing to be thus inconver.ionced for the sake of the crops obtained from the quick soil after the flood has subsided. On the mainland opposite the island a high range of heavily- wooded hills from the Columbia highlands follows along the Wallamet to and beyond Portland, but receding to a sufficient distance to leave large tracts of rich land, some of which is subject to overflow, but much of which is valuable for firming. The upper mouth of the Wallamet ct^mes out between the head of the Sauve Island and a low point opposite a part of the peninsula which is formed by the junction of the two rivers. Lying between the peninsula and the Columbia is a group of small islands, all densely wooded with cotton-wood and willow, extending also along the Oregon shore of the Colum- bia for several miles, being separated by baj-ous only less luxu- riantly fringed with trees than those of Florida or Louisiana, and without the alligators and moccasin snakes. These places, like those \vater-wa;,8 about Astoria and Scappoose Bay, furnish extensive hunting-groundp 'n the duck-shooting season. Just at the junction of t e WiilliuncI and Columbia Rivers I found one of the most chr.mlhg views to bo had in Oregon. From the deck of a steamer passing in between these islands one sees the vast stretch of the „reat rivei- behind us, and the reach of the one before us, with their verdant and wooded sliorns, the Casuade Bange drawn in blue on I ho onstorn hoi'iroii, with the white peaks of St. Helen, Hood, Adams, and Jcft'erHon rising sharply abo\e it, and over the whole the rosy glow of sunset tingeing the mountains, making the blue violet, the white ^nk, the scene being relleded from the river's surface as from THE AVALLAMET AND ITS CHIEF TOWN. 6ft a mirror, snow-peaks, islands, and all ! One might travel far to see anything finer. The Wallamet, unlike tiie more majestic Columbia, divides nearly in half a level valley, but the prairies do not come to the river-banks for a considerable distance. This valley is enclosed on the east side by the Cascade Range, on the west side by the Coast Eange, and on the south by a cross-range of spurs from either side, being left open only on the north, where it is cut off by the Columbia River, but from whit-h it is hidden by a forest extending for nearly twenty miles from the river southward. This forest covers not only the highlands as far as the Falls of the Wallamet, but also the low sandy plains which form the lower section of the valley. From this description of the north end of the Wallamet Valley, coupled with the account already given of the Columbia, it is easy to appreciate the cor- rectness of the poet's — " Continuous woods, Where rolls the Oregon," 'as well as some of the difficulties which beset the Oregon pioneers; and to understand why the early settlers travelled in canoes from the mouth of the Columbia, or from The Dalles, to the heart of the valley before even b'jtaking themselves to a horse, — a wagon being unthought of for travel. When wo have passed the head of Sauve Island wo find these river-banks more populous than those of the Columbia. On the right hand, going up, is the town of Linnton, located forty-seven years ago by Hon, Peter H. Burnett, author of "Recollections of a Pioneer," and first governor of California, a pleasant writer and an irreproachable man. Nearly opposite Linnton, which, by the by, was named in honor of that Missouri senator who fought so long and persistently for the Oregon donation law, is the town of St. John, occupying probably about the site selected for a city by that eccentric, if not demented. Hall J. Kelley, who organized in New England an immigration society to bj'ing settlers to Oregon in 1832. Think of that, you whose knowledge of this region leads you to fancy it a terra incognita! Poor Kelley had a lugubrious experience, being taken for a horse-thief by the Hudson's Bay Company and harshly treated. Yet he was very near the truth in his views and prognosti^a- 86 ATI^NTIS AllISEN. I tions conceniin^ this country. It Wus not the company's horaos he was after, but tlie eailh under the feet of that powerful corporation, whose officers had reason to wish liim away. At Linnton there is a sineitor for roducinij; ores from the mines of Eastern Oregon and other districts. Tlie Northern Pucitic Ilailroad (l^orthiml branch) runs along the river here, and passes througli Linnton, on its way north to the crossing of the Cohimbia at Kahima, on the Washington side. I toolc a ride over it auvly in May, when the tall chcrr}- orchards of the farms and the dogwoods of the forest vied in the snowy whiteness of their abundant flowering, and the rounder-topped plum-trees filled in the spaces, while golden dandelions spaiigled the road-side, and away across the reaches of river and wood symmetrical St. Helen rose grandly from the horizon, half veiled in the mists of early morning. Along the margin of the Wallamet are groups of handsome oak-trees, which grow and thrive on the bottomlands where a fir-tree cannot live. In fact, a fir is built to shed even the rains from about its roots, while its foliage is so i'uU of pitch that water cannot penetrate it. Thus cunningly has nature provided for the safety of its creations. It ia about six miles from St. John to Portland, but does not seem so far, the shores being inhabited, and the evidences of business increasing with every revolution of the steamer's stern- wheel. Portland. The chief city of Oregon is set in an amphitheatre of hills, which rise abruptly at a distance of little more than a mile i :om the river at its widest part. But for the low nature of the trround it miirht be extended down as far as Linnton and its manufactories; f)robably will be when the necessity for more room forces business down river. The town will also grow up river, where there are choice sites for residences, and back over the heights, which are already being quite thickly built up. But the overflow of population will go to the east side of the river, where East Portland and Albina, with their numerous additions, are even now spreading over a wide area, the land on this side being level across to the Columbia, a distance of si^ miles. X H r- > Z O IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET {MT-3) 4 // {./ A m 1.0 !f I.I 50 "^~ US |40 u 6" ■2.5 2.2 1.8 1.25 11.4 IIIIII.6 ! Photographic Sciences Corporation 33 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. U580 (716) 872-4503 ■^ H- THE WALLAMET AND ITS CHIEF TOWN. 87 The mistake of the builders of Portland was in not reserving the river fi'out for a levee. The approach to the city is rendered unsightly by the ugly rears of stores and warehouses, and by the peculiar appearance of the two-storied wharves, constructed for convenience of landing during extreme high and low water. Without these unpleasant features, Portland would present from the river a very attractive picture. The site of Portland was first taken up in 1843 by a man named Overton, — a Tennesseean, — who sold his claim the fol- lowing year to Messrs. Lovcjoy and Pettygrove, who erected a log-house at the foot of what is now Washington Street, and began to clear the land, which was surveyed into lots and blocks in 1845. A second building for a store was erected that winter, near the first one. It was not, like the dwelling, of logs, but a frame covered with shingles, and went by the name of the "Shingle Store" long after more ambitious competitors had arisen. The growth of the embr3'o town was by no means rapid, as the year of its "taking up" witnessed the first considerable immigration to Oregon. Of these one thousand immigrants, a few stopped in Oregon City, the recognized capital of the Ter- ritory, and the remainder scattered over the fertile plains, in quest of the mile square of land for which they had come to this far-off country. The same continued to be true of the steadily-increasing immigration of the following years ; so that it was not until 1848 that Portland attained to the dignity of a name. Of the two owners, one, Mr. Pettygrove, was from Maine, and desired the bantling to be called after the chief town of his native State. With the same laudable State love, Mr. Lovejoy, who was from Massachusetts, insisted on calling the town Bos- ton. To end the dispute a penny was tossed up, and, Mr. Petty- grove winning, the future city was christened Portland. When it is taken into consideration that Portland, Maine, is nearly two degrees farther south than Port! -"d, Oregon, and that roses are blossoming in the gardens of the latter, while snow lies white and winter winds whistle over the leafless gardens of the former, the older city has no occasion to feel concerned for the oomfort of its godchild. ij 88 ATLANTIS ARISEN. After being named, Portland changed o\vnei*8 again. Mr. Pettygrove bought out his partner, and afterwards sold the whole property to Mr. Daniel H. Lownsdalo, receiving for it tive thousand dollars in leather, tanned by Mr. Lownsdale in a tannery adjoining tlie town site. In 1848, or before the gold discoveries, money was almost unknown in Oregon ; orders on the Hudson's Bay Company, the Methodist Mission, and wheat, being the currency of the country. Mr. Lownsdalo, it seems, had the honor of introducing a new circulating medium, which was Oregon-tanned leather. Still another change in the proprietorship occurred in 1849, Lownsdale selling an interest in the town to W. W. Chapman and Stephen Coffin. During this year — there being now about one hundred inhabitants — the Portlanders organized an associa- tion and elected trustees for the purpose of erecting a building to bo used as a meeting-house for religious services, and for a school-house. It was used also as a court-room, and continued to serve the public in its triple capacity for several years. The gold excitement of 1848-49 for a time had a tendency to check im])rovements in Oregon ; but finally the wandering gold- seekers began to return and cultivate their neglected farms. California demanded grain and lumber ; and these thing.J| Oregon could furnish in abundance. Vessels now came frequently to Portlan 1 from San Francisco and tiie Sandwich Islands; and in 1850 Couch & Co., of Portland, despatched a vessel — the brig "Emma Preston" — to China, thus fulfilling in part the dream of Jefferson and Benton. Couch's Addition was also laid out this year, and the pioneer steamboat of Oregon, the Lot Whitcomb was launched on Christmas day, at Milwaukee, to run between Portland and Oregon City. The Weekly Oregonian was started at Portland the same year by Thomas J. Dryer. In January, 1851, the city was incorporated, witn 1000 inhab- itants, Hugh D. O'Bryant being chosen mayor. In March began the regular monthly mail service between Portland and San Francisco, per the steamship Columbia, Captain Dall. Two years later the taxable property of the town was valued at 61,195,034, or about half the value of its real and personal propert}'. From this time the growth of Portland was healthj' .and uniform. During the mining excitement of 1864, '5, '6, THE WALLAMET AND ITS CHIEF TOWN. 89 there was a more hurried growth and moi'e inflated condition of trade, which, however, subsided with the cause. In 1870 the population of Portland was under ten thousand, but the pro- jjortion of wealth to population was greater than any town in the United States, paying taxes on six million dollars of property assessed at one-third of its value. From that time forward the growth of the city has been steady rather than forced. According to the census of 1890 the population of Portland proper is 47,294, and its suburbs on the oast side of the river contain — East Portland, 10,481 ; Albina, 5,104. A noticeable feature of Portland is the snug and homelike appearance of the city. Tne streets are narrow — too narrow, •indeed, for the display of the fine structures already erected and in progress ; the squares are small, affording frequent streets and corner lots — so small that many of Portland's capitalists have appropriated a whole one to themselves, giving a perspec- tive to their tusleful mansions which their business houses lack. The absence of long blocks of uniform structures must ever deprive the city of a certain metropolitan solidity of apj^ear- ance, but the airiness and inuividuality of short blocks constitute one of its chief attractions. Portland follows the rule of the Pacific Northwest, and builds its residences of wood, which is cheaper, more rapidly built, and more conformable to the climate than brick and stone. The sun is a necessity everywhere along the coast, and a wooden house is quickly warmed through by it, while brick houses exclude the heat,, and the winters are seldom cold enough to make thick walls desirable for protection from frost. There is not in Portland yet any great leaning toward the half medireval style adopted in some of the trans-montane cities, which indeed is out of place in wooden structuies and not consonant either with the material of the houses, the climate, or the spirit of the age, which eschews '' Mariannes in a moated grange," Juliets in hooded bo Ironies, and every appearance of constraint. Even the colonial style, which is much affected, seems out of place in' close neighborhood with Portland's elegant High School build- ing. Medical College, or the City Hall now building. The most that can be claimed is that it gives variety and individuality to indulge in these ai'chiteetural vagaries. 90 ATLANTIS ARISEN. I i ' : ( In the matter of churches, schools, public business buildings, both wealth and good taste are manifest. Among the former, wnich are numerous, the First Presbyterian, Grrce Methodist, Trinity (Episcopal), and the Jewish Synagogue, Beth Israel, are handsome as they are diverse. Of private schools, St. Mary s Academy (Catholic), for girls ; St. Michael's College, for boys ; Bishop Scott Military Academy, for boys, and St. Helen's Hall, for girls, both Episcopal, are the chief Besides these, there aro two business colleges, two medical colleges, and the law depart- ment of the State University. The public schools of Portland, of which there are thirteen, are large and pleasantly located, and the work done in them leaves little to be desired in the way of public instruction. The High-School work, particularly the drawing, which I chanced to see at a Teachers' National Asso- ciation a few years ago, was equal to the best exhibited by any of the States. The Portland Chamber of Commerce, now in course of erec- tion, is a handsome six-story edifice, surmounted by a square tower over the entrance. The new Daily Oregonian building is seven stories high, with a tall, square clock-tower and flag-staff, which will be visible above its less pretentious neighbors from the outlying parts of the city. I might go on, citing evidences of the taste and the means to gratify it which one meets at every hand in this verj- charming city, but resist the inclination upon the reflection that I may lay myself open to the suspicion of being claquer for Portland, whereas 1 am aware that other cities in this Pacific Northwest share in the desire and the means to be beautiful. I cannot refrain, however, fiom mentioning that pride of Portlanders, the Hotel Portland, which completely fills one of the city squares, and then has not room enough. It faces the Custom-House and Post-Oflftce, and has on one side of it that tine temple to Thespis known as the Marquam Grand, having been built by one of Portland's pioneers of that name. There is something of a history to the Hotel Portland, which was projected by Henry Villard just before the crash in his affairs which followed the opening of the Northern Pacific to Portland via the Columbia River. At that time the Central School occu- pied this block, and when Villard purchased it the building THE WALLAMET AND ITS CHIEF TOWN. 91 was removed across the street to the present site of the theatre. Work was then begun upon the foundations of the hotel, but was soon suspended, and the premises remained an unsii-hlly spec- tacle in the heart of the town for several years, during which the Oregonian labored faithfully to spur on its completion by the citizens, but stock in the enterprise was slowly taken until the magnates of the Southern Pacific, on the completion of the Oregon and California road, bluntly declared that neither they nor any other persons of distinction would ever care to visit Portland unless modern hotels wore erected and maintained according to modern taste in such matters. And what was the result ? Whereas, before, every man of means was a householder, as he should be, straightway the Hotel Portland was completed it became the fashion to live at this hostelry instead of one's own house, until tourists were in danger of being crowded out by the homo patronage, and the manager, one of the world- renowned Lelands, was forced to discourage permanent board- ing. A secondary result was the erection of more hotels and improved hotel service generally . Another object of which the city is justly proud is its Indus- trial Fair building, where is held an annual exhibit of the nat- ural and cultivated productions of the State, its manuftictu'res, and works of art. It is the largest on the coast, and the exhi- bition is surprisingly interesting as well as remarkable for bulk. Many of the exhibits are permanently preser%'ed at the Board of Immigration, which at present occupies rented rooms, but is to be provided with more convenient quarters in the near future. This Board of- Immigration is doing a good work, if only to remind the present inhabitants of the State of their possible achievements. For strangers it furnishes many atti-actiona and answers many questions. For instance, in the centre of the floor is a " kiosk" constructed of the best specimens of native grains in the stalk, — quite an elegant work of art. In the centre is placed a table laden with specimens of the choicest varieties of fruit and vegetables contributed by the orehardists and gardeners of all pans of Oregon. There are several tables arranged across the room for more general displays of fruit, and shelving around the walls containing glass jars filled with seed- grains and early fruits, each labelled with the name and locality n ATLANTIS ARISEN. 1 i! 1 1| where raised, beautifully polished slabs of cabinet woods, and wood in the rough, and collections of minerals and metals, from building-stone and coal to silver and gold. Thus the visitor is able to secure in a few hours' lime a knowledge of the resources of the country which it would require months of travel and even toil to obtain. In studying the development of a country its social traits and institutions offer the most interesting points of observation as indications of the original character of the founders ; and not only the city under consideration, but all Oregon gives evidence of its missionary breeding. Portland, west and east, has sixty- three churches, twelve of which are Methodist Episcopal, eight Presbyterian, seven Baptist, six Roman Catholic, six Protestant Episcopal, five Congregational, five Lutheran, three Evangelical, two Unitarian, two Hebrew, two Adventist, the remain ".er being divided among the Christian, Non-Sectarian, Dutch Reformed, United Brethren, and United Presbyterian. Portland is the see of a Roman Catholic bishopric embracing the State of Ore- gon, The city has the usual number of secret orders to be found in any city, half a hundred miscellaneous societies and clubs, and numerous places of amusement. I have found in this far northwestern city the most discrimi- nating charities. It has two excellent hospitals, one Catholic and one Protestant, well equipped for relieving suffering. Its Children's Home, under the patronage of ihe Ladies' Relief Society, is indeed a home, where no hint of pauperism is per- mitted to intrude ; where unsightly uniforms are not required or allowed; where infants ai'e furnished with toys, play-rooms, and kindergarten teaching, and older children with books and instruction at the public schools. This is said to be one of the best-managed institutions in the United States. Portland ladies have also established a Women's Union, or boarding-house for underpaid or unemployed women, where board, lodging, and laundrying costs from three to seven dollars per week, and where the needy are entertained while looking for employment. The table is good, the rooms comfortable, some even large and well furnished ; there is a piano in the parlor, and lectures or other social entertainments are furnished frequentl}-. As the patrons of these benefactions take a pride THE WALLAMET AND ITS CHIEF TOWN. 98 in thoiu work, it is liUoly to continue and sorvo a» an example to younger communities. It is greatly to the credit of a city hewn out of a wilderness, as Portland was, that it early established a public library which has grown until it contains sixteen thousand volumes, besides regularly receiving two hundred periodicals. For many years one of the city's pioneers has given the rent of a comfortable suite of rooms over his bank for use by the Library Association, and the United States district Judge a large measure of his time to the selection of books; and recently a Portland lady, dying, left a bequest to bo applied to the erection of a suitable building for library purposes, which is now in course of construction. Banks are surprisingly frequent on the streets of this city. There are already sixteen, many of them in handsome struc- tures, and the seventeenth is being erected. This brings us to the consideration of capital and trade, and of Portland as a com- mercial emporium. According to the published statements of the boards of trade and immigration, the capital at disposal in the banking-houses is 820,478,750, while tiie capital employed in the wholesale and jobbing trade is about $05,000,000, divided among a lai-go number of hou.ses, one hundred of which em|)loy from 8200,000 to 81,000,000 or more. The trade of Portland has increased from $50,000,000 in 1886 to 8115,000,000 in 1889. These figures are remarkable as compared with the era of recent growth. But it must be taken into account tliat a long period of incubation of this wealth was enjoyed while the resources of the large area of which Portland was the trade- centre were being gradually developed. Thus trade was con- servative and safe, and failures in wholesale houses or banks were unknown. The leading grocery house in this city, which does business to the extent of many millions annuallj', never employs travelling salesmen, although competition by Eastern houses has recently compelled other merchants to do so. For conservatism, which is annoying to the newer men, who gird against it, the non-conservatives have a new word, — namely, " mossbackism." But the " mossbacks" have the best of it, undoubtedly, in their day and generation. What the ultimate outcome of their policy may be remains to the historian to relate. Whether or not Portland is to be forever the metropolis 94 ATLANTIS ARISEN. I ' [I of Oregon, ov of the Northwest, will be determined in the next ten years. Already it has duiigorously active rivals on the north, which will striiirglo fur the Hupromacy ; but even if that were lost, this city must be to the Wallamet Valley what iSt. Louis is to the Mississippi or (Cincinnati to the Ohio valleys. The future magnitude of Portland depends upon its trans- portation facilities, which at present are good, and seemingly destined to bo greatly increased. But within the memory of this generation it depended entirely upon boats of all sizes, from the canoe to the sailing ship and ocean steamer. The history of transportation in Oregon is interesting. The Wallamet Valley being the first and for many years the only part settled, and being, as previously described, surrounded by mountains except at its north end, where it opened on the Columbia, and not accessible there except by boats, travel to the settlements was attended with much toil and difficulty. Neither the Columbia nor the Wallamet was open to continuous navigation, the latter being obstructed by falls twenty feet in height. At the falls, it is true, there grow up a little town ; but as all the open or agi'icultural land was some distance above this place, a portage had to be made hero of a mile or two, and always at a risk of accident. As early as 1846-47 there were two or three freight-boats rigged with oars and sails on the Wallamet above the falls. In 1850 the first steamboat was launched and run below the falls, which was very soon followed by others, making trips to Astoria and Vancouver, and during the autumn immigration to the Cascades to assist tho new- comers in reaching the vallej'. Then tho Indian troubles made necessary transportation above the Cascades, and above The Dalles, inducing first the building of sail and next of small steamboats on those sections of the river. Finally a number of the individual owners combined, and an organization resulted in the incornoration in 1862 of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, Captain J. C. Ainsworth, president. To this company belonged in its early years most of tho now solid men of Port- land. It was well officered, conservative, but not unenterpris- ing, and for many years held Oregon in the palm of its hand. It had a monopoly of the Columbia, having j'ielded tho Walla- met to the People's Transportation Company, and, in order to THE WALLAMET AND ITS CHIEF TOWN. 96 make business for itsoU", used a goodly share of its earnings in devolo])ing mining and wlioat-growing cast of the Cascade Mountains. By the Oregon Steam Navigation Company were built the first raih'oads in the country, — namely, the portages of five miles at the Cascades anil iiftecn miles at The Dalies. ]t also put some money into the Oregon Central on the went side of the Wallamet, which was turned over to Hollada}', of the Oregon and Califoi-nia, on the east side, and both are now a j)art of the Southern Pacific system. The stock of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company was principally in the hands of three men, J. C. Ainsworth, R. R. Thompson, and S. Cr. Reed, when the Northern Pacific Railroad Company made overtures for its purchase and did purchase, the former owners retaining a fourth of the stock, Captain Ainsworth being made manager and a director in the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, very fortunately, as it happened, for when the failure of Jay Cooko & Co. suspended construction and endangered the land grant, the old officers of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company came to the rescue and comi)leted the road from the Columbia to Puget Sound in time to save the grant. The failure of the Northern Pacific Railroad having thrown on the Eastern market, where its value was not known, three-fourths of the Oregon Steam Navigation stock, the gen- tlemen above named emploj-od agents to buy it up, and once more obtained control. They then built new and handsome boats for the Columbia trade, and also obtained the trade of the Wallamet River by purchasing the property of the Willa- mette Transportation Company, successors to the People's Com- pany, and became very powerful. In 1879 Henry Yillard, who had secured control of the Oregon and California, and who had conceived the plan of a road along the Columbia and across Idaho, finding the Oregon Steam Nav- igation Company in his way, made a proposition to purchase their steamers and portages, and with these, his steamships and railways, to form a company to be called the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. This he was able to do, and the X'oad he projected is now leased to the Union Pacific, and is part of the Oregon Short Line through Idaho, connecting with 06 ATLANTIS ARISEN. tilt! Union Pacific's main lino. Moanwhilo tho Orogou Sieain Navigation Company has retire to enjoy the results of good iiiaiiagcnu'iit in other lines of invcslnuMit. 'riio railroads that centre at Pcjrtland are those of the Southern Pacific system, formerly known as the Oregon and California and the Oregon Central, which form a junction one hundred and ten miles south. The Southern Pacific gives con nectlon with all the California lines and trans-continental roads. The Union Pacific, as ahove stated, has direct through connec- tion with tl»e East. The Northern Pacific's Columbia River ln-anch starts at Portl«;i'i and i'ollows the river to a point oppo- site the Cowlitz VaUey, where it crosses by moans of a ferry and runs north to Tacoma, whence its main lino crosses the Cascade Ran^e, and makes a long detour southeast via Pasco and northeast via the Panhandle of Idaho before reaching Mon- tana, where it makes another long angle southeast and noith- west before it reaches the parallel on which it stretches out fo" St. Paul. These routes involve sight-seeing over a vast scope of country, embracing all the groat mountain ranges on tho Pacific Slope, and their commercial advantages nuvy easily by ai^prehendod. The Canadian Pacific also furnishes eastern connection with Portland by tho outside steamer route to Victoria, or by the Northern Pacific and Puget Sound steamers to the western terminus of the road in British Columbia. The Great Northern also reaches Portland by using the Union Pacific's lines in East Washington, thus giving tho tourist his choice of five trans- continental routes. Besides those great lines there are two narrow gauge roads which run through the farming districts in the Wallamet Valley and contribute to tho business of the me- tropolis, — the Portland and Willamette Valley Railroad, on the east side of the river, and the Oregonian Railway, on the west side. These roads have recently been added to tho Southern Pacific system and are being made standard gauge. The Oregon Pacific is an uncompleted road extending at present from Ya- quina Bay, on tho coast of Oregon, across the middle of the Wallamet Valley to the Cascade Mountains. Its route is sur- veyed across East Oregon to a connection with th ' 'aion Pacific at Ontario, near the Idaho line. THE WALLAMET AND ITS CHIEF TOWN. 5)7 A niin-ow-i^au^o |>!iHsoii> taUi'n placo within a period whieli ivniinds (Mio of .lafU and his lieaii-Htallv. East Portland and Alhina iir ; '•acticully one town, although forming two distinct nmnicipalitit t, vhich aro soon to bo merged in West Portland corporation for '^loator convenience and mutual benefit. They are connected with ilie west pide by ferries and by two bridges spanning the vV^allaniet The wheat warehouses and elevator of the railroad conipunies are on the east side, there being insufficient room on tl»e west for the accommodation of their freight business. Th'. gieater extent of level ground on the peiiiiisnhi is sure in time to bring a large portion of the population to this side, as the rapiromising Democracy of its people. The school-master and the Black Republican were in early times alike objects of aversion in that famous district. It is also claimed for Long Tom that it originated the term " Webfoot," which is so universally applied to Orcgonians by their California neighbors. The story runs as follows: A young couple from Missouri settled upon a land-claim on the banks of this river, and in due course of time a son and heir was born to them. A California " commercial traveller," chancing to stof) with the happy parents overnight, made some jesting remarks upon the subject, warning them not to let the baby get droAvned in the unusually extensive mud-puddles by which the premises were disfigured ; when the father replied that they had looked out for that, and, uncovering the baby's feet, astonished the joker b}'^ showing him that they were loebbed. The sobriquet of Web- foot, having thus been attached to Oregon-born babies, has con- tinued to be a favorite appellative ever since. No inland town could have a prettier location than Eugene, OTHER TOWNS OF THE WALLAMET VALLEY. Ill and few a more desirable one for other reasons. It has for a background Spencer's Butte, so named in honor of the Secretary of State, in 1841, by Dr. White of the Methodist mission. At the head of the valley, it combines many advantages; Lane County, of which it is the county-seat, extending from the sea- coast to the Cascade Eange, and including grain- and stock-lands, timber- and mineral-lands, with abundant water-power. Eugene, Avith about four thousand inhabitants, is the seat of the University of Oregon, founded in 1872, and opened for the reception of students in 187G. Its affairs are managed by a board of regents appointed by the governor of the State for a term of twelve years. It has a permanent endowment of eighty thousand dollars, i-ealized from the sale of lands granted by the general government for university purposes, and a fund of fifty thousand dolhirs donated by Mr. Henry Villard. It also receives an annual appropriation of five thousand dollars from the State. But there is need of more endowments to enable this to become what it should be, a place of universal education. Two handsome brick buildings, a growing library of valuable books, astronomical, surveying, and chemical apparatus consti- tute the present visible features of the institution, to which I would add, as not least, though last, the collection of Professoi- Thomas Condon, illustrating the geology, mineralogy, and nat- ural history of the Northwest. This collection, the result of the labor of a lifetime, is already well known, and justly noted for laying open the pre-historic record of Oi'egon. Professor Con- don is the discoverer of the dwarf fossil horse of Oregon, which is claimed by Eastern scientists, to whom he imparted his dis- covery. Euf^ene is on the line of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and has a good country trade. Undoubtedly railroads will be built ■jO the mouth of the Siuslaw Eiver, and into Southeastern Oregon, from this point. A road into the Klamath Valley leads from here by the Diamond Peak pass. Three miles east of Eugene is ihe town of Springfield, a thriving place, with flouring- and saw-miils, and several manu- factories. Following up McKenzie's Fork of the Wallamet to a branch called the Mohawk, we find a region cut off" from the main valley by a range of hills, which is celebrated for its 112 ATLANTIS ARISEX. natural beauties and advantages of superior climate, excellent water, rich prairies, and fine forest. It is being rapidly taken up by dairymen, fruit-farmers, and others. Fine water-power may be obtained in numerous places, owing to the rapid fall of the streams coming out of the mountains. A glance at the map will sh()>v the three principal forks of the Wallamet eon- verging towards Eugene, each of which has tributaries with small late'- J valleys that contain vevy choice tracts of land. The amphitheatre of mountains, running down into the valley in long slopes and ridges, furnishes it with superior facilities for a gi'eat variety of manufactures wliich depend on wood, water, stone, and like materials. When these are to be found, together with a vai'ietj' of good soils adapted to all branches of farming, there can be no doubt of the future of such a country. From every side the riches of these hills will glide down into the lap of that city. CHAPTEK IX. ^i i. S; 1: i I.; I'i 15 :l FURTHER REMARKS ON WEST OREGON. The Wallamet prairies arc not an uninterrupted level like those of Illinois. In some parts they resemble the " oak openings" of Michigan ; in other parts the plains are quite extenbive, but nowhere arc wo out of sight of large bodies of timber on the mountains, or the groves that fringe the rivers. Ranges of hills and isolated buttcs occur frequently enough to duve the land- scape from monotony, and furnish variety of soil as well. Tt.e first thought in viewing Wist Oregon is that it must be a country of perennial verdure, — a country of exhaustless food resources for cattle. Such is not the fact, however, owing to the absence of rain during about four months of the 3ear, when the grass is dried up. For this reason it cannot furnish fresh pasturage later than the first of July, until the rains begin in October or November, when the chilly weather makes cattle poor, although grass is abundant. Time was when the Wallamet Valley waved in early summer with luxuriant native grasses, red and white clover, and many I.eauliful flowering plants. Cattle might wallow through grass breast-high on the prairies, •k FURTHER REMARKS ON WEST OREGON. 113 and as high as iheir heads in the creek-bottoms. Stock-raising was a lucrative business in an early day in Oregon : in the first place, because cattle were scarce among the settlers, and next, because, after they became more numerous, they were in de- mand for food by the minii.g population, with which gold dis- covery siiddi.-nly peopled the southern portion of the State. The stock-owner then put his brand on his herd and turned them out to "summer and winter" themselves en the abunuanco of the virgin prairies; but in course of time this indiscriminate pasturing injured the grasses, reducing them to a ^lorter groAvth, though it is said that when the land is perrxiiuted to lie idle under fence they recover their old luxuriance. The lives of the early Oregonians, while they veiy often lacked material comfort, wore remarkably care-free. The genial climate and kindly soil rendered constant or excessive labor unnecessary. Comparative wealth was easily attained wdien a hundred cov»^s represented a capital of ten thousand dollars. To mount his "spotted cayuse" and scamper over the prairie look- ing after his stock was a pastime ; good riding, good shootini^, and knowing how to throw the lasso, popular accomplishments. Clad in his buckskin suit, and booted and spurred in true vaquero style, it was his pleasure to scour the prairies day after day on any errand, from cattle-hunting to looking for a wife with three hundred and twenty acres to make a mile square with his own. And well it might be — unless some of wild California stock "got after him," when a sharp race sometimes ended in the cahallero being " treed." This free and easy life in a country so beautiful had charms not difficult to comprehend, and was more pvofitable than the laborious farming which made men too slowly rich '-back in the States." The larger part of the Wallamet Valley was taken up under the Oregon Donation Law of 1850, which gave three hun- dred and twenty acres to a married man, and the same amount to his wife in her own right. This brought early marriages into fashion, the courting which preceded it being often accom- plished while the would-be husband sat on his cayuse, and the not unwilling bride of thirteen or fourteen summers stood on the door-step. Large families who took up in this way adjoin- ing square miles were able to call a whole township their own. (I • '!' 114 ATLANTIS ARISEN. But that was !l • If J i • 11 $ . 1 ^ ' !' ! 1 ! :v ii i! jjl , ! 1 - "In the olden, golden Time, long ago." Many a faimer sold his hind, when remote from the settle- ments, for a merely nominal price, and went to reside in a town where he could send his children to t>chool, in ante railroad days, tijus losing the heiietit the government intended to bestow upon the pioneers of this far-away region. That did not, however, prevent his "living by the copulation of cattle," as the broad acres of the valley were unfenced for the most part, and his herds wandered whithersoever they would. Eailroads are fast stamping out this primitive form of civilization, which is re])laced by scientific farming, and this means coiifiiiing stock to certain boundaries and ])i-oviding for tlieir subsistence. The farmer of the Waliamet Valley could not compete in stock-raising with the herders on the cheaper lands of the East Oregon ranges, because his land was too valuable for other purposes ; nor could he compete with the stock-raisers on the coast ranges where grain-farming is impracticable, and where the moisture from the sea keeps green tlie gi'ass and herbage the summer through. In the early history of the valle}- wheat was the only cereal raised, and was used alike for food and for currency, a wheat certificate, like a silver certificate of to-day, being a legal tender, and the only money in circulation before the discovery of gold. The principal crops still are wheat, oats, and barley, in the order named. The Avheat crop for 1890 in this valley is estimated at two hundred and fifiy thousand tons, most of which goes to foreign parts. This large trafHc in wheat began about 1870, when the first twenty miles of the Oregon and California Rail- road were completed. The same ships which brought out the rails from England took back cargoes of Oregon wheat. Previous to this time farmers had hauled their grain to Portland, or to the other river towns, where it was boated to Portland and thence shipped to San Francisco. For a long time this Oregon product was shipped abroail as California wheat, and from its large size and fine appearance was a credit to the State which exported it. But, see how time makes all things even. Millers have found out that Oregon wheat is rather too soft, and is improved by mixing with California's shrunken grain, and also that California 1 ; FURTHER REMARKS ON WEST OREGON. 115 flour gains by mixing with Oregon wlieat. So tho dry and the moist climates contribute to each other. Oregon flour, notwithstanding this prejudice, sells well in foreign markets, and has established itself in the markets of China and Japan, four hundi'ed tons, in 1890, being shipped monthly, the failure of the rice crop opening the way for its introduction, and it is predicted that within another decade the Orient will consume the entire wheat product of the Pacific coast. Hops are a pi"ofitable crop, especially in the coast counties and the rich bottom-lands about the head of tho Wallamet. Root crops and vegetables ai'e fine and abundant. Potatoes make a good yield, and are excellent in quality. Onions are large, of a mild flavor, and as a crop very profitable. Cabbages are large, and tho leaf is tender. All garden products grow thriftily, and are of good quality ; and when the season of the annual exhibit arrives, which is in the latter par' of September, the farmers are able to make a surprising show. But it is in the spring and early summer that you have cause to criticise the Oregon producer. All the " earlies" on your table came from Cali- fornia, are high in price, and lacking in freshness. Why not force the growth of certain spring edibies, and hasten those of summer by hot-house cultivation ? — why, only that the farmers and gardeners are as "conservative" as the capitalists. The dairies of Oregon do not supply the resident population, notwithstanding this was originally a cattle country. The reason has been jDointed out; still the fact remains that the common red clover whose roots go down to a great depth, would endure the drouth of the rainless season, would seed itself, and become green with the first showers of autumn, furnishing an evergreen crop on which to keep milch cows in condition. Most of the hay cut in Oregon is from the natural grasses. Oats are raised for ha}-, which is fed to horses ; but timoth}-, which v/ould do so much for the dairy interest, is neglected very gener- ally. The farmers are, however, in eas\' circumstances, and prob- ably care nothing about a tourist's opinion of their methods. The fruits raised in the Wallamet Valley are apples, pears, plums, cherries, and prunes. Peaches grow well in some localities, but, like Indian corn, they prefer the more southern portion of the State. Small fruits are abundant and excellent. Grapes do not l^ 116 ATLANTIS ARISEN. il I .iH m • n i ' !' i .. jP: generally do well, except the Concord, which ripens doliciously ; but all the fruits above named are of superior excellence. The very best land for fruit-raising is that which has grown a forest upon its soil. To clear it costs on an average forty dollars per acre. An orchard near the mouth of the Clackamas is planted to one hundred and twenty-three varieties of apples, fourteen varieties of pears, twelve of plums, five of prunes, three of quinces, and three of grapes, besides the small fruits, and walnuts, butternuts, and almonds. The price of grain-land varies according to location, ^'rom five to fifty or even two hundred dollars, but fair farming- lands ten miles away from towns can be purchased at from twenty-five to forty dollars. The foot-hill lands, which are covered with hazel and other brush, and wl.ich make good fruit-farms, *n be pur- chased cheaply. There is not any large amount of unsurveyed or government land in this part of the State, and that which remains is in the mountains. The State lands in West Orcijon that were immediately available are nearly all sold off, but some pieces can still be found which are either overlooked or in the hands of speculators who do not hold them high. The coming legis- lature, it is thought, will increase the i)rice of school-land, which it ought to have done years ago. The amount of government land sold in West Oregon during the ymr just ended was four hundred and ninety-two thousand acres, — two hundred and ninety-two thousand in and bordering on the Wallamet Valley, and two hundred thousand in Southwestern Oregon. Columbia is the most northerly county of this division of Oregon, and really belongs to the Columbia Valley, as it faces the Columbia River. It is heavily timbered and mountainous, with some rich farming-lands lying along the river and on the farther side of the hills. Its forest is underlaid with coal, iron, and other minerals, which will some day make it one of the most wealthy districts of the State. South of Columbia is Washington County, — the Tualatin Plains of the pioneers, — which is one of the oldest settled portions of Oregon, and belongs to the wheat-growing lands, Hillsboro', the county -seat, was founded in 1850, by David Hill, one of the executive committee under the provisional govern ment of 1843. The population is about eight hundred. o 7; o o c z H < I (■ ;■*: * U'4 m i 1 '- w FURTHER REMARKS ON WEST OREGON. 117 Forest Grove is the seat of the Pacific University, with a population of about one tlionsand. The college is under the patronage of the Congregational Church, although it is non- sectarian in its teachings. It was founded in 1848 by Eev. Harvey Clark and Mrs. Tabitha Brown, both of whom gave almost all their worldly posscs-sions and their personal efforts to the work. The names of Marsh, Lyman, Collier, and Con- don are associated with its gfowth. Its grounds and buildings are estimated at fifty thousand dollars ; cabinet and apparatus, four thousand dollars; productive funds, cigiity-thrco thousand dollars, with a library of five thousand volumes. The town of Forest Grove is laid out, as its name implies, among the beauti- ful oak-groves at the base of a spur of the Coast Mountains, half a mile from the Southern Pacific (west-side) Eaih-oad. Cornelius, Dilly. and Gaston are stations along the line of the road in this county, and Greenville is a farming settlement in a superb agricultural district. Yamhill, or Che-am-ill, the Indian word for "bald hills," is next south of Washington. It is one of the earliest-settled and most beautiful parts of Oregon. In fact, the early patent of nobility in this region was to hail from Yamhill. The county- seat is McMinnville, with a population of two thousand two hundred. It is situated on the Yamhill River, and has com- munication by rail with all the important points on the west side of the valley and with San Francisco. Lafayette, a pi'etty place a few miles away, was formerly the county-seat, but lost this distinction through too much " conserv- atism." Dayton, at the mouth of the Yamhill River, is another pretty town, of five hundred inhabitants and a good trade. Sheridan, the most western point on the Oregonian Railway, is nestled up at the foot of the Coast Range near old Fort Hos- kins, and has a population of four hundred. There are eight other small towns in this county, which is celebrated for its yield of grain. Crossing the beautiful Che-am-ill Range, we have a charming view q£ the country, and see again the familiar peaks of the Cascade Mountains. South of Yamhill we find ourselves among the fertile rolling hills and alluvial valleys of Polk County. Although full of resources in soil, building-stone, timber, cabinet ■'j: ifl'j 118 ATLANTIS ARISEN. ]l '.-1 1 woods, and minerals, Polk County has few towns of any size. Dallas is the county-seat, with about seven hundred inhabitants. It is situated on the RicUreal (corruption of La Creole) Eiver, nearly opposite Salem, in a charming region. Concerning names and their origin, there arc many absurd conjectures made, (juite as ludicrous as the fre([uent misnomers. I road the other day that Joiiquin Miller gave the origin of the name of the Walla Walla tribe to br i i the French ejaculation Voild, voild ! Mr. Miller cannot have read Lewis and ClarUe with much attention not to know that the Walla Walla tribe existed belbie any French vovageur dipped paddle in the Columbia. Lewis and Clarke spell the W(»rd Wullawullah. The most delightful instance that I remember to have seen ol' the corruption of names was given by a newspaper corre- spondent from Colorado. The vSpanish name of a river in the southern part of tliat State is El Rio de los Animos, — River of Souls. This correspondent, not being acquainted with Spanish particles, says of Lost Souls, — and further, that the French fur- traders, leai-ning its meaning, called it L'urgatoire, or Purgatory River, which the "bull-whacker of the overland trail," in his efforts to master the French, pronounced Picket-wire! Lying west of Yamhill and Polk is Tillamook County, of which it is said '• there is no district of the Northwest so full of possibilities. A magnificent soil, a heavenly climate, and scenery that would delight the heax'ts of poets and painters are here as they are nowhere else ; but its streams and rivers, its roads and its dales, its valleys, glens, and ravines are given over to ihe empire of loneliness." I am not authority for this glowing statement, which may bo taken cwm salis, but am ready to believe from collateral evidence that it is the isolation, rather than the i)rcsuined ruggednes.s, of this coast county which has heretofore raidced it lower than its relatives on the hither side of the mountains. It has a sea-coast of sixty miles in extent, and six rivers discharging into the sea, one of which, Tillamook, has a good harbor at its entrance. This bay was named by Ijewis and Clarke, who made an ex- cursion to it in the spring of 180G. About one-fourth of this county is occupied as an Indian reservation. Like other coast counties, Tillamook has been cut off dui-ing FURTIIKR REMARKS ON WKHT ORKGON. 119 a groat part of the year by the badness of the road over the mountains, and the uncertainty of tlie route by sou. Bnt the Astoria and Albany Railroad Company has promised to open up this country. When the road is constructed there will hv a market for the hiinber, tish, game, fruit, hay, vegetables, dairy products, and coal of this region, it will traverse, so it is said, the valleys of the Miami, Nehalem, and Wilson Rivers, entering the Wallamet Valley near Forest Grove. It is estimated that there are ten million dollars' worth of " stumpage" in Tillamoolc County. The lumber which will be manufactured there will furnish business for a railroad. The town of Tillamook, on the Trask River, is the county- seat, with a p()pulalion of six hundred, and has a saw-mill, bank, church, school-house, court-house, and two newsjjapers. Bay City is located on Tillamook Bay, at the head of deep- water navigation, about five miles ^'-om the sea. Its present population is about two hundred, but its future, I am told, is considered assured. The Bay City Land Company have taken it in charge, and what land companiv.s can do has been demon- strated. "A }0ung man willing to woi'k," going there now, might turn out a millionaire at forty. The experiment is worth trj'ing, and doubtless will be tried. The valley of the Nehalem River, which is the northern boundary of Tillamook County, is the seat of the Nehalem Co- operative Colony of Western Oi'cgon, an association which is putting in practice Edward Bellamy's socialistic ideas. Accord- ing to the report of the chief of the department of production of the colony, the experiment is resulting favorably. The colony consists of twenty-tive men, six women, and thirty-tive children. The societ}' put in three thousand dollars four years ago, and now owns a plant for which they have been offered one hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars, their property including four thousand acres of land. The water on the bar at the entrance to Tillamook Bay is from ten to thirteen feet at low tide, with good anchorage in- side. "When the jetty system has been applied, the channel deepened six or eight feet, and a light-house erected, the en- trance will be safe for any vessels except those of the largest size. A light-house was erected on a rock about a mile from the ■i :|. i m I m m I m J 'hi " '-H 799 i:'M,!>; 1 M . 120 ATLANTIS ARISEN. i ! ''■■ iiji: i;^!i;i|i; :r i *i ■ coast at Tillamook Ucad, thirty miloa north of tho bay, in 1879. Tliis appears to bo tho wildest spot on the coast. Tho rock rose one hundi'cd feet above tho water, and was only largo enough to afford ground room for tho workmen to carry on their opei-ations. In the month of October four men were put ujiun tho rock with tools and provisions. Only when the sea was smooth could a boat reach the rock, and when, a few days later, five men at- tempted to land there, tho foreman was drowned. The eight lomaining men suffered all tho discomforts of shii)wrecked sailors, their only shelter from rain and sj)ray being a heavy canvas tied to ringbolts fastened in tiie rock. They qiuiri'iod out a cove and built a cabin in it, which they boked lo tho face of tho cliff. Tho next move was to quany steps from the landing to tho top of the rock, having to work a part of the time on a staging hung from tho suniinit. Ol'ton the weather would not permit them to work at all. and in Janu.iry they had a hurri- cane which dashed tho waves to the top of tho rock. Their supplies were washed away, and they expected to follow, but wore HO fortunate as to outlive the buffeting their cabin received from the elements. Jt was sixteen days before their situation could be made known to persons on shore. A line, fastened to the top of the rock and oast loose, was picked up by a ship, and supplied were transferiod f?.'om the ship's mast to the rock. By May the quarrymen had out down tho rock to a height of eighty feet, and made a level place lor the light-house. In June the corner-stone was laid, iUi-.i on every fair day a load of hewn material was taken out to the rock, and tho building, fifty feet squai'o, constructed, in which were rooms for the keeper of the light, with a room for the fog-signal machincrj-. Tho tower was raised forty-eight feet, placing the lantern one hundred and thirty-six feet above the sea-level, and in January, 1881, tho light was put in (operation. One month before a ship had gone ashore, and twenty lives been lost within a mile ©f the light- house. In some winter storms the waves have tossed boulders as large as cannon-balls over tho top of the tower. The coast of Oregon in a '• sou'wester" is extremely inhos- pitable. In summer it is much resorted to for pleasure, and has been so from the time of the earliest setdement in tho Walla- mct Valley to the present. The sea-beach at Tillamook, or the II ii' FURTHER RRMARKS ON WEST OREGON. 121 mouth of Salmon River, in Polk County, was a favorito rosort for the people of the central portion of the valley. To come here in July, camp out two or thrco weoUs, fish, ride, hunt, and eat " rofk-oyHtors" and bla(;loi'rioH, was thouifht to be a sani- tary as well as a recreative measure. The "rock-oyster," so called because it is embedded in sandstone rock, has to be released fn-m captivity by hard blows with a hamraor. When extricated, it is pear-shaped, with the impression of a scalloped shell on the broad b;ise of the soft shell which encloses it. At the small end, where the stem of a pear would be, is a foot oi- feck-r projecting, not only out of the shell, but reaching out through an air-hole in the stem, and probabl}^ used to secure food. They are never found above title-water, and are common, I think, to the California coast as well, as I have seen them of all sizes at Santa Cruz. Crossing the plains gave, I fancy, a habit of out-door life to the earlj' Oregonians which their children have inherited. To "go camping" every summer is their delight, and they cling to the primitive custom of camp-meetings, — " basket meetings" they are called. That '• the groves were God's first temples" seems natural enough in " the continuous woods where rolls the Oregon." The devotional spirit comes more easily and quickly, and with more power, in immediate contact with ITature, than when coaxed and stimidated into exercise by the appliances of art. In the age when architecture was really and ti-uly an art, this truth was seized upon; and those grand cathedrals which still remain the gloiy ef Eui'opq, in their pointed roofs, fretted arches, and long colonnades, their deep shadows, and windows of colored glass, staining the light they transmitted to the colors of Nature's choicest hues, were intended to express that solemn and subtil(j sense of beauty, which, in the presence of great Nature, lifts the heart above and away from mean or trivial considerations. The people on the east side of the v.alley who do not go to the seacoast find no lack of delightful summer camps among the foot-hills of the Cascade Mountains. The eastern half of Marion County is a natural park, where green hills overtopped by snow-peaks, solemn foi'est depths, mountain gorges, precipitous cliff'Sj lakes, and cataracts, alternating with smiling vales, may i ! 1 I I I '5 1 ■'! f: 1 1 1 ! Pi ph' [111, '! ''T" BE9 l!' 122 ATLANTIS ARISEN. ;[ 1 if 1 ^1 I < 'I ill m be reached in a few hours of travel. Silver Creek Falls, near Silverton, Is a noted resort of the Salem people. The creek drops off a projecting shelf of rock one hundred and eighty feet in height, being dashed into a white cloud of 8pra\-. The visiter may stand behind this misty veil and look through a cloud of rainbows. On another branch of the stream, at no great distance, is a similar cataract. There are mineral springs in Marion and Linn Counties, chiefly soda, wiilch are fitted up with conveniences for invalid visitoi's ; but Oregon has not yet attempted a fa.3'.;ionable watering-place. Bexiton County, next south of Polk and Tillamook, extends from tl'.e l■i^•er to the sea, being prairie land in the eastern end, and having rolling, mountain, and coast lands to the west, giv- ing it adaptability to all kinds of farming, dairying, and wool- growing, and facilities for manufaefures of \arious kinds. The Oregon Pacific traverses it, and it has seaports of its own at laquina and Alseya Bays. The Alse3'a River rises in Mary's Peik near Corvallis, and runs west to the ocean. The Yaquina River flows into the bay of that name. Lane County, the largest in the Wallamct Valley, extend- ing from the Cascade Range to the sea coast, combines rare agricultural and manufacturing opportunities. If embraces within its limits the three forks of the Wallamet, besides that west branch bearing the sobriquet of Long Tom, and contains thousands of aci'es of either grain, pasture, or timbered lands, with abundance of water-power, — in fact the resources of a State more than twice as large as Rhode Island. To the eye Lane County presents a diversity of surface which is very attractive, — prairies that from level become undulating ; aills that from long swells, scantily wooded, rise gradually into high mountains with crowns of evergreen forest, with pretty little valleys stretch- ing along the numerous streams. The climate in this portion of the Wallamet Valley is rather drier than at the north end. The elevation above the Columbia is four hundred feet. It is a beautiful sight to behold the lux- uriant wheat-fields about the last of June. Just before the grain begins to ripen, and when the elegant Liliuni Washingtonium — Oregon's emblematic flower — stands head and shoulders above the nodding stalks, scenting all the air with its fragrance. ni! y. III mm i|l SSSi^BBI m mn ;ilH| m '-^W W ■'11 lit ! lii m ' if Mil FURTHER REMARKS ON WEST OREGON. 123 Mt The entire area of Ihe Wallumet Valley has almost no waste land in it, and most of it is under improvement, although not by any means all well cultivated. The old donation law, which gave so much land to actual settlers, operated to prevent close neighborhood and consequent improvement, with good farming, school privileges, and roads Uept in repair. The influx of pop- ulation within a few years lias changed the old order of things to a consideral)ie extent, but not yet thoroughly. People are beginning to understand that a few aci'cs well tilled are be'ter than many left in neglect. Fruit-farming on from five to forty acres is coming into fashion, to the benefit of all concerned. It is said that five acres of cleared timber-land will support a family in comfort. Until recently Oregon made no attempt to raise fruit for export, except apples to California. This year choice apples were shipped to England, and pears, plums, and peaches to Chicago. Man' prune orchards are being set out, this fruit being most profitable for export in a dried state. Before closing my remarks on the western portion of Oregon I will subdue my dread of tables sufficiently to present one giving the comparative condition cf the several counties at the commencement of 1890, including also Southern Oregon. •s 2 •a ai 3 a o 2 >> — "o •a - M J it H 1 =. i s o .2I «-. 4 "» .- -3 3 >> * . ■; 3 a >^ ^ c. ."Ta »"5 I - •= 2 S U s L^ 3 •3 s ^A i* 3) 1 s5 > Dollars. o hN Dollars. H Dollars. Dollars. Dnllars. Dollars. Dollars. Benton . . 32".,9ii7 2,188,749 551,492 ,303,097 4,894.000 877,864 234,820 3,765,200 Clackamas ;!()i,rK><) 2,241,418 500,970 309,913 4,544,258 1,375,011 354,777 2,842,409 CMntsop . . 123.%- 1,995,777 2,.591,047 217,209 7,002,483 l,04O„58O 74,928 4.101,328 (^oluiubiii . 21'J.5G7 627,360 37.580 179,915 1 ,249,837 168,046 131,137 850,654 Coos .... 291,iK)3 1,292,892 335,033 243,884 2,015,875 389,001 249,549 1,976,705 Curry . . . 93,;te0 331,270 12,155 125,543 663,777 107,053 64,775 489,949 Douglas . . 47i),3?T 179.44.1 212.ia') 489,205 4 208.975 1,128,655 298,010 2,781,710 Jackson . . 192.371 l,ir)2,693 2'.'-2,441 318,761 3,23.5,317 686,971 271,708 2,254,557 Jostphine . 76,81'J 393,130 ].>9,fi20 112,231 1.238,665 210.840 105,571 9: 0,251 Lane . . . 4f)().'J((ri 2,783,981 920,807 006,943 6,009,,577 1,292,192 515.062 4,802,323 Liini . . . 4(>3,()r)() 4,7.")6,421 908,463 r)O0,132 7,89- ,211 1,791,3,57 405,349 5,029,813 Marion . . 39(1.037 4 413,380 1,4SS.9(S .5? 1,058 9,2U9,269 2,370,529 521,311 0,317,429 Mnltiioma!) ir>8..1l)2 6,.17I,S10 16,038,970 IV 8,1 85 40.099,000 10,170.500 213,770 29.084,670 Polk .... 233,27o 1,874,000 50,790 321,700 3,937,689 1,017 250 253,925 2,006,514 Tillamook . 99.011 485.094 30,8-15 112,153 840,351 163,107 93,:">01 583,593 WasliingloM Yamhill. . 2.")9,r)(i2 2,934,615 236,9.55 3(i6,595 4,890,130 1,217,025 382,535 3,290.570 1,811,121 2,»H0,285 99,845 431,277 6,122,014 1,719,937 357,206 3 972,871 m 1;. j II' ('; ii -'M i;i n' mmmmm 124 ATLANTIS ARISEN. The amount of mortgages recorded against property in Multnomah County is $3,626,730 ; Benton, 8202,438 ; Clackamas, 6423,076 ; Marion, $939,403, and Polk, $294,164. CHAPTEE X. :}! WHAT I SAW IN SOUTHERN OREGON. The southern division of Western Oregon is separated from the Wallamet Valley by a range of low mountains known as the Calapooyas. Crossing this divide, we enter the Umpqua Valley, or series of valleys, constituting Douglas County, named after Stephe 1 A. Douglas, and extending from the Cascade Eange, in the direction of the Umpqua River, to the ocean, containing an extent of territory greater than any county of its age in the State, notwithstanding its boundaries have several times been altered. It covers an area of four thousand square miles. It was a clear, sharp, October morning, when I first left Eugene to go down into Southern Oregon. As the stage rattled out of town in the direction of the Umpqua, I took a last, lingering look at the fair, level valley we were leaving; at the encircling hills of russet-color, dotted with bits of green, in groups of oaks or pines; of Spencer's Butte, with its sharp, dark-tinted cone ; and of the blue Cascades, now purpling under the morning sunrise. From the most distant mountains, light- gray mists were rising ; in the middle distance was a purple interval ; on the nearer hills, rich, j^ellovv sunlight. The orb of day was not yet high enough to shine on the hither side of the peaks behind which he was mounting. They stood in their own shadow, and let his slant beams bridge the valleys between their royal heights, until they rested on the humbler foot-hills among which we were wending our way, and touched with a golden radiance the yellow leaves of the m.aples or silvered the ripples in the Wallamet water. Such gorgeousness of color never shone, out of the tropics, as the vine-maple, ash, and white-maple display, along the streams in this part of Oregon. I had thought them bright, glowing. WHAT I SAW IX SOUTHERN OREGON. 125 radiant, on the Columbia and Lower Wallamot j but nowhere had I found thorn so brilliant as at the head of the Wallamet Valley. And, as we afterwards ascertained, this is nearly the southern limit of the beautiful vine-maple. It was almost in vain that we looked for its scarlet-flaming thickets fifty miles farther south, and at a hundred miles it had disappeared from the landscape altogether. The Umpqua Valley, which I could imagine in its June iiash- ness, was now sere with the long drought of a rainless summer. The road, however, for some distance, led through the Calapooya Mountains, and the goi'ge of a creek, where the thick woods, in places, quite excluded the sun, — almost the light of day. Bright as the weather was, and dr^ as the autumn had been, there was shadow, coolness, and moisture here, among ihe thick-standing, giant trees, the underwood, and the ferns and mo.sses. A very pleasant ride on such a morning, but one which might bo ex- ceedingly uncomfortable in the vainy season, though never an uninteresting one. Dry as was the valley beyond, it was still beautiful, one so soon learns to admire the soft coloring of these arid countries, — the pale russet hues of the valleys, the neutral tints in rocks and fences, the quiet dark-green of the forests, and the clear, pale, unclouded blue of the heavens. The expression of these landscapes is that of soft roposc. Nature herself seems resting, and it is no reproach to man that he, too, forgets to work, and only dreams. But the men of this period ai'e not dreamers. Even in the sacredest haunts of Nature, they plot business and talk railroad ! I certainly thought railroad, as ray eyes wandered over this beautiful, but isolated valley. But that was in a time now half forgotten, so rapidly do conditions change in this Northwest empire. No longer without connection Avith the outside world, the Umpqua Valley is emerging from its former condition of a gi'azing and wool-growing region, and commencing to develop its abundant resources. Unlike the Wallamot, it has no great extent of level prairie-land bordering the river from which it takes its name, but is a rolling countr}'-, a perfect jumble of small valleys and intervening ridges ; the valleys prairies, nnd the hills wooied with fir on top, but generally bare, or dotted with 126 ATLANTIS ARISEN. ;;l '\ lit i:;- i (..: mm ; 11 ■, oak, on their \or\g grassy slopes. It is a sort of country whoi'c a man may seem to have a little world to himself; owning mountains, hills, plains, and water-courses, or at least springs of water, and neither overlooked by nor at any great distance from a neighbor. Douglas Count}', extending from the Cascade Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, with a seaport of its own, is in area more like a State than a simple division of one. Its climate differs from that of the VVallamet as much as, by reason of its more southern latitude, greater elevation, and mingling of sea-breeze Avith mountain air, it might be expected to. The result is salubrity and productiveness. Its prairies are adapted to wheat and all cereals ; its creek-bottoms to Indian corn, melons, and vegetables : its foothills to fruit-raising; and its uplands to grazing. The same general variety of timber grows here as in the Walla- met Valley, and a few kinds in addition. The evergreen myrtle is a fine cabinet wood not found in Northern Oregon; the wild plum and wild grape also grow here; and the splendid Rhodo- dendron maximum is a tall shrub, bearing a wealth of deep rose- colored clusters of great beauty. The botany of the country is very rich. Game abounds in the mountains, fish in the streams. I saw, in October, apple- and pear-trees with a new set of blos- soms, some of the fruit having grown as large as a gooseberry. In considering Douglas County, it must be taken into account that the valleys are separated from the most western portion by the Coast Eange, and that the mountains extend within a distance of forty or fifty miles of the sea. The passage of the river through the mountains is a turbulent one, and the scenery highly romantic and alpine in its character; therefore the pre- vious remarks on agricultural possibilities do not apply equally to this portion of the county. But taken altogether its re- sources are numerous, including fruit-raising, dairying, agricul- ture, stock-raising, wool-growing, lumbering, gold-mining, coal, oil, limestone, marble, sandstone, salt-springs, sulphur- and soda- springs, salmon- and oyster-fishing, and the last disoovory is natural-gas. In 1880 Douglas County shipped, it is said, one million pounds of wool, and sold twenty-seven thousand sheep to Nevada farmers. The population claimed is between thirteen thousand and fourteen thousand. WHAT I SAW IN SOUTHERN OREGON. 127 The first town deserving any notice from the tcftirist is Drain, situated just where the railroad emerges from the Pass Creek cafion through the Cahvpooya Mountains, joining Elk Creek, a hranch of the Umpq'ui Eiver. This place, founded iwclve or fifteen years ago by Mr. Drain, an old resident of the county, and a wliilom State legislator, was for a long time only a station where passengers for Seottsburg, on the west side of the Coast Eange, took stage for the rough but enjoyable journey across iho mountains. And here I cannot refrain from sa^'ing that I think travel suffers greatly from the levelling infiuence of railroads. There is nothing in the traveller's rapid transit by the straightest route, through the lowest passes, across the outskirts of nature and of cities, confined to a seat which you may not have chosen, and in pi'opinquity with (perhaps) ver}' undesirable fellow-travel- lers, eating unwholesome!/, and sleeping uncomfoitably, to com- ])ensate one for liberty to choose his route, to breathe unpolluted air, to " take his ease in his inn" when he chooses, sleeping and eating in comfort. It is all very well for the demands of com- merce to be satisfied in this w^ay, but travel— why, ofie does not travel: le is snatched and tossed from place to place wiohout having enjoyed one of the foremost purposes of travel, which is to gain health, jjleasure, and instruction. Railroads ai'e great civilizers ; but they also need to be civilised in some directions. The ride from Drain to >Scottsburg furnishes all the delights to be gathered from a magnificent forest, alpine heights, awful declivities, glimpses of a rapid river dashing itself over rocky obstructions, the balsamic odors of the Avoods, pure stimulating air, social converse, an hour for your dinner, and a friendly inn at your journey's end. We are promised that all this, or much of it, is to be changed in a year or two by a railroad f, u.n Drain to the ocean, by a new route, and with new towns along it. Glasgow and Reedville are two which are not yet to be found on the maps. Seottsburg, situated at the head of tide-water, was named for Levi Scott, its founder, in 1850. A military road once connected it with the interior, but the great flood oi' 18(51-62 washed away the road and a large pai't of Seottsburg, since which it has steadily declined. An attempt was made to render the river i! MM m Mm ■m 128 ATLANTIS ARISEN. M ,,|a 11 navigable, and a light-draught steamer was built to run up to Eoseburg, but after one trip the enterprise was abandoned. The town is situated in a narrow defile on the north bank of the river, while on the south side the mountains rise abruptly to a gi*eat height, and the whole aspect of the place is as Swiss as anything could be in America. Eighteen miles below Scottsbarg is Gardiner, named for Cap- tain Gardiner of the '' Bostonian," a vessel wrecked at the en- trance of the river in 1850. It was founded by a San Francisco company in 1851. Of that company, two were afterwards gov- ernors of Oregon, — A. C. Gibbs and S. P. Chadwick. Gardiner was the scat of a customs-collection ofiice for several years, but is now simply a milling-town; A salmon-cannery on the south bank of the river puts up the late run of fish in the Umpqua. From Gardiner to the sea, about eight miles, the countiy is a sand}' plain. During the Indian wars in Southern Oregon, Fort Umpqua was established on the north bank, between Gardiner and the ocean, but was long ago abandoned. Here General Auger was stationed during his ante-bellum experience. The mouth of the Umpqua has not a very good reputation as a harbor, many vessels having been wrecked in this vicinity, and only those in the lumber ti'ade go in and out. The gov- ernment in the days of Generul Lane's delegateship erected a light-house at the entrance of the river, but upon a sandy founda- tion, and, when the rains came and the floods fell and the winds beat upon it, it fell, and has never been replaced. And here it may be justly affirmed that the government has been remiss ; for there are but four light-houses on the Oregon coast south of the Columbia Eiver, — namely, at Tillamook Head ; Capo Fouhveather, near Yaquina Bay ; Cape Arago, near Coos Bay ; and at Cape Blanco, near Port Oxford. The capacity of vessels entering the Umpqua for lumber is from six hundred and twenty-five to seventeen hundred nd fifiy tons, and their draught twelve to fifteen feet. The exports from Umpqua River for the j-ear last past amounted to 28,926.8 tons, consisting chiefly of lumber and laths, the remainder being in grain, wool, leather (from a tannery at Scottsburg), hides and furs, and dairy products. The import in machinery and general merchandise was fifteen hundred tons. WHAT I SAW IX SOUTHERN OREGOX. 129 The Siuslaw (pronounced Si-wse-law) River, which separates Douglas from Lane County, has an entrance which might be improved, with a good harbor inside. The present channel is tortuous and shifting, with six feet at low water, but it is pos- sible to carry a ten-foot depth nearly to the head of tide, a dis- tance of twenty miles, and it will probably be so improved in the near future. There are large bodies of excellent timber on this bay which would then bo available. A project is already on foot to build a rai'-'oad to the Wallamet Valley whenever the government makes desired improvement of the bar and channel. There is reported a fine country on the upper Siuslaw. The river scenery from Gardiner to Scottsburg strongly re- sembles that of the Columbia, though on a much smaller scale. The river is in places very shallow, being almost quite inter- rupted by bars of rock, which engineering is busy removing. Returning to Drain's wo find just beyond here Mount Yoncalla (Eagle-bird, in the Indian tongue), a point of interest. It was for nearly forty years the home of the grandest of those/* men of destiny," as he himself named them, who, in 1843, opened a road for wagons from the Missouri to the Wallamet Valley, — Jesse Applegate, " the sage of Yoncalla." The mansion where he dispensed wisdom and a free hospitality is given up to strangers, and the places that knew him shall know him no more. Douglas County has two Methodist academies, one at Oak- land, on a branch of the Umpqua about fifteen miles south of Yoncalla. and another at Wilbur, ten miles farther south. Both are charming locations. Oakland is Arcadian in beauty, its groves and natural park-like scenery being ideally " academic." The North Pork of the Umpqua is to bo dammed at Win- chester, a short distance from Oalcland, and a large woollen-mill to be erected there, which it is expected will be followed by other manufactories. Roseburg, originally Deer Creek, the present county-seat of Douglas, and named after its founder, Aaron Rose, has a popu- lation of two thousand five hundred. It is the gem of the Umpqua Valley, resting upon the river Umpqua, where it is a fine large stream bounded by beautiful park-like oak openings. Nothing could be finer than the sweep of the river as it comes % 130 ^.TLANTIS ARISEN. from the south, the railroad on one side, and teeming gardens and attractive houses on the other. A handsome bridge spans it in the centre of the town. Roseburg, like Drain, is to have a railroad to the sea. i- 1 !:S: ! { V I ■ I i I I! 4 I-! , .^ ;^ ■ • ■ ' . ■ , • ■ - - '! .' a ' I ^ , ■" ■ ■.!.' ■ - • -'^ •■. *^ • ;■'- : . '■ ., . •r ■. "im . . r ■ • . f ^ I • : ■ ■■■• ■-■•.^i ■ ■ ■ .-. *>• ■;--'. ' ' ■'..;• jttni^^^^^^i^ ^y^K - ^^^gll H B||K^^^>|^PI^^ H H|H ^^H 1 1 1 ROSEBURG. Proceeding south through a charming country to the Myrtle Creek Hills, the scenery at this place strongly suggests Harper's Ferry, without its costly improvements. Soon we enter the caflon of Cow Creek, a wild and wonderful pass, rendered his- toric in the winter of 1889-90 by the blockade of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which lasted for more than a month. This remarkable obstruction to travel was occasioned by a combina- tion of causes, but primarily by the construction of the road itself through the caflon, and the cutting away the foundation, so to speak, of the steep hill-side where it occurred. Cow Creek is a pure mountain stream, from fifty to a hundred feet in width, not very deep at its usual stage, but very crooked, the rugged points around which it makes its sharp turns neces- sitating frequent tunnels. As the caiion is narrow, the road had to be cut along the mountain-side at a height sufficient to WHAT I SAW IN SOUTHERN OREGON. 131 Ml I insure it from inundation in seasons of freshet. The pass is forty-five miles in length, with a fall of from seventy to one hundred and twenty feet to the mile. Even in the best of order, with the finest weather, one is conscious of a feeling of inse- curity as one side of the train looks down on nothing nearer than the river-bed, and the other seems ever just missing the projecting rocks. Now you dash across a bridge, and anon you dart into a tunnel. But last winter (I think it was in February) the thing hap- pened, — not the one we were looking for, — it is always the un- expected which happens, — something which might have been the most appalling accident in railway history occurred. More than a hundred acres of earth, softened and loosened, with its lower side cut away, rushed down upon the railroad, completely burjnng a section of track, obliterating a tunnel, and forcing itself one hundred and fifty foet up the opposite mountain, effect- ually damming the river between. Eails twisted and doubled up, with ties, tools, wagons, bridges, and shops, were carried up the mountain-side. The river being dammed formed a lake above from twenty to one hundred and fifty feet in depth, which, however, soon forced a passage for itself, when the accu- mulated waters, in a wall seventy-five feet high, roared down the rocky chasm with race-horse speed, carrying trees, earth, and stones upon their hissing crest. A lake a mile and a half in length and sixty feet deep still remains as a memento of this startling occurrence. Not ten minutes before the slide plunged down, a freight-train passed the spot. Fan*^ i- as on and asks, What if a passenger-train had been hurled across the river, or had been imprisoned in the tunnel ? Imagine archaeologists a thou- sand years hence, when people travel with wings, and railways are a thing of the past, exploring and coming upon such an im- prisoned train, or even upon the buried tunnel, — what specula- tions t I used to think this when my eyes beheld, painted all along the rocky cuts of the Hudson Kiver Eailroad, the caba- listic letters I. X. L. : what would the scientists say in the year 5000, when cosmic dust had buried New York and its surround- ings out of sight, about the meaning of these characters? The railroad has been rebuilt for a long distance on the opposite side of the river. I ( iU%i '^ 132 ATLANTIS ARISEN. II From Glondule, at tho south end of Cow Creuk Caflon, wo travel south, past tho historic localities of Wolf, Lolaiid, and Junip-off-Joe Creeks, scenes of »tru<^glo between the aboriginal and the imported inhal)itants of the country in "the fifties ;'" jiast the Lucky Queen mining-camp, between the last two streams, to Grant's Pass, so named from an opening in the Coast Range said to have been occupied at some time by Captain — afterwards General —Grunt. This town is in Josephine County, situated on Rogue River, and is a creation of the Oregon and California Railroad. In 1883 it contained a single habitation — Dimmick's — on the old road from Portland to Sacramento. In that year it was laid o' in town lots by some far-seeing speculator, and proved so g( a location that today it is the seat of government of Josephine County, with a population of three thousand, and growing in- dustries, chiefly manufactures in wood, this being the centre of the su^ar-pine district. There are twenty saw-mills within a radius of as many miles, and in the town are sash-, door-, and sliingle-factories, breweries, a broom- and a paint-factory. The railroad also has its car-shops and round-house here ; and among the improvements under way are an iron bridge over the river, an electric-light plant, a water-works system, and several sub- stantial brick blocks. A railroad is already projected from here to Crescent City, California, eightj'-seven miles, and thence down the coast to Eureka in that State. Such a road would make this a distributing point for Southern Oregon, and would greatly reduce the high freight rates which have heretofore prevailed in this section of Oregon. There were shipped from here over the Southern Pacific in 1889, 100 car-loads of choice watermelons, 73 of cantaloupes, 82 of sweet potatoes, 87 of peaches, 830 of apples, 11 of nectarines, 19 of grapes, 18,000 pounds of almonds, 32,000 pounds of prunes, 48 car-loads of hops, 36 of broom-corn, 113 of gold-quartz worth sixty-five dollars per ton, $285,000 worth of gold-dust, and 1878 car-loads of sugar-pine lumber and manufactured wood- work. The ship, ments extended north to Seattle, and south to Los Angeles. Land is not yet held high in this county, nor indeed in any part of Southern Oregon ; and there is a good deal still open to entry, and a vast amount of railroad lands, ranging from two dollars WHAT I SAW IN SOUTHERN OREGON. 133 and fifty cents to twenty dollars per acre, which is yot to bo settled. Thiw tells the story of the resources of this part of Oregon as far as developed. No wheat or cereals, — it wonld cost too much to ship them to the sea-board ; no minerals except gold quartz, — they are not mined or nuuiufuctured for a similar reason. Nothing against the soil or climate, but everything against the transportation, or the lack of it. It is time that Southern Oregon sought shorter and cheaper routes to markets. I was shown a potato in Rogue River Valley which weighed seven pounds ! It was one of a lot of twenty whoso aggregate weight was one hundred and on<' pounds, and the crop of which they were a part matured without either rain or irrigation, on land that had been planted to potatoes for twenty-eight consecu- tive years. The owner expected forty thousand pounds from one acre. This was near Grant's Pass. Another farmer near Ashland reported thirty thousand pounds of potatoes to the acre. None of my readers are likely to believe this, but it is true. The Oregon and California, or, as it is now called, the Southern Pacific Railroad, from Gleiidale to Grant's Pass runs just inside the eastern boundary-line of Josephine County, a large jiortion of which is still unsurveyed. It is here that it strikes Rogue or Rascal River, so named by the fur-hunters of the Hudson's Bay Companj'-, who had, as well as later travellers, many a skirmish to effect a crossing, the Indians lying in wait for them at the ford. The name, applied to the natives and the stream, became attached to the valley. Rogue River rises in the Cascade Mountains and courses southwest and west to Grant's Pass, where it runs northwest, and again southwest, receiving the Illinois River, which drains Josephine County, about twenty miles from the sea. Rogue River Valley, embracing all the country drained by that river and its numerous tributaries, is an aggregation of smaller valleys, divided by rolling hills, the whole encircled by elevated moun- tain ranges. The river is not navigable for any great distance from the sea, but abounds in rapids and falls, furnishing abun- dant power for manufacturing purposes. It is a stream of un- surpassed beauty, with water as blue as the sky, and banks overhung in some places with shaggy cliffs, and in others with thickets of wild grape-vines and blossoming shrubs. V^'i J'li • iii It ( I fiil 1 1 »*-*w**-w#« Mi A n 134 ATLANTIS ARiSEN. II-: li'i 3ii M It is not claimed that there is as great an amount of rich alluvial soil in this section of Oregon as in the valleys north of it. It is rather more elevated, drier. and 02i the whole more adapted to grazing than to the growth of cereals. Still, there is enough of rich land to supply its own p')pulation, however dense; and for fruit-growing no better soil need be looked for. A sort of compromise between the dryness of California and the moisture of Northern Oregon and Washington, — warmei" than the lattex*, from its more southern latitude, yet not too warm, by reason of its altitude, — the climate of this valley renders it most desirable. Midway between San Fr-incisco Bay and the Columbia Eiver, what with its own fi-uitfulness, and the productions cf the Wallamet and Sacramento Valleys on cither hand, within a few hours by railway carriage, the mar- kets of the Ecgue River Valley can bo freshly supplied with both temperate and semi-tropical luxuries. The grape, peach, apricot, and nectarine, which are cultivated with difficulty in the Wallamet Valley, thrive excellently in this more high and southern location. The creek-bottoms pro- duce Indian corn, tobacco, and vegetables equally veil; and tho, more ele"\ted plateaux produce wheat of excellent "quality and large quantity, where they have been cultivated : still, as before stated, this valley is commonly understood to be a stock- raising, fruit, and wool-growing country, — perhaps because that kind of farming is at once easy and lucrative, and because so good a market for fruit, beef, mutton, bacon, and dairy products has always existed in the mines of this valley and California. Rogue River ValJoy during a period of about twelve yeai's was the scene of active and px'ofitable placer-mining, after which for an equal term the mines were abandoned to the Chinese ; but in later years mining has revived, and seyeral companies are realizing good returns from investments in mining ditches and quartz leads. The other minerals kuov/n to exist in this region are copper, cinnabar, lead, iron, coal, granite, limestono, kaolin, and marble. The latter is of very fine quality, white, exceedingly hard, and translucent. Like every part of Oregon, this valley has it? mineral springs, its trout-streams, game, and abundance of pure soft water. No local causes of disease exist here, and it is hard to conceive of a WHAT I SAW IX SOUTHERN OREGON. 135 country more naturally beautiful and agreeable than this. The forest is confined to the mountains and hill-sides, and is not so dense as towards the Columbia. Rogue River Valley is divided irto throe counties, — Jackson, Josephine, and Cuny. Jackson Couniy was created January 12, 1852, and Josephine was cut off from it in January, 1856. The name of the former does not refer, as one might suppose, to the deity of good Democrats, but to Jackson the discoverer of the mines on Jackson Creek, after whom Jacksonville, the county-seat, was also named. Jackson was the owner of a pack-train which transported provisions to the mines, who being encamped at this place made himself and the locality suddenly famous by his discovery. For many years the town enjoyed a good trade ; but Jacksonville lost its opportunity when it permitted the Oregon and California Railroad to pass by on the other side. Medford, a few miles to the northeast, is on the railroad, and takes away the trade that formerly went to Jacksonville, which is now trying to recover it by building a branch road to Medford, which has about two thousand inhabitants. Ashland, one of the prettiest towns in Oregon, has, on the contrary, profited by being upon the line of communication be- tween two great States, and is prosperous. It was settled in 1852 by J. A. Card well, E. Emery, and David Hurley, who, being fro' Ashland, Ohio, named the place after their old home. It is located where Stuart Creek comes dancing down from the foot-hills of the Cascades, off ring abundance of water-power, and where the view over' tV,.) whole of Rogue River Valley is delightsome. Its manufuci ires are lumber, flour, and woollen goods. The populadbn of Ashland is about three thousand, and thevo are over a dozfen smaller towns in the county, the population of which is fifteen thousand. Josephine County, named after Josephine Rollii ,, daughter of the discoverer of gold on the creek also named after her, differs somewhat from Jackson County in being at once more broken and more near the sea, which circumstances modify its climate and its resources. The latter have been chiefly confined to mining products, gold, silver, and copper being found here, 1 iTii m ■liwuiiMmiiii 'i 136 ATLANTIS ARISEN. 1:1 H! ■ '!' but only gold being profitably mined, on account of the inac- cessibility of this portion of Oregon previous to the opening of raih'oad transportation. For the same reason, and owing also to the shifting nature of the population, agriculture has been neglected. Yet this is a lovely country, of grand mountains and quiet, fertile valleys lying between grassy slopes, with oak groves like old orchards dotting their sides, and open woods of the noble sugar-pine, where the balmy air is laden with the perfume of sweet violets, with abundant wild fruits, and flowers in every sheltered nook. •• It is," said a lady to me, " a paradist of beauty, where, if one had one's friends, life would be wholly delightful." Yet it is one of the most sparsely-settled portions of the State, and its whole taxable property is valued at little over one million dollars. Kirbyville, founded in 1852 by one Kirby, a prospector, was formerly the county-seat, but Grant's Pass has superseded it. Besides this, there are eight or ten other mining-camps, the whole population of which is not more than three thousand. About thirty miles south of Grant's Pass, in the Siskiyou Mountains, are the recently discovered Josephine County Caves. Elijah Davidson, of Williams Creek, was the discoverer, having followed a bear to Its lair in the lower of the two caves. They are situated on the steep side of a mountain, and the last ten miles of the thirty are over a narrow trail. The entrance to either is about eight feet wide, and high enough to admit a maii standing upright. From the entrance of the upper cave the floor inclines somewhat, and it soon be- comes necessary to descend by a ladder to a passage averaging eight feet in diameter either way, but having many projections and contractions in its course. The first chamber entered has a height of ten feet, and its walls and roof are brilliant with stalactites. The passage from chamber to chamber is often extremely difficult. Pools of water are met with ; and many passages remain unexplored, days being required to transverse all that are seen to exist. The lower cave has no stalactite formations, but is filled with immense rocks piled one upon auothi^r, i-equiring long ladders to surmount. A stream of cold, clear water flows from it, and also a stream of cold air. • . , , , WHAT I SAW IN SOUTHERN OBEGON. 137 The devil is always credited with an interest in remarkable places, which is a direct compliment to his royal nibs ; at least 80 it appears to me. The JosepLiine Caves are no exception to the rule, but have in the upper one a Devil's Banquet Hall, seventy -five by a hundred and fifty feet, and sixtj^ feet in height. It is decorated with huge rocks suspend jd from the coiling ap- pearing ready to fall at a breath ; black cavities yawn in the distance; impish shadows haunt unexplored recesses ; over the floor are spread rocks great and small ; and so, pei'haps, after all, i', is well enough to resign the proprietorship of so unlovely a place to His Satanic Majesty ; especially since there are bright and dazzling chambers, and pools and water-falls, more to our taste in other parts of this wonder-house of nature. Curry County, named after George L. Curry, who was gov- ernor of Oregon when it was organized, — that is, in 1855, — is the coast division of the Rogue Hiver Valley, and, having no transportation, except by pack-train or wagon, over the difficult mountain passes, has, althr^ jh highly productive, made small progress in population and m volopment. Only a small porticm of the county is surveyed. It8 vMluatinii i.s j. laced at ab^i one million dollars, and its population at aot more than two thou- sand. Lumbering and salmon-pacUing an; its principal indus- tries. Eilensburgh was made the county-seat in 1858. Port Orford is the seaport of Curry County and the u holo Rogue River Valley, so far as Oregon is concernod; although Crescent City in California was the actual port in use in early mining limes, supplies being carried from that harbor over the mountains to Yreka, and again over the Siskiyou R ge into this valley by mule-trains. This picturesque feau jf mining life has disappeared, when at the head of a procession of long- eared, neat-footed burden-bearers the " bell-mare" tinkled her silvery commands to her followers as they climbed the rocky steeps or wound through devious mountain defiles. Not in- frequently the cloud of dust raised by the train gave informa- tion to the dusky foe, and the ambush was prepared where the trail led down a steep grade through a narrow pass, or across a stream that must bo forded. There the unlucky muleteers were put to death or to flight and the train confiscated. When the Pacific Mail Steamship Company used to run fl^ I f fit 111! IN IMS l«s ,,' ;1 J m 138 ATLANTIS ARISEN. i ■ ■i ■ I I' steamers to Portland under their contract with the government, they were required to carry the mail to Gardiner on the Umpqua River, but, one of their steamers being in danger of being lost on the bar, Captain Tichenor was instructed to look for another port on the coast where passengers • and mail for Southern Oregon could bo safely landed. In June, 1851, he put ashore at Port Orford nine pioneers under the command of J. M. Kirk- patrick, together with arms, tools, and provisions, and proceeded on his voyage, leaving the party to make such improvements as they could. The Indians gathered near in alarming numbers, and the men fortified themselves on a high rock that sloped to the sea, having dragged up to their fort a four-pound cannon. On the second day a war-dance was held by the natives whose •'hej,th" was being thus invaded. After working themselves up to a proper degree of courage the warriors advanced on the work3, the foremost one endeavoring to wrest a gun from the hands of Kirkpatrick, who instead of giving up his arms seized a firebrand and touched off the cannon, the charge doing execu- tion upca six of the assailants. The Indians sent a shower of arrows among the white men, wounding four of the nine. The skirmish lasted about fifteen minutes, during which six more Indians were killed, when they retreated. The party was then unable to perform the most important part of their duty, which was to explore a road to the interior, and after five days, the enemy appearing to be preparing for another attack, which they were not in a condition to resist, they watched for an opportu- nity and took to flight under cover ol' the night and the forest. On the Coquille River, which, with ( 'oos River, they discovered, they were near being confronted by a village of Indians, but avoided them, and were in hiding two days, with only some berries for food. Arrived at the Co an River, the natives assisted them to cross, and on the eighth day they reached the settlements on the Umpqua. The "Seagull" on her next trip to Portland called at Fort Oi'ford and landed forty men, who, finding the place deserced, and evidences of a struggle manifest, believed the first party to be all killed, and so reported. But the steamer on the return voyage brought thirty recruits from Portland, headed by one > en Z r- > z . n TCr U i i 'i'' 1 ( ; JB m WHAT I SAW IN SOUTHEKN OREGON. 139 T' Vault, a man famous among the pioneers of Oregon. This T' Vault headed a company to explore a road into the Eogue Biver settlements east of the mountains, and in August they set out ; but, becoming discouraged by ihe hardships of the trip, all but nine of the company returned to Port Orford. The remain- der kept on, bi! t finally became lost and entangled in the tropical jungles of the Joast Eange, coming at last to the Coquille, which one of the party, who had been in the first flight to the Umpqua, recognized. This showed to them that they were nearing the coast instead of the valley, and determined them to keep on to the Umpqua settlemeats. While crossing the Coquille they were attacked, and again four of the nine were killed. The remain- ing five, including T'Vault, reached Umpqua after six days of wandering, subsisting on berries in the woods and mussels on the coast. All were more or less wounded. One Hedden, who had been in the first fight, escaped with slight injury. In run- ning from the furious attack of the Indians the party became separate'^ * young man named Williams, whom we met at AshlaT\d, xiile being pursued was shot through by an arrow which was broken off in his abdomen, where it remained four years before it came out, without surgery. The history of Southern Oi'egon is a nearly endless chronicle of these personal conflicts with the native nobilitv of the country. I confess in this public manuti- that I am not a wori*hipper of the Indian, and I declare that, even admitting one Alessandro to be possible (which he is not), he would be one adorable character among a thousand devils of his race. Yet there are examples of a rude courage, partaking of the nature of frantic bravery, which one must admire. One of these savage heroes was Rogue R'ver John, a chief of that tribe. After the conquest of the Indians, and their confinement on a reservation in Northern Oregon, he was banished to Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay, for stirring up rebellion among his people. On the way to San Francisco, when the steamship was off Crescent City, he, with his son, attempted to take the ship, with the intention of swim- ming ashore and regaining their former homes. One or two persons were wounded in the affray, but the chief's son suffered most, receiving a wound in the struggle which caused the loss of a leg. They were put in irons and were captives at Alcatraz i i 1 HI ^1 140 ATLANTIS ARISEN. tt ih' for some time, but finally were permitted to return to the reserva- tion, where the chief died a few years later. Port Orford has been selected for a harbor of refuge for this part of the coast, and an appropriation of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars has been secured to commence the work. Curry County is well supplied with game and fish. Its splendid cedar forests are worth more than gold-mines to whomsever will con- vert them into lumbei*. Cedars from three to eight feet in diam- eter and with not a limb on them for a hundred feet grow here. Here sea-fogs keep vegetation forever green, and miasmatic diseases are unknown. The residents of the valleys would like to live upon the coast, were it not for the mountains which divide it from their fertile prairies. Yet it is by these mountains the climate is rendered what it is, —partially confining the fogs and winds to the coast, making this section cool and moist, and the interior warm and dry. EUensburgh, situated at the mouth of Rogue River, is famous for stirring scenes in the Indian war of 1855-56. It was at the mouth of Rogue River that a camp of volunteers, a company of settlers, and the Indian agent, Ben. Wright, were surprised and massacred. Wright was killed, and his heart cut out and eaten by his Indian wife and her people. The reason given by this unchristianized Ramona for this repast was that her husband had a big (good and brave) heart, and that (on the accepted principle that a part helps a part, as we say when we eat calves' brains), herself and tribe would be made more courageous by it. There are various myths extant about this same Ben. Wright. B}' some he is represented as an illitei'ate, bad man, with a record shocking to civilized sensibilities. It is said he deliber- ately poisoned a large number of Pit Rivor and Modoc Indians whom he had invited to a council at Modoc or Tule Lake. By others he is spoken of as a sort of Spanish caballero, riding a glossy black horse, wearing the fringed buckskin suit, red sash, broad-brimmed hat, and jingling spurs of the gente de razon of California. It is said he had handsome features, fine dark eyes, and wore his black hair long. Investigation seems to prove that he was a Philadelphian b}^ birth, of a good familj', who was drawn to the Pacific coast bj' the gold-mines, who dug gold on the Klamath River and about Jacksonville. In 1852 there WHAT I SAW IN SOUTHERN OREGON. 141 was a great slaughter of immigrants by the Indians about Tule Lalce, and, a company being raised to go to the assistance of a beleaguered train the handsome and popular Philadelphian was chosen captain. The immigrants were relieved, and the volun- teers under Wright patrolled the dangerous part of the road for sevci'al weeks until all had passed. Manj' harrowing inci- dents were connected with the murder and captivity of women, which stirred the manly blood of Wright and his comrades, and doubtless the quality of their mercy would have been rather strained had it been appealed to. But it was not. The Modocs had laid a trap to catch the volunteers and prevent their getting out of the country, which being discovered, Wright turned the tables on his would-be slayers, and prevented their getting back to their fastnesses in the Lava Beds. But this had nothing whatever to do with his death a few years later. The government had appointed him to act as its agent with the Chetcoe and other coast tribes, and be was doing all any agent could do for them when they killed him. The settlers who escaped the massacre at the mouth of Rogue River took refuge in a blockhouse erected a short time before, except a fugitive who escaped to Port Orford, where a corporal's guard of troops were stationed, whom the Port Orford people would not permit to leave had they so wished. Word htid to be sent to San Francisco, where troops were arriving on their way to protect the interior of Rogue River Valley. In the month which intervened between the commencement of the siege of the block-house and the arrival of the troops, great privation and suffering were endured, and several lives were lost in making sorties to procure potatoes fi'om a field, or milk from a cow for the starving children. In the mean time and before the army reached Crescent City, a part of the few inhabitants of that place, commiser- ating the condition of the Rogue River men, if living, deter- mined to discover their needs, and reinforce them, if possible. They proceeded up the coast as far as Pistol River, whore they were attacked by the Pistol Indians and forced to defend them- selves in a hastily-constructed log-pen, where Colonel Buchanan found them when he came marching up the same trail, and soundly berated them for meddling in military matters, of .1 '« t I ,1; i I I 1 b ■^ -yf 1 I 1 r iBhrite^' i;i 142 ATLANTIS ARISEN. which they know nothing! It is not singular, everything con- sidered, that Indian philanthropists are so rare among the border people. The county of Coos, on the coast, is not a part of either the Umpqua or the Rogue River Valleys. It is a basin drained by the C'oquille and Coos Rivers, which have many tributaries, and when well developed will prove to be one of the wealthiest divisions of Oregon. Coos is not an Indian name, the natives calling their river Cowes. I have already spoken of the dis- covery of this region by the fugitives from Port Orford. Cape Arago, at the entrance to the bay at the mouth of Coos River, was named by Spanish navigators, who probably also saw the Coquillc, for they described it felicitously, comparing it to the rivers of Aragon for beauty, and also for similarity of the trees and shrubs growing upon its banks. Soon after the Port Orford affair, in 1852, a small schooner, bound to the Umpqua River, entered Coos Bay by mistake, and remained there for several weeks, looking for the settlements, and in great fear of the Indians. Their plight was discovered by the Umpqua Indians, who informed the inhabitants of Gar- diner, when they sent a pilot to bring the voyagers to their intended haven. In 1853, P. B. Marple, of Jackson County, explored the Co- quille Valley, and organized a company of forty men to settle on Coos Bay. Gold-mining on the coast began soon after at Randolph, near the mouth of Coquille, and a seaport town grew up rapidly on Coos Bay, called Empire City, which became the seat of government of Coos County, organized in December, 1853, and is the port of entry for the district of Southern Oregon. It has a small population, while Marshfield, four miles farther up the bay, and founded a little later, by J. C. Tolman, is a place of considerable importance, with a thriving trade. Between the two is the lumbering establishment of North Bend ; and on the river, above Marshfield, are the towns of Coos City, Utter City, Coaledo, Sumner, and Fairview. Coal was veiy early discovered on Coos Bay, and has been worked continuously for many years, employing a line of steam- vessels to carry it to San Francisco. The quality of some late discoveries in coal is claimed by experts to be of a very high WHAT 1 SAW IN SOUTHERN OREOON. 143 order. Otio analysis gives : fixed carbon, 47.23; volatile matter, 42.17; water, 2.30; ash, 8.25; sulphur, .60. Its coking capao- ity is 54.45. Others were nearly as good, and the quantity is practically inexhaustible. Coal-mining is the most important industry of tliis region, lumbering the second, and ship-building the third, the ship- yard at North Bend being the largest in the State. Many fine vessels, finished inside with the beautiful cabinet-woods of this section of Southern Oregon, have been launched from this yard, and have assisted to build up the fortunes of their owners and the wealth of the country. Farming has not beeij much followed in Coos County, its market being chiefly supplied from California. This condition of agriculture arises from two causes, — namely, the density of the forest about the bay, requiring great labor and expense to remove it and prepare the ground, and the movable character of the people employed by corporations, the majority of the pop- ulation being of this and the morchunt class. Yet five acres of this rich, loamy soil, if farmed to vegetables and smiiil fruits, would support a family in comfort. The mild, moist climate, furnishing feed all the year round, and the amplitude of pastur- age offered by unoccupied lands should make this a superior dairy country. Dairying is followed to some extent, but not as it should be. Fruit does well in this region, and fruit, both green and dried, is one of the exports from Coos Bay. The entrance to this harbor has not been regarded as favoi-- able to commerce, on account of the shifting nature of the sands on the bar, and the insufficient depth of water. Accordingly, Congress was petitioned for aid in removing the obstructions to trade, the cost of the work required being estimated at about two and a half millions, of which two hundred and thirteen thou- sand seven hundred and fifty-six dollars have been appropriated, and one hundred and ninety-seven thousand four hundred and sixty-five dollars and eighty-one cents expended. This amount has been applied to the construction of a jetty, which, although completed for a distance of only seventeen hundred and sixty- one feet, has sensibly improved the bar, on which water enough is found for vessels drawing over fifteen feet. The work planned, it is expected, will make a good and permanent channel. ■h ^ m mu mi m : I .J 144 ATLANTIS ARISEN. '\ i •? The average tonnage of vessels entering Coos Buy lias been 300 tons. Dnring the year ending June HO, 18!)0, tiie arrivals wore 354; the net tonnage of whieii was 89,188, and tiie gross tonnage 117,720. The river and bay steamers are twelve in number, and their gross tonnage 740. Five tugs are employed, with a tonnage of 620, gross. The total exports of Coos Bay for the year ending June 30 amounted to 221,329.1 tons, value 81,992,903; and the imports to 18,000 tons, value $1,175,600; leaving a balance in favor of the port of $817,303. Coos Bay has hitherto been reached only by small seagoing vessels, or by mountain roads, with which the storms of winter dealt severely, leaving them unfit for travel the greater part of the year. The Scotlsburg road from Drain's was the one usually taken. At the former ])lace the stage was abandoned for a small steamer to Gardiner, or to the mouth of the river (I took the mail-carriei"'s small boat from Gardiner to the coast), whence a beach-wagon conveyed passengers twenty miles to the north side of Coos Bay, where they wore met by a steamer and taken across to Empire City. The beach ride is wearisome, with the perpetual roll of the liroad-tire wheels over the un- elastic wet sand, and the constant view of a restless waste of water on one hand, with dry, drifting sand between us and the mountains on the other, varied only with patches of marsh and groups of scraggy pines at intervals. All this is soon to be changed. Coos Bay is to be reached by rail from Drain's; and as lovely and genial a spot of earth as one could desire is to be made easily accessible. The prodigality with which nature has adorned the hill-sides hereabouts with the elegant rhododendron, the blue spirea, nutmeg, myrtle, and other trees and shrubs famed in the poetry of the Adriatic, was a constant joy to me while I remained here. The pleasure derived from it was like that of coming upon a volume of the odes of Callimachus or a painting by a master in an out-of-the- way place. One of the immetliate results of the changed prospects of Coos Bay is the founding of the town of Glasgow, on a fine site commanding a view of the bay and of the bar at its mouth. A wharf two thousand feet long has been constructed, and ex tends over a bed of Eastern oysters which were planted there WHAT r sA^r in southern ouEfiox. 145 years ngo, and almost foreo[ile have largely contributed, both in money and labor. Railroad connection with Roseburg is now promised, and lands all along the line, where formerly a single nearl}* impassable mud road gave outlet to the interior, are being rapidly taken up. In a fow years this valley will be known as one of the choicest of man}' choice sections of Southern Oregon. Thei'e aro now about twenty settlements in the whole Coos Bay region. The scenery along the route from Coquiile to Roseburg pos- sesses all the charms peculiar to the Coast Mountains, and En- chanted Prairie, the name of one of the valleys on the east side of the range, convej'S no sense of bombast to the beholder. The river cuts deeply into the mountains from its source in beautiful Camas Vallej-, the road approaching the edge of per- pendicular cliffs of awe-inspiring height. 10 From Camas, the m i\\\i lii'i M . .1... . J m] f' t' iiiiiliiHH 146 ATL-^NTI« ARISEN. Eosebui'g I'oacI soon emerges into the ITnijiqua Valley, the dis- tance by this route from Coos Bay being about forty miiea. What further remains to be said of Southern Oregon will be found under the specific heads of geology, mineralogy, mining, botany, etc. CHAPTEE XI. I ABuUT OREGON S INLAND EMPIRE. The whole extent of countr\', Ijing east of the Cas "ades in Oregon, consists of immense plateaux, crossed from the nortii- east to the southwest by the Blue Mountains, from which numer- ous spurs put out in various directions. The best land In East Oregor\ lies along near the base of this transverse chain of moun- tains, and in the valleys of the streams flowing from it on either side, the upper portion of these valleys being invariably' the best. All the timber of the country — fir, pine, cedar, spruce, and larch — grows on the high mountain ridges, except the mere fringes of cotton-wood 'Mid willow which border the streams. '1 ho Blue Mountains constitute a wall between tb ' Columbia River Basin, to the north, and the Klamath Basin 'o the 80U*h ; hence all the rivers of East Oregon head in these mountains, and flow into thd Columbia and Snuiic Ei- ers, only excepting those in the Klamath Basin, which run south and empty into marshy lakes or sinks. Along these rivers and .about the lalres there are large tracts of t.xcc!leni land suitable for farm- ing. Subtracting from the whole an. a of East Oregon what may be called the valley lands, the remainder is high, rolling prairie, wi. 1 a considerable portion of waste, volcanic country in the central a d western divisions. The country may be considered well wat'M'Ci' tiiroughout, as the straams are numerous, and water is to be found by stock at all seasons of the year. Owing, however, to the elevation of the plains above the beds of the principal streams, irrigation canr.ot be efF( ctod over a large poi'tion of it unless by artesian wells or by conducting water from the mountains. Such sxrc the general features of that por- tion of Oregon lying east of the Cascade Mountains. T ABOUT Oregon's inland EMrinE. 147 Attention was first cirawn to the fertility of East Oregon by the. population that rushed to the mines in 1861 and the three years immediately following. It became necessary to provide for the consumption of a large class of persons who dealt only in gold. The hif^h prices they paid, and were Avilling to ijiiy, for the necessary articles of subsistence, stimulated oliiers to attempt the raining of ^jrain and vegetables. The success which at- tended their efforts soon led to the taking up a. id cultivating of all the valley lands in the neighborhood of mines, and finally to expcfiments with grain-crops on the uplands, where also the farmers met with unexpected success. The nature of the soils on the south side of the Columbia is light, ashen, and often strongly alkaline on the plains, sandy and clay-loam at the base of the mountams, and richly alluvial in the bottoms, where it is often, too, mixed with alkali. It is discovered that on the highest uplands and tops of ridges there is a mixture of clay with loam, which accounts for the manner in which wheat crops endure the natural dryness of the climate in the growing season. It would be diffici'.lt to generalize about East Oregon. The tourist who enten. tbo State by the usually travelled routes would almost certainly receive a bad impression, because the longer railroad lines, in order to shorten their routes, avoid the better sections of the country and run through the worse ones. It is only by taking the branch lines, constructed later, that the traveller learns to reverse his first jiidgment in regard to this portion of the State. It might be added, it is only by actual experiment that an Eastern farmer acquires confidence in the possibilities of a country so different in appearance from any Avith which he is acqnainted. Ali along the Columbia, from The Dalles to the boundary be- tween Oregon and Washington, there is a strip of sandy land, from five to ten miles in width, which is not cultivable, — at least, not without an abund;;nce of water, — and which is a torment to the traveller and a oerious trial to the railroad company, whose track it covers Avith drifts in many places. For convenience the country may h^ said to be divided into sandy land, agricultural land, and mountain land, and still there remains the necessity of more special description, and to include desert land. The mountainous portions furnish timber — pine, i:!(l;i K mi 1 I , '.' mUMtfnKm ^BBBmsBBsammmmmm^ B ^ I'll lf:f' 1^ 148 ATLANTIS ARISEN. , '4 : i ■;_ !* ' i i ' 1 '' !: , - ■ ■' ; i '. \ i u. fir, spruce, oedar, tamarack, and junipei' — for lumber and fuel, and ill summer pasturage for cattle and sheep. There are prub- al)ly half a million sheep in the Blue Mountains every year, from June to November. There are the saw-mills which man- ufacture lumber, which, with shingles, fencing, and fire-wood, is shipped by railroad or hauled by teams to the prairies. Unlike the mountains of West Oregon, these are traversable almost any whei-e, besides affording game, fish, and pure, ice-cold water, features which make them a pletisant retreat in summer fron» the heat of the open country. The so-called desert is that high, rocky portion lying along the base of the Blue Mountains in the central part of East Oregon, covered with sage, and blotched with frequent dark piles of basalt, where for miles and miles no water is found. Yet it is a fal-t that wherever the artemisia grows rankly other vegetation will flourish if water be applied. Water is the one ^...•ft v int of the "deserts" of the Northwest. The scenery of thit» rugged portion of the State is peculiar. Beginning with this " scabby" — a new word for basaltic out-croppings — land, the country rises into ridges of loosely piled rock, gray with lichens, and crowned with stunted junipers. Now and then occurs a lake of alkaline waters, but more frequently the thirsty traveller is deceived by the mirage, which is a feature of this high and dry atmosphere, into thinking ho sees in the distance what nature calls out for, and hastens towards it only to be dis- appointed. Beyond all is the mountain mass, in which rise the rivers flowing north througli tlio caRons of such a depth as to preclude the possibility of diverting them to the uses of culti- vation. Frost, too, comes early in this elevated region, which the Creator has reserved to keep pure the air 've breathe and the thoughts we think. Everywhere one goes in this middle land, between the Cascade and the Blue Ranges, tlie impression ie received of newness, — I do not mean of men's work, but of God's work. The country is not finished. The soil is still being formed upon the bed-rock of the Columbia Basin, which in some places is yet uncovered. In other localities it is from five to twenty feet deep. Wherever it has such depth it is remarkably pro- ductive, for there is no better soil than that formed by the dis- m ABOUT OREGON'S INLAND EMPIRE. 149 integration of tho basalt and refinement of the other volcanic matter poured out over this country in the distant ages. One may still discover evidences that it was at one time a sea-bed ; that later it was ground by monstrous icebergs; and that later still it was overflowed with lava. Here stalked the mammoth beside lakes now dried up, whose sands yet sepulchre his bones, with those of other extinct animals. It is a country full of won- ders, which sliould never be heedlessly passed over, but should be the favorite study-ground of science. East Oregon contains fifty-eight thousand square miles, and id divided into counties, fourteen in number, which often com- prise the valley of a river. Union County, for instance, occupies the ^-'rand Rond Valley, a circular grassy plan, long celebrated for its beauty and fertility. Here, in the eari\ times of overland immigration by wagons, the traveller found food for cattle and rest for himself in these delightful meadows, after the long, ex- hausting march over the hot, sterile sands of Snake River. This valley is thirty miles in diameter, well watered, and very pro- ductive in all the cereals, fruits, and vegetables of the temperate? zone. A considerable amount of the land is subject to overflow, which makes it greatly esteemed as grass-producing. Timber is also conveniently near on the encircling mountains, where mills are working up the fir, pine, spruce, and tamarack forest into lumber. Union City, the county-seat, was settled in 18(12 during the mining excitement in East Oregon and Idaho, but is not now as large as it was at that period. La Grande is the principal town, witli two thousand inhabitants. It also dates back to the six- ties: but when the O. R. and N. Railroad approached to within a mile without touching it, the sleepy old town arose and shook itself, and removed its business houses to the line of the railroad, where its growth final'.y reunited it to the older portion. There are a dozen saw-mills within a few miles of the town, the lumbei- being floated down by meau'i of flumes to the shipping ]K)iiits. this method being found to be more economical and safer than driving down the logs to be sawed here, although in some local- ities this can be done. A part of the car-shops of the O. R. and N. Company have been removed from The Dalles to l^a Grande. A sash- and door-factory, a creamery, two brick-kilns, i Sir ^::l sm* il'M 1 . I ; III iii till III Mil 160 ATLANTIS ARISEN. fe 11 a brewery, aud a grain-elevator are among the industrial re- sources of the place. There were shipped from this point in 1888 one thousand car-loadsof iumber and railroad supplies, and one thousand car-loads of live stock. The minora! region of Baker County is supplied chiefly from this direction. La Grande has a bank, with a capital of sixty thousand dol- lars and deposits averaging seventy-five thousand dollars. It has water- works, and an eloctric-light plant. The public schools are good, and a large brick college building is standing idle for want of an endowment, — the Blue Mountain University, — but the Methodists are about assuming charge. The Union Pacific has com|jleled .■' branch from La Grande to Elgin, twenty- two miles northea.st of here. It is to be extended to Wallowa. Wallowa County is comprised in the Wallowa Valley, this river being a branch of tlio Grand Hond iliver, which bounds the county on the northwest, and having several branches of its own, with small fertile valleys. This region is known as the Tyrol of the i!»J oil h west, its average elevation being two thou- sand five hundi'ed feet, and some of its lesser plateaux reaching four thousand. This is the valley for the possession of which Chief Joseph went upon the war-j>ath in 1877. Its principal town and county-scat is named Joseph, in honor of this chief It has already put on civilization, and is prepared, with news- paper, hotels, and churches, to utilize its resources, agricultural and mineral, and its abundance of water-power. Umatilla is another county contaiiied in the valley of that name. The reservation of the Cayuse, Walla Walla, aud Umatilla Indians occupies a considerable portion of this county, probably one-third, which altogether has an area of about six thousand square miles. Of the remaining two-thirds, about half is reckoned as agricultural land, and the balance as grazing land of the very best qualit}-. Water is plenty and excellent; but timber, as already indicated, is found only on the mountains. It is bounded on the east by the Blue Mountains, in which the Walla Walla and Umatilla Rivers have their sources. The wheat output of this county in some }ears is as ntuch as sixty thou- sand tons. Pendleton, the county-town, on the river, and on the O. R. and N. Railway, is also the terminus of a branch of the Oregon ABOUT OREGOX'S INLAND EMPIRE. 151 and Washington TeiTitoiy Railroad, or of what is known as the " Hunt System," which connects it with the Northern Pacific System, giving it access by two trans-continental roads. It has a population of four thousand, good public buildings, and the best hotel in Oregon out of Portland, — the Hotel Pen- dleton, — besides several othei-s of less proportions. There are two flouring-niills, foundry and machine-shops, sash- and door- factory and planingmill, city water-works, telephone connection with every part of East Oregon, three banks, seven churches, good common school, a Protestant and a Catholic academy, and nu- merous substantial and costly business houses, not the least imposing of which is the office of the East Oregonian newspaper. The Umatilla Reservation will soon bo open for settlement, and will add one hundred and thirty-five thousand aeres of the best land in East Oregon to the area of Umatilla County cul- tivable lands, and will greatly increase the wealth of Pendleton, which lies just on the boundary. This prosperous town was founded in 1868, and named after George II. Pendleton. Here resides a descendant of that Alex- ander McKay who was on board Astor's vessel, the "Tonquin," Avhich was destroyed by the Inaians of the Washington coast, in 1812, and every soul with her murdered. His son Thomas, then about fourteen years of age, was left at Astoria when the "Tonquin" sailed on this expedition, and so escaped the fate of his father. Subsequently he came under the guardianship of Dr. McLoughlin, who mai-ried his mother, the widow of Alex- ander McKay. Thomas McKay was a noted man among the fur companies of the Northwest — a brave man, and a witty one. He married, first, a Chinook woman, and had three sons ; married again, and iiad a son and daughter. The eldest of these chil- dren was William C. McKay, who was educated in the East and studied medicine. He is the physician on the Umatilla Reservation. His half-brother, Donald McKay. distinguisho ii i| »»>-p vBpmmmm gg 154 ATLANTIS ARISEN. i; j::: ^ 1 ;:; j Company, which secured an itnmenso grant upon the pretence of constructing a public highway across the central portion of East Oregon, but which forfeited its franchise. The two com- panies are contesting their claims in the courts, and meanwhile the land in question is withheld from sale. There have been three of these military road projects across East Oregon, the other two being The Dalles Military Road and the Oregon (Central Military Road, in the southern part of the State, neither having any just claim to the lands obtained from the government by misrepre- sentation and political jugglery. The Oregon Pacific will, it is expected, obtain title to the lands in dispute, when no doubt its affairs will brighten. The road passes southeast through Crook and Harney Counties, and makes its way to Snake River through the caflon of Malheur River, which, being very rocky and very tortuous, has demanded a heavy outlay in labor and capital. When completed it will work a wonderful transformation in this now remote region. Grant County, occupying the central portion of East Oregon, and consisting of a series of high plateaux, is chiefly given over to sheep and cattle ranges. Thei*e are considerable tracts of pine, fir, and tamarack, and numerous small valleys where grain and fruit yield abundantly. This county formerly contained a greater area than any other in Oregon, being two hundred miles in length and ninety in breadth, but has recentlj'^ been divided so as to include only the country drained by John Day River. Canyon City is the county-seat. It was first settled in 18G2, and incorporated in 1864, when it had two thousand five hun- dred inhabitants and was the centre of great mining activity. It has to-day a population of eight hundred, having suffered the decline to which mining towns are subject, and having been devastated by fire. It is, however, having a revival of progress, to which it has been stimulated by the prospect of railroad connection with the O. R. and N. line. Harney County, the territory cut off from Grant, is one hun- dred and thirty-five miles in extent fi-om north to south, and ninety from west to east. It contains the Harney and Malheur Lakes, and the Chi-istmas or Warner Lakes, of which we have all read in Fremont's explorations and other government rep^orts. All are more or less impregnated with alkali. Geologically they ABOUT ORE«0]S' S INLAND EMPIRK. 155 aro supposutl to bo tho last vestiges of that jinoionr soa which once covered this intor-montane region, around whose shores and in whoso sands aro found tho fossil remains of ])rehistoric fauna and flora. Their modern history is closely connected with cumpaigns against the marauding tribes of Northern Nevada, whom General Crook finally vanquished. Ilarney Valley contains about two hundred thousand acres of excellent land, of which forty thousand is a natural meadow, wliich is dotted over with numberless cattle and horses. Tho entrance to tin's valley is a surprise, aftei- the ruggodncss of tho Blue Mountains. Tt is oval in sliap«, and lies encircled by ranges, some neai", some distant, which enclose it like tho rim of a bowl. The i)opulHli()n is eighteen hundred and fiftj*. of whom about two hundred are Indians and Ciiinese. Harney City, on the north side, near the site of old Camp Ilaruoy, was formerly- the county-seat. This has been removed to Burns, fourteen miles south, on Silvio's Eiver, near tho cross- ing of tho Oregon Pacific, a new and growing town of five hun- dred inhabitants, and tlie most promising at present of an}^ in this region. Saddle Butte and Silver City are two other embryo towns, with little to supjiort them at present. East of Harney is Malheur County, which is in the same cat- egory as to isolation, — onh' a wagon-road connecting it with Grant or Harney. It is about one hundred and forty-four by sixty miles in extent, with but a small portion populated, in the fork of the Malheur and Snake Rivers. It is watered in the southern part by tho Owyhee River, and has Snake River on its eastern boundary. The Oregon Short Line (Union Pacific) through Idaho crosses the Snake River near the northern boundary, and thus atfords a means of transportation for this end of the county. The Ore- gon Pacific follows the course of the Malheur River to or near its mouth, where it crosses into Idaho, and when completed will lun to Boise City. The county was named from the river, which received its name (meaning unfortunate) from the early French explorers, who mot with disaster of some kind upon its banks. The surface of the country is high, and tho soil dry, but it is a good grazing region. The largest hoi'se-farm in the United States is located at Ontario, on the Snake River, one company ■li il if n '- i I 156 ATLANTIS ARISEN. owning ten thousand horses of improved blood. Vale is the county-seat, besides which there are several otlier settlements. Immediately north oi" Malheur is Baker County, named after General E. D. Baker, who fell at Ball's Bluff, it embraces the valley of Burnt River, and shares with Union County the valley of Powder Eiver, whose soil, according to a miner from that region, is so fertile that, '■ if a crowbar should be left stick- ing in the ground overnight, it would be found in the morning to have sprouted tenpeim}- nails." But Baker County is more celebrat' for its mineral than its agricultural products, about halt' its population being engageil in mining. There are several lai'ge lumber-mills in the county, and the exports are chiefly lumber, wool, and live stock, although marble, limestone, and granite are abundant, and fruit is marketed to some extent. Baker Cit}-, on the O. E. and N. line, and having connection with the Northern Pacific, is the county-seat and chief town. It is, in fact, rapidly develoj^ing into a city of considerable im- portance, having a population of four thousand five hundred. It calls itself the Gateway of the Inland Empire, or at least the Southern Gateway of the same, and is earning its honors by a legitimate course of improvement. A stoc k company with a capital of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars has been formed for the purpose of bringing the watei's of Powder Eiver in irrigating ditches to Baker City and surrounding country. A railroad is being constructed forty or fifty miles west into the mining districts at the head of the John Day Eiver, which will not only facilitate mining operations, but will open up a white-pine belt of great value, where a large mill is about. to be erected. A project not quite so far advanced is that of build- ing a railroad twenty -five miles east into the Seven Devils country in Idaho, where smelting ores of gold, silver, and copper are found, — copper predominating. The traffic on the upper Snake Eiver is at present supported by these mines, which Baker City desires to make tributary to itself The Union Pacific also contemplates a branch line to the Pine Creek mines, sixty-five miles northeast of this city. , There is no doubt of the enviable position of Baker. Colonel J. W. Virtue, owner of the well-known Virtue Mine, and the ABOUT OREGON 8 INLAND EMPIRE. 157 pioneer luiiiiiif^ man of this reifioii, places flic output of the placer iniricH at one niilliou five hundred (iiousand dollars annuiUly, and of the quartz mines* at two million dollars. A company is boiui; organized to bring water upon a dead river ehaimel, or lead similar to the Blue Lead of (California, from which it is expected to derive one million five hundred thousand dollara annually, and which will Ik- tributary to Baker City. This channel has yielded luiggcls weighing from eight hundred dollars to three thousand two hundred dollars. "Six miles from Baker," says Cohmel Virtue '• there are farms upon one etid of which the owner harvests forty, fifty, or sixty bushels of wheat l»er acre, and on the other end takes out gold dnst at fifly cents a pan from his placers." Baker City has a highly picturesque - ituation, being upon a level plateau of three thousand feet elevation, surrounded by cones and peaks of a variety of forms, some wooded, others bare, and still othei's rising to the snow-lino. The city i * supplied with excellent water from three artesian wells, the water being pumped into a reservoir at the rate of sixty thousand gallons per hour. The I'eligious sentiment of the population is repre- sented by five church-edifices, well filled on the Sabbath. A thirty-thousand-dollar public-school building gives evidence of the value set upon educational facilities, as well as of the wealth of the community. The Catholics also have a school for young ladies. There are three newspapers, two of them dailies and weeklies. An electric-light plant furnishes illumination to the . streets ; and a streetcar lino runs from the railroad depot through the heart of the city. A now brick hotel — the War- shauer — is being completed, at a cost of one hundred thousand dollars. The foundation is laid by the Geroux Amalgamating and Manufacturing Company, with a capital of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, for an amalgamator, and in connec- tion with it a found r}'^ and general nuichine-works. The present manufactures are confined to planing-mills, flouring- mills, brick- 3-ards, etc. The Warm Mineral Springs of Baker are much resorted to. A national bank, assay offices, and a building and loan association facilitate business operations. Baker City is the largest distributing point east of the moun- tains in Oregon, and in 1863 it was a stage station on the road um ' Mm mi' iliiiii I ■ ':: 158 ATLANTIS AUISKX. tj l-i'i IM to Boise. As the placer ininew in Idiilio mid in East Oivj^on wore worked out, many gold-hunters turned fjirniers and settled the fertile Powder River Valley, finally foundiiii; a eity here, Mhich has grown and j)i'()S])ered, while Aubuin, a mining town eleven miles away which once boasted ten thousand inhabitants, is left like Goldsmith's Auburn, — a '-deserted village." Lake County, which lies south of Crook and west of Grant, belongs to that division of Oregon which is di-ained by streams not running in any general direction, but either sinking in the earth or flowing into some of the alkaline lakes frequent in this region. Salt marshes also are found, one on Silver Lake and another on Warner Lake, whicli produce salt of good quality. The soil is warm and productive, but, owing to the entire absence of railroads, stock-raising and wool-growing are the chief indus- tries. The timber of the hilly portions is pine, juniper, and mahogany, which, with the facilities afforded for milling by the lakes, makes lumbering also an im})ortant business. It is expected that a railroad branching off from the Southern Pacific will cross this countj' some time in the near future. Whenever this section is made accessible to travel it is sure to be much sought by invalids, for the air is the most delightful that can be imagined, — so bright and sparkling, so warm and dry. The summer's heat is not oppressive, although the mercury runs up pretty well. The winters are cold, owing to the elevation, but are not long. Lakeview is the county-seat and principal town. It is situ- ated near the northern end of Goose Lake, at the foot of a range of wooded hills, and has tributarj' to it the whole Goose Lake Valley. The population is about eight hundred. It has a good court-house, two or three churches, a handsome public-school building, a bank, a newspaper, and several substantial busi- ness houses, and is, in fact, a representative new town of the West, — rather surprisingly modern and thrifty, considering its remoteness. Klamath County, lying at the base of the Cascade Mountains on the east, is an elevated region with a diversified surface: the northern part being of a broken or "desert" character; the middle part, devoted to the Klamath Indian Reservation, con- taining a variety of land, — marsh, woodland, river-bottoms, and ABOUT Oregon's inland kmpiui;. 159 jtliuna; and in the HOiithern portion tlio gnissy vjilloys ul' Lost River uiid Link River, and of the Upj)er KlanuUh, Lower Klamath, Modoc, and other smaller lakes. Kiumath County i« well watered by Williamson, S|)i'aguo, and Lost Rivers, besides its many lakes. There is also a canal for irrigation purposes, starting from the head of Ivink River and running southeasterly forty miles to Lost River; anothei" taking water out of Klamath Lake to float logs to a saw-null twelve miles from the lake; and a third taking water to a large roller flonring-mill. Klamath County has been devoted to stock-raising, as it had no moans of moving crops. Yet it was wheat raised in this county which took the premium at the National Exposition of 1884, at New Orleans. Both Lake and Klamath Counties raise fine wheat at an elevation of four thousand and five thousand feet, and grow excellent fruit and vegetables. The water-power of Link River is very inviting, there being a fall of sixty-four feet in a mile and a quarter, the average breadth of the stream being three hundred and ton feet; but only one saw- and one flouring-mill have been erected upon it. I have referred in another place to the peculiar features of the Klamath basin, which make it a wonderland, — namely, Crater Lake, the volcanic deposits, hot springs and cold springs, and rivers that start from nothing and after running some distance disappear. Klamath County was long under the protection of Fort Klamath, established on the border of the Indian Reservation in 1804. It was the scene in 1872-3 of the Modoc War, and of many bloody battles and massacres, the storj* of which will long furnish material for the novelist as well as the historian. Linkville, situated on Litdc River, which unites the Upper and Lower Klamath Lak-es, is the eouiit3'-seat ami metropolis of this district. It has a ])opulation of about seven hundred, a handsome court-house, supports a newspaper, a church, and a graded public school, has several factories, and is a resort for health-seekers, who use the hot and cold baths furnished by nature in the immediate vicinity. The town suffered greath' by fire in September, 1889, but is being rebuilt in an improved style and with many fine structures. Linkville was founded in 1871 by George Nourse, who planted a nur.sery on the river- bank at the foot of the upper lake, which is still growing there. 1.1, ' ' u ^mmmmmmm fij i N:'' 160 ATLANTiS ARLSEX. furnishing fruit-trees to settlers. Tlicro are about a dozen other haralfts ii) this district, which are waiting for transportation facilities. In this county resides, wifcli his sons, the aged Lindsay Apple- gate, brother of the '■ Sage of Yoncalla," and a historic character. His father was Daniel Applegate, who fought in the Revolution- ary W'lr, and who married a daughter of Jolni Limisay, one of Daniel Booiie's associates in the settlement of Kentucky. In the year 1823 Lindsay Applegate accompanied General Ashley in an expedition up the Missouri, — the Srst American company that fitted out for fur-hunti'ig in the Bocky Mountains. Tvs^enty years later he helped break the first wagon-road into Oregon, where he has borne his part in building up a pros^xirous common- wealth. Soon the last of this class of Amcrian State-builders will have 'jassed away with the times which called them forth, but the coming generationii should not be permitted to consign them to oblivion. The noblest thing that the Oi-egon poet, .Toaqu n Miller, has written refers to " Those brave men buffeting the West With lifted f'wes. Full were they Of great endeavor. Brave and true As stern crusader. . . . Made strong with hope thej- dared to do. ****** What b'ave endeavor to endure ! What patient hope, when hope was past t What still surrender at the livst A thousand leagues from hope ! How pure They lived, how proud they died 1" A drawback to the settlement of East Oregon has been the large aniount of land held by wagon-road companies, who in the past, under a pretence of buildir.g a needed highway to the Idaho or Oregon mines, secured grants from Congress upon terms never honorably complied with. These grants, which will evcnt- tuilly be declared forfeited, are still unsettled. Another class of idle lands is that fraudulently taken up under the Swamp Land Act, large tra-'its of which are being restored to the government and opened for settlement along with the other governm* at lands. There are, however, good tracts fr v' to entry, and de- - m ABOUT OREGON S INLAND EMPIRE. 161 sirable for homes, in every part of East Oregon, but chiefly in the central and southern portions. As the country settles up the cattle-raiaei's will be restricted to narrower limits, and agri- culture force from the ■ aith the wealth now lying unrecognized. The following is a coiaparative statement of the counties of East Oregon at the beginning of the j-ear 1890. if o c 1^ s » o EH la ■D "5 -.3 3 X a 532 1 1 1 s .2 a. a Equalized County 1^ ^3 > "2 Dollars. Dtillars. Dnltan. DoWarg. DoUart. DoH(ir«. Onllarn. Baker . . 101,816 424,801 3ll,ia^ 864,100 2,719,368 780,252 139.180 1,799,936 Crook . . 81,799 396,270 62,505 862,877 2,008,822 570,130 128,400 1,310,272 Gilliam . 81,9H8 371,031 273,823 561,978 2,000,387 524,:«)3 130,450 1,364,416 Harney . 1.^4, .^20 396,276 9,4J2 1,011,224 1,727,024 189,039 65,449 1,472,486 Grant . . 111,71() 300,41.-) 10,260 990,123 2.249,3")6 572,396 > • • 1 ,684,290 Klamath . 341,437 ,W2,612 88,314 4K(),317 1.607,491 345,063 140.865 ll,11.5,.')63i Lake . . . 7!),4o2 321,805 • • • 864,148 2,180,079 .38.1,829 115,,H94 ! 1,678.3661 Malheur . 103,80.3 231,699 11,915 720,201 1,332,292 210,176 61.119 1,046,977 Morrow . 12G,-J79 417,735 158,355 624,533 2,344,415 810,176 255.444 1,333,824 Sherman . Umatilla . 380,209 2,247,.'-)85 ,l,0.-i2,379 88,1,980 8.396,759 2,666,262 590.7()0 5,6,55,469 Union . . 27.">,4M l,496,Ui-J0 376,414 749,.'i70 4,587,645 1.405,600 311,285 2,812,290 Wallowa . 72,731 • • > • > > 42<),]ivl 1,291,642 383,875 151,209 756,567 Wasco . . 169,777 649,609 722,142 560,839 3,758,026 929,900 201,460 ! 2,623,666 The amount of mortgages recorded against pro[)erty in Baker County 13 $88,191 ; Gilliam, $159,207 ; Klamath, §30,223 ; Lake, $192,191. Wagon-road land, not include' in the above, is valued in Lake County at $92,40G ; in Wasco tl e number of aci'os is estimated at 68,609 ; in Crook County at 229,969. Eailroad lai\d in Xm-- rovv County is valued at $272,000. Travel in Eastern Oregon is often not very agreeable, unless one could choose his route, his season, and his conveyance. Early spring gives the greater chances of comfort; by which I mean a more agreeable temperature than either summer or win- ter, and less dust and drought than autumn. The few railway lines, excepting the O. R. and N., are not titted up for tourist travvil, but only for the short trips between local points. From The Dalles to Umatilla the road runs along the sandy belt near the Columbia, with only the sullen river and the bare hills to which to turn your 6} es. From Umatilla it whirls you across six or eight miles of sage-brush, when it strikes the narrow 11 1 in 162 ATLANTIS ARISEN. iiiji! valley of the river of that name, whicli is cultivated and jiretty with its gardens, eotton-wood groves, and thickets of birch, alder, sumach, and wild roses in the sharp liends of the stream. Pro- ceeding up the valley you arc constantly kept on the alert by the dodging of the train from one green vista to another, and from the shelter of bare hills on one side to the shadow of ovei*- lianging rocks on tlie opposite side of some promontory', or making a straight run for some distance under the perpendic- ular wall of a basaltic upheaval, to leap suddenly into a cotton- wood copse with a little farm home-place close by. But all this is sti'ictly local, and below the general level. The road from Pendleton to Snake River, running across the Blue Mountains and through the Grand Eond and Powder River Valleys, has more extensive views, and a greater variety of features. From Wallula Junction to Pendleton the road lies the greater part of the distance through a cafion between hills so high ihat only their sides are seen, bristling with rock or tufis of dry grass, for miles. But when we have crossed the sand-belt, we observe that for other miles and miles towards Pendleton a green blanket of growing wheat hangs over the rounded tops of these high hills, giving promise of freight for this line after han^est. Leaving Pendleton for Lewiston, our route takes in a better country than that nearer the Columbia, skirting the Umatilla Indian Reservation, itian which there is no finer bodj' of land in East Oregon. The road follows the sinuous course of VVild- llorse Creek to the top of the ridge dividing the waters of the Umatilla from those of the Walla Walla River, and from which there is an extensive view of the surrounding country, which is one vast wbeat-iield as far as the eye can reach. From this point the Walla Wnlla "Valley appears spread out as on a chart, with the city of W'alla Walla set in its mid^t and embowered in trees. From this ridge, after making a long circuit to head a small side valley, and to gain distance for the train in descending, eteam is withheld from the locomotive, and this becomes a gravity railroad until we again strike a level, where the train shoots ahead ^'irough fields of wheat, barley, and corn to Walla Walla. mm IRI'H'.l'.H.WHi'tl ABOUT Oregon's inland EMriRE. 163 From this point to Snake River two similar ridi^'cs are crossed in a similar manner, the ascent and descent being made through narrow and crooked cafions entirely shutting out the view, which is seen only on top of the divides ; but from each of these there ': 1? J:, ! II .M WlIhHK li.VILUOADS GO. is the same grand spectacle of boundless whcat-tieids rolling off into billowy hills in all directions. The railroad strikes the Snake River at Riparia, in the Palouse country. There the traveller is transferred to a steamboat for Lewiston, where he is landed atter a twelve hours' struggle with the rapid current of the reptilian I'iver. The distance is eighty miles; and when you come down it yon make the voyage in four hours. The scenery along the Snake is the snme as along the Colutn- bia above Celilo, — a strong, swift river between bare hills or columnar cliffs of basalt, — the difference being tliat every here and th*'i'e along tlie Snake there are narrow shelves of warm ■■* i{ 164 ATLANTIS ARISEN. sandy loam at the foot of the cliifs which are taken up by fruit- farmers. As the steamer comes down, it being July, she gathers up thousands of boxes of berries, peaches, and early api)les, to be shipped by rail to Walla Walla and Spokane Falls. These small fui-ius are irrigated by water led on to them from springs, or pumped up from the river by steam-power. Lewiston, although an Idaho town, was built up by Oregon capital as an outfitting place for the Florence and Salmon Eiver mines, in 1802. it is located on the point of land between the Snake and Clearwater Rivers, wliich form a junction here. Tt was on the latter stream, some twelve miles above here, that Lewis and Clarke encamped with the Nez Perces, with whom they left their horses to be cared for while they visited he coast, in 1805; and the town was named in honor of the ex- plorer, Merriwether Lewis. The site of Lewiston is a particularly pleasing one, the land sloping gi vdually up to the beautiful undulating country back of it. and having a watei'-front on both sides of the point bounded by the rivers. North of the Clearwater the land rises abruptly to a great height. It is over beyond this bluff and on this elevated plateau that the famous grain lands about Moscow and Genesee are located, which are tributary to WasL'igton, being I'cached by the O. R. and N. and Spokane Falls and Pa- louse Railroads. Lewiston has a charming climate, albeit rather warm in summer. It has about twelve hundred inhabitants, who are waiting for a railroad to infuse new life into its business system. It has gone ahead very little since the dnya when it had a tran- sient population of several thousands, the chief improvement being in sliado-treos. Both tiie Northern and the Union Pacific Railroads are making preliminary movements towards giving Lewiston the outlet it needs. Between Lewiston and Mt. Idaho is a good farming country, to see which one must travel by stage, passing the beautiful Nez Perce Indian Reservation, and climbing toilsomely to the second plateau above Snake River, where is a pleasant lake re- Qort, — or what would bo a pleasant resort were the Lake Kouse anything but a board shanty, — the fare being excellent. Thirty miles beyond, the traveller comes to a rolling plaieau, CO z > m X < m I i\^ tm rl • Ill it i i: ' ; warn M: i} wmKm A CHAT ABOUT OREGON MOUNTAINS, 165 four thousand feet above sea-level, scatteringly covered with iofty pines, underneath which grows the short, thick grass known as " pine-grass," giving, with the groups of cattle hero and there, a park-like aspect to the woodland. Beyond this twenty miles, and five hundred feet lower, is the valley resem- bling Gi-and Rond, and known as Camas Prairie, with the town of Mt. Idaho in the southeast corner. Here let us stop, for we are oft' our prescribed territory ; but this pan-handle of Idaho naturally belongs to the State of Wash- ington, and has been repeatedly claimed by it. It contains, besides a good deal of superior farming land, the Coeur d'Alene mines, all of which territory is at present tributary to Washing- ton, and must in a groat measare ^rver remain so, being shut off" by natural barriers from Southern Idaho. On the other hand, the southern counties of this now State could ill spare the best of its farming territory, arul, •• 'ng now a State, will not. i!ii- CHAPTER XII. A CHAT ABOUT OREGON MOUNTAINS. If there is anything of which an Oregoniun is more proud than another, it is of tiis mountains, for every one exhibits that personal interest in them which amounts to a sense of proprietorship. Portland shop-windows arc full of bad pictures of Mount Hood, which, notwithstanding their deficiencies from an artistic point of view, ai'e yet pleasingly suggestive. That they sell is certain, for the pi-oduction never ceases. I may as well confess right here that I am myself responsible for starting this particular fad. Years ago, on my first visit to Oregon, I was delighted with the charming cloud-effects so noticeably lacking in the drier climate of California, as well as with the woods and the snow-peaks. My enthusiasm in my correspondence with the well-known California artist, F. A. Butman, " slopped over" to such an extent that ho came up here and made a good many sketches. On returning he painted a " Moutit Hood" on a large canvas, with a beautiful foreground, 1 18, i'll cC^'' fil i'SBl \w ATLANTIS ARISKX. wliic'li, by ihc way, was a coin))Osition, for thero is no such actual foivground for the mountain in nature. I purchased tlie picture, and rather thoughtlessly allowed it to he photon-raphed. Fi-oni thai photograph, with variations never original enough to dis- guise tho source of inspiration, have been painted numberless other Mount Hoods, which, could poor Bntman, long since gone to the Hills 15eautiful of a better country beyond the inipassable boui'iie, behold, lie would wish to blot out. (IN TUE t-UMMM Ul' '. Ul'-ll- ■■■ The name of Oregon s principal i-ange, l|i0 (JH^'H'I'''^, which has a nearly iu)rtli-and-south coui'se, proiiably cahie ironi the fact that the only passage known thrtaigh thcui tu I ho eail} explorer, hunter, or tourist was the one at the the mile rMpld», which rapids seem to have been always called tlu; Cascades. These were of more iuiporlance to tho voyageur who had lo make a dilflcult portage than the mountains thonisolves, and in speaking of the latter lie simply said, to distinguish them A CHAT ABOUT OREGON MOUNTAINS. 167 from others, " the Cascade Mountains," and so named tliora for all time. But Oregon has several other though not as high ranges, — namely, the lilue Mountains, so called from their color seen acro>s the tawny waste of the plains, which have a northeast and south- west course through East Oregon; the Coast Rungo, which fol- lows the trend of the west shore of the continent, near the sea; and three or four cross-ranges from the Cascades to the Coast Mountains in the southern part of the State. All these ranges have their peaks, but only the great Andean chain of the Cas- cades lifts up into the region of cold air its crumbling volcanic cones covered with snow, which even the tierccst heat of summer only diminishes, but never dissipates except on the sharpest ridges. The most southern of these, and next above California's pride, — Mount Shasta, — is Mount Pitt, nine thousand two hundred and fifty feet high, named after the British statesman by British subjects in Oregon before the boundary question was settled. Frequent attempts have been made to change its name to Mount McLoughlin, in honor of Dr. John McLoughlin, the benevolent governor of the Hudson's Bay Company in Oregon, who rescued from starvation the immigrants of 1843, at a time when the London board would far rather they had been lett to perish than have been rescued, to the injury of the fur-trade and the weakening of England's claim on the territory. So difficult is it, however, to make these changes understood, that the Oregonians have conipro (lised by naming a lesser peak in Klamath County Mount McLoughlin. Next north of Pitt is Union Peak, feeding the north fork of Rogue River. Tlurlyhve or forty miles farther north is Mount Scott, — whether a namesake of the general or of an Oregon pioneer I do not know, — eight thousand five hundred feet in height. AI)out the same distance above Seott, and of the same altitude as Afoiint Pitt, is Mount Thielsen, so called in compli- ment to General Thielsen, of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Railroad. This peak feeds the south fork of the Umpqua River. Again in thirty or forty miles rises Diamond Peak, five thousand five hundred and ninety-five feet in height, which is the source of the middle fork of the Wallamet on the west and of the ■-■'. '-u t (■f lit liiiij 168 ATLANTIS ARISEN. 1 Jl m :'"l''' :i in Dos CLutos River on the east. At the head of McKenzie'h Fork of the Wallamot is the remark ahlo group of snow-peaks called the Three Sisters, with ]51ack ]Uitte and Snow Butte eighteen or twenty miles larther north, and feeding streams on the eastern slope of the range. At the head of the Santiam River is Mount Jetlbrson, — it should bo Mount Thomas Jctferson, — named by Lewis and (Jlarke in 1806, and standing wull east of the centre of the i-ango. This is a very interesting mountain, and evidently has been much higher than at present, which is equally true of all the snow-peaks. Mount Hood is situated about twenty five miles south of the Columbia River, and sixty miles east of the Wallamet, rising, like Jefferson, from the eastern side of the main axis of the range. The western view of it is that of a massive ])yraniid, with some slight variations from exact lines; but from the Dalles its rugged features are more distinctly seen, and its out- lino is broken into separate peaks and ridger*. It was named after Lord Hood by Vancouver's lieutenant, Broughton, Octo- ber 20, 1792. The early Oregon settlers, or some of them, wished to change the name to Washington, and to call the Cascades the Presidents' Range, but custom prevailed, and Hood it remains. The height of Mount Hood has never been satis- factorily ascertained. The measurements taken have varied from eighteen thousand to eleven thousand feet, but later esti- mates make it about twelve thousand. Half its height is covered with perpetual snow, — that is, it towers more than a mile above the range into the region of clouds and storms of which the dwellers in the valley know nothing, — its venerable head buffeted by icy blasts even in summer. About seventy miles north and a little east of Hood is Mount Adams, nine thousand five hundred and seventy feet in height, named after President J. Q. Adams. It belongs to Washington, but is one of the five peaks visible from all parts of Northern Oregon. It is not so high as Hood or St. Helen, but it has a noble outline, and reminds me ot a sleeping lion. One of the curiosities of Mount Adams is a series of ice-caves, lying at an elevation of four thousand feet, the trail to which leads up the White Salmon River, which comes into the Columbia opposite ■ ii 't '! A OTIAT ABOUT OREGON MOUNTAINS. 169 Hood River. In their vicinity the earth gives forth a hollow, reverbernliiig sound BUggestivo of openings beneath. Tlie entrance to the largest cavo is down a woll-liko shaft, by moans of a rope. The apartment hero is about eighty feet in diameter, and square. The walls are solid ice, the floor and ceiling sup- porting huge fornuitions resembling stalactites and stalagmites, which when illuniiiuited by torches give out a splendid dis])Iay of colors. The air in these caves is clear, cold, and dry, the temperature being too low to permit of extended explorations. Is there buried here an immense glacier, or does there exist a combination of causes in the form of chemical constituents to produce ice? Let the scientists decide. Northwest of Mount Adams, and a hundred miles or tnore north of Hood, is Mount St. Helen, so named by Umughton, in 1792, — another mountain of Washington which enters into the panorama of snow-peaks seen from the Columbia River. It is, presumably, nine thousand seven hundred and fifty feet in height, anut steam and ashes, scattering the latter over the country for a hundred miles to the eastward in 1832, so ob.scuring the da^dight as to make it necessary to burn candles. On the southern slope is a hot spring that keeps the rocks always bare, which spot goes by the name of The Bear, — no pun intended. I do not pretend to have ascended even one of the many snow-peaks of the Northwest. It requires strength and wood- (-■I'.ift, as well as alpine experience, to explore the Oregon moun- tains on their western flanks, where the canons are deep and stei p, where frightful precipices are to be scaled with ropes, and chjMiges of temperature to be encountered, before reaching the snow-fields. Therefore I have contented myself with achieving an altitude of eleven thousand feet in some places and between seven thousand and eight thousand in others, and have taken my impressions at second-hand for the greater heights. The railroads of the West are great educators in this respect. They carry us easily and without asking our consent right into the heart of the great ranges, and show to the most delicate woman i •^^■f .'■■ " e^ ,"»!- ^, IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // 5^ I 1.0 I.I |io ^^^ M^M Ui lUi 12.2 !!: lis 12.0 1.8 11.25 IIIIII.4 ii.6 6" Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 •\ pp 11 ;i I'' !1 i 170 ATLANTIS ARISEN. or the city-bred man the wondrous things of a fireation forever going on, equally by building up and breaking down. Cite, for instance, the Southern Pacific's entrance into Oregon. It leaves the Sacramento Valley only to enter the long, winding and beautiful cailon of the Upper Sacramento Eiver, where the hillsides are covered with pine, oak, and madrono forest, the narrow bottoms with cotton- wood, poplai-, and willow thickets, while the banks are overhung with water-loving plants, and the river dances down, down, bright, joyous, and tireless, towards the sea, bearing with it the weariness which may have oppressed us ; for who can be weary in such scenes ? Every now and then the toiling train glides past a settler's home, the chosen residence of some man who loves these beautiful solitudes better than the busy life of towns or the more genial climate of the valley. Then, again, up the caiion wo catch a glimpse of Mount Shasta, with its massive bulk divided into triple peaks piercing the sky at fourteen thousand four hundred and forty feet, — shining white with a blue sky over it. Up and up we go. Lower Soda Springs, Upper Soda Springs (and what delicious water!); Mossbrae Falls in a semicircle of mossy rocks, — emerald and silver, — where the water seems to come from the top of u mountain in many streams, a novel and charming effect ; then up and up once more, following ridges and making long loops which take us past the spot we touched twenty or thirty minutes before, but at an elevation above it of several hundred feet ; — then Sissons. At Sissons is a fine view of Mount Shasta, and an expanse of level country beyond, with this and other peaks in sight continually. Across this elevated plateau runs the Klamath Eiver, and upon it is the once populous mining town of Yroka, where A. D. Richardson dis- covered a palindrome on a sign, — llreka Bakery. I have no doubt this literary cm-iosity still maintains its position, but the railroad avoids the town, and travellers lose the opportunity of verifying it. Soon begins the ascent of the Siskiyou (seize cailleux) Moun- tains, with their long piney slopes and dome-shaped summits, their cathedral-spirehke peaks, and magnificent forests sur- rounding them. By a winding way, with enchanting views on every hand, we glide smoothly down the north side into the A CHAT ABOUT OREGON MOUNTAINS. 171 Rogue River Valley, having spent twelve hours amidst such scenery as can be met with in few parts of the earth. A.nd this is only one. of several i*oads, which, so to speak, make a feature of showing the mountains which traverse the North- west Pacific Coast. But to return to the Oregon snow-peaks. First a word about their explorers. Several j'oung gentlemen of Portland, in Octo- ber, 1887, organized the Alpine Club of Oregon, the object of which was to found and maintain a public museum, encourage amateur photography, and also alpine and aquatic exploration, and to look to the protection and preservation of game of uU kinds. It divides the work into four departments, as just indi- cated. The explorers are very enthusiastic* Tlie Alpine Club has made some special studies of Mount Hood, having ascended it more than once, photographed it from various points, and illuminated it with red tiro on the evening of July 4, 1887, the illumination lasting fifty-eight seconds, and being seen from Portland on the west, and Prine- viile on the east side of the range, the former sixty miles, and the latter eighty miles distant. One hundx-ed pounds of the combustible were used, which was dragged to the top by W. G. Steel and Dr. J. M. Keene, three of the party having become exhausted two hours after passing the timber line. The practice of the club is to deposit a copper box containing a register of their names and a record of experiences on the summit of each peak explored by them. This is chained to a rock for security, but left accessible to any visitors who may make the ascent and desire to register. The illumination of Mount Hood was repeated in 1888, when heliographic com- munications were exchanged with the signal-service officers at Portland. This experiment suggests the use of a signal station on the mountain in lime of wax* — provided the weather could be controlled. * For the information ot jther similar associations wishing to correspond, I give tho names of the officers. President, George B. Markle ; Vice-Presi- dents, W. G. Steel, W. W. Bretherton, John Gill ; Secretary, George H. Hinies ; Treasurer, C. M. Idleman. * W. G. Steel is president of the explorar tion department, and ISE. W. Gorman Secretary. President of the photo- graphic department, W. W. Bretherton; Secretary, E. E. Norton. pp 172 ATLANTIS ARISEN. !!S The ascent of Hood is, considering its height, not diflSeult on the south side. There are the usual obstructions to alpine travel, — caflons to be crossed, precipices to be avoided, snow too soft at mid-day and too icy at morning or evening, and a tem- perature, with wind, on the peak which makes a protracted stay, if not impossible, undesirable and dangerous. A great crevasse is to be crossed, which is opened in an immense glacier extending quite across the side of the mountain and constantly moving south. The opening varies in width from a mere crack to a gorge of thirty feet across. The walls of the chasm are of solid ice, green for some distance beneath the snow, changing to blue, growing dai'ker and darker until the line dividing it from space becomes invisible ; nor does sound reveal when the rocks rolled into it reach bottom. This crevasse is crossed on a bridge of ice, which brings the adventurer to the last abrupt ascent of four hundred feet to the summit, which is accom- plishf 1 by cutting steps in the ice The summit is an irregular arc of a circle once surrounding a great chimney vomiting forth molten lava, and is now rapidly crumbling away. Sulphurous fumes and steam are still thrown out at a point below the present summit called the crater, where mountain climbers stop to warm and take refreshments. Some changes are repoi'ted as recently occurring on Mount Hood, the crevasses on the northwest side of the crater appear- ing to have widened, and the ice surface to be lowered. One of these crevasses can be seen to yawn conspicuously for fifteen miles. Many rocks have become detached and rolled down ; among others, the one to which the record box of the Alpine Club was chained, which was, however, recovered in a battered condition and replaced by a new one. Whoever has the hardihood to make the ascent of Mount Hood — and the number increases annually — has his reward in the prospect to be gained from it. From this altitude all the other peaks are plainly visible, both in Oregon and Washington, and the coast range as well. East and west Oregon and a large part of Washington are spread out like a map. The lordly Columbia may be seen wending ita way to the sea, a distance of a hundred and fifty miles, the capes at the mouth showing plainly where it unites with the racific. A sunset view, with A CHAT ABOUT OREGON MOUNTAINS. m the opening between the capes filled with a flood of golden glorj', may be enjoyed from the mountain-tops. 'To witness a scene like this," exclaims Steel, in his report, " manj- a man would circle the globe." Imagine the effect of moonlight upon it — a full moon — " changing the day's brilliance into a subdued glory." Surely there is matter for inspiration here. But at seven o'clock the wind blew fiercely, almost carrying the chron- icler from his feet, and he had to keep in constant motion not to freeze. It lasted but for an hour, and at eleven o'clock the red fire was burned, casting a rosy glow over the whole mountain side, bringing into relief every crag and pinnacle, and causing the neighboring mountains to blush more delicately. I have myself seen Hood only from the common level, but have beheld him in many moods and phases, when white, cold, and stern he towered rigidly over a winter landscape, and when draped from summit to base in a golden-tinted tissue of morn-, ing mist, through which he peeped like a girl in trying on a robe of yellow gauze,— not quite shaken down on one side, the petticoat of snow showing daintily underpeath. Many are the solid old mountain's masquerading airs, and, despite the dignity of his thousands of years, he sometimes affects the blushes of the rose. To pioneers of 1845 and later Mount Hood is full of meaning. The road over the range at its base, opened that year, was the Rubicon which they passed in pain and peril. The most skil- ful driving was not skilful enough to guide the staggering oxen through the way provided by the road-makers, and the constant tendency of a forward wheel to run up a tree on one side or the other was a dread to the drivers. Bat if wagons would run up trees on ascending ground, what was their coui'se when they came to an incline of sixty degrees on the dcsc nding side, with a load urging the jaded oxen from behind ? As succeeding trains widened the way a new difficulty arose. It was better to be halted by a tree than not to be able to stop at all, and to find one's team rushing down the side of a mountain like an ava- lanche, to death and destruction. To overcome this tendency, good-sized trees were attached by chains to the rear of the wagons, the branches left to act like grappling-irons, and hold back the weight. But woe to the unfortunate wight whose im- M, " Hi |i ' i) A TBM 174 ATLANTIS ARISEN. provised brake became uncoupled ! The best ho could liopc for in that ease was that a fore-wheel would dasli up a tree. It happened sometimes that the oxen struck their heads against a solid fir-trunk, when their proprietor became suddenly' minus that pair of oxen, and plus a great many fragments of wagon and contents. A well-graded highway now follows the survey of the pioneers of 1845, and conducts the tourist to Cloiid-Ctip Inn, at the snow line, where much comfort mr.y be enjoyed for four or four and a half dollars per diem. • • > . About centrj'Uy situated with regard to the Oregon division of the Cascade Range, the Three Sisters may be ascended with- out difficulty from the eastern side. Indeed, to get a well- formed idea of the mountains it is necessary to behold them from this side. There is no labor in travelling over the pincy slopes of the eastern incline. It is like riding through intermin- able parks, with little obstructing undergrowth, a dry soil, and abundance of flowers, and occasional small game. Three or four days' easy horseback travel from The Dalles through a country abounding in natural wonders brings us to the foot of the Three Sisters. They stand in a triangular group, the base of the triangle being towards the west. Though perfectly distinct peaks, the northernmost being highest, they are connected near their base by lesser intervening elevations. Accustomed as we have become to mountains, the Three Sisters force from us the pro- fonndest expressions of admiration and delight. So lofty, so symmetrical, so beautifully grouped ! Nor are there wanting adjuncts which augment the interest of the scene. At the fo of the group stands a single needle of basalt several hundred feet in height, in its grim, black hardness looking like a sentinel guarding the Olympian heights above. Our party prepare to ascend the north Sister. By reason of the greater general elevation of the country on the eastern side of the Cascade Range, and the more gradual slopes also, the toil of an ascent is greatly diminished. By keeping along a ridge we find it comparatively easy to clamber up. Two of our party, however, decide to attempt a more abrupt ascent. As we course along our rocky ridge we watch the advent- urers on the snow-field. After climbing over a sharp slope of • il- t A CHAT ABOUT OREGON MOUNTAINS. 175 broken rock, they como upon an incline of nearly eighty degreee — in fact, the snow-field appears concave to us — and commence crawling up it. By great exertion, and cutting steps in the snow with their hunting-knives, they reach the edge of the first crevasse, where we see them pause, holding on to the edge and looking into it. They can proceed no farther. The crevasse is fifteen feet across and hundreds deep. Could they throw them- selves over, they must inevitably slide back into it, fx'ora the glassy surface above. Starting cautiously to return, and holding back by striking their heels in the snow, making but slight impressions, first one, then the other, loses his hold, and down they go, — swiftly, swiftly, ever more swiftly, — darting like arrows from their bows, straight down the steep incline, towards the rocks below the snow-line. The younger and more active contrives to draw his hunting-knife from its scabbard, and, by striking it into the hard snow, to check his speed. What a grip he has ! I laugh, while I am trembling with excitement, to see him swing quite round the knife-hilt, like a plummet at the end of a string swung in the fingers. He has arrested his descent in time to avoid the rocks. Not so his clumsier companion, who comes down — luckily, heels foremost — among the rocky debris at the bottom. His bruises, though many, are not dangerous ; and this little ex- perience teaches our friends the needful prudence. They are content thenceforth to take the longest way round, which is the surest way to the object of their desires. After two or three hours of clambering, we reach the line of perpetual snow. Just below it is a belt of cedars, with tops so flat that we walk out on them a distance of twenty feet, either side their trunks. Early in their struggle for existence their tops have been broken oflf by the wind, and the weight of many winters' snows has retarded their upright growth, until the result of a century of aspiration is a ludicrously short stump, and immensely long and broad limbs. In this region we find a few stunted mountain mahogany trees, but are quite above the pines. Above this, in the ShOW, or rather in the thin layer of soil deposited in places among the rocks where the sun's action pre- vents the snow from accumulating, are several varieties of flower- ing plants with which we are familiar ; the blossoms, however. ,'l i !i I 176 ATLANTIS ARISEN. are but the miniature copies of their valley kindred. So fragilo, of such delicate hues are they, that a feeling of tencIernoRS is inspired by their lonely position on this bleak siimmit ; and we ask ourselves, For whose eye has all this beauty been spread, ago after age, where human footsteps never come? Let thoce who believe everything terrestrial was made for man search those places of earth where only God is, and study their adornments. The view from the peak of our mountain is one long to be remembered. To the north of us stretches the Cascade Range, with its wilderness of mountains, from six to eight thousand feet in height, overtopped by Mount Jefferson and Mount Hood. To the south, the same wilderness of mountains is seen over the tops of the other Sisters, with Diamond Peak and Mounts Scott and Pitt beyond, while in the far distance we fancy we discern great Shasta. To the east spread away immense plains, with their river- courses marked as on a map, and bounded by the Blue Moun- tains. Just below is Des Chutes, and on the other side of it, not far off, is the extinct crater of a volcano, its remaining walls being only two or three hundred feet high. All around it the country is covered with black cinders, ashes, and scoria. Turn- ing towards the west, we behold the lovely Wallamet Valley, with its numerous small rivers, its hills and plains, and beyond it the blue wall of the Coast Mountains. We resolve to return to the pine woods to camp, and with to- morrow's dawn to climb once more to the summit, to behold " morning on the mountains." The spectacle compensates for the extra toil. When we arrive, there is a veil of mist hanging between the valley and the mountain-top. We know that they in the valley see nothing of the summits, while we of the sum- mits can discern nothing below this floating sea of vapor. How beautiful I It is as if out of a sea of golden-tinted mist are springing islands of dark-green, some of them crowned with glittering snow, and overhead a cloudless heaven. With every moment some new and beautiful, but almost impercep- tible, change comes over the misty ocean in which are bathed those isles whose shores are abrupt mountain-sides; and, in turn, all tints of gold, rose, amber, violet, float before our enchanted eyes. A CHAT ABOUT OREGON MOUNTAINS. 177 Not long the Bceno remains. An August sun quickly dia- persos the gossamer t-louds, unveiling for ua the acone of yester- day in its morning Hharpnosa of outline, with high lights and deop shadows in the foreground, and with a soft, illusory glim- mer in the deep distance. We hardly wait for the full blaze of day on the picture, preferring to remember it in this more striking a8i)ect. Along the crests of the mountains are frequent lakes, some of which occupy old burntout craters ; others may have been formed by the damming up of springs by lava overflows; others by a change in the elevation of certain districts, leaving depres- sions to be filled by the melting snows or by mountain springs and streams. These lakes occur generally where signs of recent volcanic action in the neighborhood are most numerous, as in the vicinity of Mount St. Helen, Mount Jefferson, the Three Sisters, and Diamond Peak. Pumice, cinders, scoria, and volcanic glass, with other evi- dences of eruption comparatively recent, abound all along the eastern base of the Cascade Range, and extend some distance through the central portion of East Oregon. The traveller must ever be amply repaid for the labor of exploration by the great and varied wonders which meet him at almost every step of his journey. It does not prejudice a coimtry either, in ft practical sense, that it is of volanic formation. Such have been the lands where civilization came to the greatest perfection. Probably the east slopes of the Cascades will yd be celebrated in song as "the land of the olive and vine." It is cevtain that grapes and peaches raised upon this soil are of excellent flavor. The lakes which are such a striking feature of the Cascade Range in both "Washington and Oregon are not usually of much extent. Echo Lake, on Mount St. Helen, is three miles long by a quarter of a mile to a mile in width. It is filled with trout, and bordered by bold shores covered with evergreen forest. The character of the scenery here is of a gentler aspect than in some other parts of tlie mountains, tempting whole families every summer to encamp for two or three weeks in this vicinit}'. On the contrary, Fish Lake, in the range east of Roseburg, is 12 178 ATLANTIS ARISEN. il 'I i: ■ '1 :H I Bet in ft deep rim of frowning rocks, shadowing the brown depths where specUled t^'oiit disport themselven in ice-cold waters whicli in a mile or two phingo headlong over a precipice two hundred and fifty foot in lioight between pillars of basalt. South of Kirth Lake about three miles is Mount Volcano, with its western half blown off, leaving a sheer precipice six hundred and fifty feet, descending into a basin semicircular in shape, er:.;aining a forest of fir-trees, throe charming lakes of small aize, and several green marshes, between which yawn fissures opened ages ago when this basin was a fiery crater. Many such scenes have been discovered, and many yet await discovery among these half-explored mountains. Water-falls abound, and a very pretty one, appropriately named Silver Vail, occurs on a tributarv of the Klamath River. Some years ago — it was just after the Modoc war — I crossed the Casc-ades between Ashland and Linkville with a party, of whom the "Sage of Yoncalla" was one. It wmx an interesting trip from every point of view. Wo had an ambulance, a bag- gage-wagon, and horses, and walked or rode as it pleased us to do, taking tiiree days for the passage. The first night we en- camped in the valley of Jenny Crock, from which we took our supper offish, and, not knowing any better, I left my shoes out in the dew, of the effect of which 1 became unpleasantly aware next morning; but I had a good sleep, quite undisturbed by grizzlies, of which there wore not a few in the mountains. Next day our hunters killed a deer, and while we waited for it to be dressed, being in advance of the hunters, a huge brown bear trotted leisurely across the track in fVont of us ; but the guns were behind, and we quietly watched his departure, think- ing it was an escape on both sides. That night we encamped on the summit, and toasted venison on sticks around a blazing log- fire. We told stories, sang songs, and slept well afterwards. There was no dew to wet my shoes this night; but I was awakened about three o'clock in the morning by the voice of the Sage, who, like those of old, called upon me to observe the brightness of the morning star. And it was worth the misery of being wakened at such an hour to behold the great golden clusters sparkling above us, — two or tb-"'^ times as large as when seen through the murky air of tijf !>:>vlands. T Slii A CHAT ABOUT OREGON MOUNTAINS. 170 Ab wo walked along next day the Sago told me the story of the opening of this road — the Southern Immi:;;rant Koad it was called — by himself and others, in 181C, when it was fuarod in Oregon that there might be a war with Cireat liritain, and it behooved them to bo surveying out a track for the soldiers of the United States to take in coming to protect tlie Oregon settlors, which would bo safer to travel than the Columbia or Mount Hood rom lie showed me, too, a tree near the cross- ing of the Klaniait. River where some of Fremont's exploring party carved thoir names in 1R43, Linkvillo ^v' ,8 at the time of this trip but a few months old, and most of the settK rs in Klamath Land had been driven out by fear of the 7Jodoc8 — most of those not, murdered. I was present at the trial of the Modoc prisoners at Fort Klamath, and spent some weeks at the Klamath Indian Agency, visiting notable places and studying Indian mythology under the tutelage of Captain O. C. Applegate, who is a master of Indianology. But the crowning pleasure of those enjoyable weeks Avas an excursion to a lake then little known, but now famous in the Northwest. It was discovered in 1853 by prospectors from Jacksonville looking for gold, who, deeply impressed by its woird beauty, called it Lake Mystery. Subsequeatly some gentlemen from Fort Klamath visited it and called it Lake Majesty. Both these names were suggested by the effect upon the beholders. But exploration convinced all that the great rocky bowl containing these beautiful waters, whose rim was eight thousand feet above sea-level, was an immonse crater, egg- shaped in form, and six by seven miles in extent of surface. This discovery changed the name to Crater Lake, which it is now called. According to the belief of scientists and other observers, thero once stood hero a volcano higher by several thousand feet than any existing mountain, the angle of the remaining mass carry- ing an imagiaavy line to a height of thirty thousand feet. As surveyed by government officei-s the depth of the crater is four thousand feet, and of the water, two thousand feet over a large extent of the bottom, the shallowest part away from the cliffs being fifteen hundred feet. There is a crater within the crater, rising in a hollow cone above the water eight hundred and fF >; » .'H 180 ATLANTIS ARISEN. forty-fivo feet, called Wizard Island, and another similar crater fathoms deep bcnetilh the lake's surface. The military road from Jacksonville to Fort Klamath runs within about four miles of the lakC; and is the route usually taken by touiists. But the approach from the east side is much more easy, being a conifortable afternoon's drive from the Agency to camp at the turning-off point. Our party found bear tracks close to camp, and deer-tracks in the a«hes of our burnt-out fire when we arose from our mosquito tormented slumbers. Our ambulance was taken to the summit, although we walked a good ])art of the four miles, for the ground was very lumpy with rocks and frozen snowdrifts which July suns had failed to liquefy, and which, to them unaccountable, phenom- enon kept our mules in a greatly agitated state of nerves. On arriving at the summit we found the earth light and ashen, diversified by patches of snow, and by other patches of alpine flowei-s, some of which were very pretty in form and color. The air was bright and mild ; we had left the forest behind us ; there was nothing anywhere about more elevated than our position, nor any living thing anywhere near us. We were apparently on the highest point of the earth, for there was nothing to look up to, and it would not have surprised me to have been whirled off into space. The solitude of the situation was thrilling. One cannot, owing toi the sunken position of the lake, discover it until close upon its rim, and I say here, without exaggeration, that no pen can reproduce its image, no picture be painted to do it justice ; nor can it, for obvious reasons, bo satisfactorily photographed. At the first view a dead silence fell upon our party. A choking sensation arose in our throats, and tears flowed over our cheeks. I do not pretend to analyze the emo- tion, but, if I were to endeavor to compare it with anything I ever read, I should say it must be such a feeling which causes the Cherubim to veil their faces before God. To me it was a revelation.* * That this is not iin uncommon effect of the first view of Crater Lake is shown by Captain 0. E. Button's report of the survey, in which he says, " It was ttmching to see the worthy but untutored people who had ridden a hundred miles in freight-wagons to behold it, vainly striving to keep back A CHAT ABOUT OREGON MOUNTAINS. 181 The water of Crater Lake is of the loveliest blue imaginable in the P'lnlight, and a deep indigo in the shadows of the cliffs. It mirrors the walls encircling it accurately and minutely. It has no well-like appearance because it is too large to suggest it, yet a wutor-fowl on its surface could not be discovered by the naked eye, so far below us is it. It impresses one as having been made for the Creator's eye only, and we cannot associate it with our human affairs. It is a font of the gods, wherein our souls are baptized anew into their primal purity and peace. The Indians, who are easily impressed by the unusual as well as the sublime in nature, hold Crater Lake in gi-eat awe. They have a legend running thiswise : A Klamath hunting-party camo upon it unexpected!}', and regarded it with silent foar, for they knew at once that the Great Spirit dwelt here, and that they had no business with him ; therefore they silently retraced their stei:>s down the mountain, and made a distant camp. But o ^'^ of their braves ventured to return, and passed the night on the rim of the lake. This he did for several successive nights, during which he heard strange noises and voices coming from the waters. Having familiarized himself after some months of venturing to visit the lake, he descended to the water and bathed in it, repeating this teat many times, thereby gaining the power to see spirits, and receiving supernatural strength. This led others to imitate his example, who likewise received great strength. But at length the first brave was impelled to kill a monster which he met with in the water, and for this act was set upon by llaos or water-sprites, taken to the top of the cliffs, torn into small pieces, and thrown back into the lake to be de- voured. Such- they since believe, will be the fate of any Kla- math who ventures even to look upon this hike. A rock on the northern side of the lake has been named Llaos Rock, in memory of this superstition. Other points are named after persons and resemblances, as Dutton Cliff, Cathedral llock, Phantom Ship, and — I mention it with due rhodesty — Victor Rock, in compli- ment to my early visits to this then almost unknown wonder, V, tears as they poured forth excluniations of wonder Mid joy akin to pain. Nor was it less so to see so cultivated and learned a man as my companion hai-dly able to command himself to speak with his customary calmness. " i; 'A i \'H 1: 182 ATLANTIS ARISEN. and a trifling feut of daring performed to get a view of a beau- tiful reflection under this overhanging stone parapet. The approach to the lake 's from the west or northwest. To the right of the approach is a small grove of spruce-trees of a good hei<;ht, in a sort of sink with piled-up rocks behind it, and on the south, inside the rim, are trees growing among the rocks for some distance, as also on Wizard Island, which has a belt of trees around its base ; but for the most part there is no vegetation shown in this locality. Crater Lake lies on a piano made by cutting oft' the top of a cone, its west side embedded in the range, and its east and south sides rising clear from the plain eight thousand feet below. A quarter of a mile from the lake one may stand on the edge of the plane before mentioned and look over the Klamath Valley, seeing distinctly the settlements fifty miles away. JJforth of the lake is only a jumble of mountains, with Mount Scott and Diamond Peak rising more prominent than their neighbors. Congress, in January, 1886, set aside Crater Lake and a body of land thirty miles long by twelve miles wide for a national park, Oregon agreeing to preserve and keep it for the pleasure of the people for all time. The boat used by Captain Dutton in his survey still remains at the lake, and as tourists multiply other means of viewing it in its whole extent will be furnished. The railway tourist would most naturally leave the train at Medford, taking the old road to Fort Klamath and returning the same way. Eogue Eiver rises in the range near Crater Lake, flowing for sonic distance through a deep caiion along the edge of which the road runs. Even here are evidences of the forces which have rent the rocks asunder, as well as of the lapse of time which has assisted the elements to mould and carve them into fantastic shapes. Some distance off the road, we were told, is a locality where blocks of pumice as " big as a meeting-house" may be seen, which must have been produced in the furnace of the great dead volcano to the east. Li one place Ilogue River has a foamy passage through a narrow gorge called The Dalles, bo- low which it widens out in a series of rapids, after which it gathers its waters for a plunge over a sheer precipice one hun- dred and eighty -six feet perpendicular. The mountains, too, are A CHAT ABOUT OBEGO.V MOUNTA'NS. 183 delightful, being covered with a grand forest of the noble Bugar- pino irtermingled with other trees of the same family, and with the shrubby chinquapin, laurel, aider, and maple, according to locality or altitude. The air is bright, clear, and buoyant, almost intoxicating in its vivifying quality, and sweet with the balsamic odor of the Pinus LamberUna. Wherever there is an opening to the sun on the hill -sides, there blossoms the rhodo- dendron, the mock-orange, the Spiraea ariafolia, and other orna- mental shrubs. Where the dust of the road has lain undisturbed trom the day before, it is full of prints of tiny feet of birds and other timid creatures which shun our observation by day, but run about on their errands during the night or early morning. Desce'iding to the valley, the hi>iiorical Table Eock, where General Joseph Lane fought the Mogue Eiver Indians in 1853,. becomes an object of interest. It is simply a high perpendicular bluff overlooking Rogue Eiver, — the Gibraltar of the Indians in their wars. It brings us back to the contemplation of humanity in phases ill in accord with our late impressions of nature. It is a pity that the former should ever obliterate the latter. I I know how, if I were a painter, I should personify the young giant Oregon. Lithe, strong, beautiful should ho be, with empire written on his brow, and power tempered by mildness beaming from his eyes. Of fair complexion he, with tawny blonde hair and curling golden beard. His robe should be of royal purple embroidered with wheat-ears, and his crown of burnished gold. His throne should be among the rugged mountains, with a lake at his feet, rolling yellow plains on one hand, and smiling green valleys on the other. His sceptre, shaped like the tapering pine, should be of silver, set with opals, emeralds, and diamonds. On his right should roll the magnificent Columbia, to which ships in the distance should seek entrance; and over his shoul- der the white crest of Mouut Hood stand blushing in a rosy sunset. vm T!' \t hi »4 li^il I 184 ATLANTIS ARISEN. CHAPTER XIII. THE GEOLOGICAL FORMATION OF OREGON AND WASHINGTON. According to Mr. Condon, formerly Stale goologiat, the Rocky Mountains once formed the western breakwater of the continent, as the Coast Mountains now do. They were forced up by the subsidence of the ocean bottom, and the consequent upfolding of the earth's crust. The upheaval occurred near the shore-line, but left a narrow strip of the old sea-bed east of the Rocky Range ; enough to prove that the upheavel occurred in the Cretaceous period. A large body of salt water was thus isolated, wh h gradually, by natural drainage, became brackish only, and finally quite fresh. This change is also proved by the nature of the deposits. After a long interval of quiet, another upheaval took place, occasioned, like the first, by a subsidence of the ocoan-bed. At this second folding of the earth's crust, the Cascades and Blue Mountains were forced up, and once moi*e a large body of sea- water was divided off from the ocean, to form great salt lakes, which gradually became fresh. The Blue Mountains formed an island, separating the northern portion of these waters from the southern, which were drained respectively by the Columbia and the Colorado Rivers; but not until b}' deposits of various char- acter did the bottoms of these basins become sufficiently ele ' d. In like manner, the later upheaval of the Coast Range caused to be enclosed between these mountains and the Cascade Range another immense body of water, which became fresh in time like the older lakes, and with the gradual elevation of the sedi- mentary deposits was finally drained off like them. That the dates of the formation of these lakes were widely separated is evident from the fossils of each, which indicate the geologic period to which they belonged — the deposits of the Wallamet Yalley being the mo.st recent. In the mean time vegetable and animal life flourished along the shores of these inland seas or lakes. There are cafions in East Oregon fifteen hundred feet in depth, whose walls present a GEOLOGY OF OREGON AND WASHINGTON. 186 complete and undisturbed record of the geologic periods. First of all in this record is the old ocean-bed of the Cretaceous period, teeming with myriads of marine shells, perfectly pre- served in form, though frequently containing, as a mould, a filling of chalcedony or calcareous spar, making specimens of the highest beauty. Next above the salt-water deposits come those of the earlier Tertiary periods. In this division we find the leaf impressions of those grand trees that flourished during ages of tropical warmth and moisture, — palms, yew-trees, immense ferns. In some places an oak-leaf or an acorn-cup has left its print in the rocks. Contemporaneous witAi the palms and ferns were two species of rhinoceros, and three or four species of Oreodon, an animal allied in some things to the camel and in others to the tapir family. Anothei- animal of a tapir-lilie appearance, but called by geologists Lophiodon, also lived during this period, and left his bones in the muddy lake margins to become part of earth's history. Also a peccary of large size, and an animal bearing some resemblance to the horse, called the Anchitheriitm, — found also in France and in the Mauvaises Terres of Nebraska. The hipparion, or small three-toed horse, and a great number of cat-like, dog-like, and hyena-like animals, besides rabbits and squirrel-like creatures, belonged to this period, as their fossilized remains demonstrate. Following this age was one of volcanic action and the out- pouring of immense quantities of ash js and lava. By the lava- streams issuing from the Blue Mountains new barriers were raised, dividing the northern portion of the great lake of East Oregon more completely from the southern, which, by reason of superior drainage, was the first to become drj' land. The lake on the northern side of the Blue Mountains, remaining longest a lake, continued to receive the drift of its shores for a longer period, and consequently ofl'ers a more perfect record of the changes which took place through all the Tertiary periods. Several of the strata formed in this lake are of pure volcanic ashes, still rough as pumice stone to the touch. Thus this Middle Tertiary period was closed in violence. Volcanic fire, earthquake-shocks, and molten, lava destroyed i 1 1 :rlT 186 ATLANTIS ARISEN. Ill *\ ill: ■ and blotted out all forms of vegetable and animal life. The ages roll on, and once more living forms of plant and animal haunt the shores of these shallowing lakes. The oak, the yew, the willow, have left their prints in the sedimentary rocks, and the bones of new creations of animal life, such as the camel and the horse, accompany them. But these, too, in turn suffer extinction by violence, — the whole country being covered more than thirty feet deep in volcanic ashes. Indeed, deposits of volcanic ashes exist in East Oregon which arc one hundred feet in depth. After a long night of geological darkness, during which there seems to have been a subsidence of earthquake and volcanic outflow, life once more appears upon this portion of the eai'th in the forms of elephant, ox, horse, and elk, accompanied by such vegetable forms as were suitable for their subsistence. Still another period of death was to ensue before the frame- work of the present Oregon was perfected. And this time the desolation appears not to have come from fire, but from frost and flood.' How long it continued, or what mighty seas of ice moved over the face of the earth, marking the hardest rock with glacial abrasion, none can tell. But to have so clearly written in the rocks of Oregon the geologic history of at least one continent, is most interesting to scientist and amateur alike. So far as can be seen, the Columbia Eiver Valley must become the most desirable field for the st' Jont of the earth's history, and also of research into the record of prehistoric man. For here, somewhere hidden in these ancient pages of rock, must the beginning of man's history be preserved, like that of God's other creatures, in tablets of stone. From the brief sketch of Oregon's geologic history which has been given it will appear what the agency has been of those glistening white snow-peaks — Mounts Hood, St. Helen, Adams, Jefferson, and all the rest — in forming the Oregon and Washing- ton of to-day. Time was when these mountains belched forth n.olten lava, and rained hot ashes over many miles of country on either side. For some reason — perhaps the diiection of the prevailing v ,nds — the ashes were chiefly deposited on the east side of f range. The volcanoes themselves, in general, stand on the east side of the summit of the range. A covering of GEOLOGY OF OKEGON AND WASHINGTON. 187 basaltic rock conceals from sight the record we have referred to, except where by the action of water the pages of the book have been cut through from cover to cover — from ocean-bed to overlying basalt. For w distance of sixty miles east of Dalles this last overflow may be traced, growing thinner and thinner, until it becomes a mere capping on the hills. Underneath it all is sedimentary, except the interruptions, several in number, of the older out- flows of lava. It is owing to the large extent to which volcanic ash enters into the composition of the earth and soil of this portion of Oregon and Washington that both earth and water are so often strongly alkaline. It forms a soil inexhaustible in fertility, and particularly adapted to the growth of cereals j but, owing to its elevation, and to the depth of the stream below the surface, together with a dry climate, is difficult of adaptation to the uses of the agriculturist. Mr. J. Wessen, in an article published some years since in the Overland Monthly^ thus speaks of the geological formation of the high plateaux and the lake region of Southeastern Oregon : " Coming from the northeast, the Blue Eange of Oregon, the Cascade Eange from the north, and the Sierra from the south, blend into or form a vast steppe or table-land of lava and sage- fields, interspersed with a score of lakes, in size varying from five to forty miles in length, and proportionate width. This high separating belt of land and water commences at the Owyhee River and extends westward to the mountains, running at right angles to the ocean — a length of three hundred miles, and an avei'age breadth of one hundred and fifty. Thei'e are three distinct chains of lakes in this district : The eastern, known as the Warner, inclusive of the Harney and Malheur. The second chain of lakes may be called the Goose Lake, including its northern links, — Albert, Silver, and other smaller lakes. Goose Lak3 nestles in the extreme north end of the Sierra, and is the source of Pitt Eiver, the main branch of the Sacramento. This fact has been disputed, owing, perhaps, to the outlet being underground in the drier seasons. The third and last, and larger of the several chains, ij the Klamath, embracing Wright and Rhett Laket;, farther south. The Warner Lakes string along more like a river; and the rapid current, setting north at all 188 ATLANTIS ARISEN. times, is suggestive that this lino of water is really the outcrop- ping of a long, subterranean stream. The amount of water is apparently more than the natural drainage of the country adja- cent; and the outline of a great river channel is distinctly trace- able to the lakes of Harney and Malheur. The latter, however, are strongly tinctured with the alkaline soil surrounding them." Thus does the observing traveller confirm the views of the student of geological science. The southern half of East Ore- gon retains yet some of the features of the undrained lake dis- tricts of Oregon and Washington. That portion of Oregon and Washington which lies west of the Cascades is part of a great trough, extending from the Straits of Puca to the Bay of San Francisco. It is not, like East Oregon, elevated above the original sea-bed by immense deposits of volcanic matter ; but its older rocks are buried from sight by deposits of the Tertiary and post-Tertiary periods. There is a curious glimpse into the ])rehistorie record of man given b}' the fossils of the Wallamot Valley. For instance, the teeth and tusks of the elephant have been found in Linn, Polk, and Clackamas Counties, at no great depth below the surface, — as in three instances they were discovered by men engaged in digging mill-races, probably from eight to twelve feet in depth. Side by side with this fact is the one that at a similar depth some rude stone carvings have been discovered, biu'ied in the alluvial soil of the Lower Wallamet, about two ; lilcs above its junction with the Columbia, in Columbia Coui.ty. Sti-angcr still, there has been discovered at a place just at the northern end of Multnomah County, the remains of a camp-firn, with the half-burnt brands lying in position, as if the fire had but just gone out, and buried under twenty-seven feet of alluvial deposit. Equally curious is the fact that in the Nehalom Valle}-, eight miles back from the coast, and twenty-five feet below the sur- face, in a place where there is no suggestion even of a possible land-slide, was lately discovered a large knifo of pure copper, with a stone handle. Here is a souvenir of the stone and copper age ! Shall we ever be able to collect any facts concerning these ancient Oregonians? The paleontologists have here a splendid field to delve in. The work of the volcanoes is also very evident in West Ore- GEOIX)GY OP OREQOX AND WASIIINQTON. 189 gon. The vnlloy of the Lower Columbia, iii pariiciihir, revealu the immense overflows of lava in its forms of basaltic rock. In numerous places it occurs in solid masses of many feet in thick- ness ; in others it has assumed the columnar form ; and in many more it is broken into sharply angular fragments, mixed with earth. The fracture in the latter case is foliated, — every fresh cleavage showing what appears like the impression of palm- leaves. The most interesting form of bas It occurs in some columns in the high river-banks ^ust below the town of St. Helen. These columns have been brought to view by the gradual process of denudation ; and now project a dozen feet or so of their tops from the incline of the high bluffs. They consist of uniform blocks, of about ten inches in thickness, having six sides, — laid one above another so as to appear like a solid pillar. But their great peculiarity is that each individual block has a similar-sized chip off the lower sid on its northwest corner or angle. With this exception the blocks are flat. Occasionally one gets thrown off, and so the columns never appear at any great height above the earth; but their fragments strew the I'iver bank for a long distance. This basaltic outflow evidently came from Mount St. Helen. On any of the sand-bars in the Lewis or the Cathlapootle River, whii.'h debouches into the Columbia on the opposite .side, are to be found water- rolled fragments of pumice-stone in abun- dance; and there are seasons of high water which bring down from Mount St. Helen by some of its streams — the Cowlitz in particular — so much white volcanic ash as to render the water milky in its appearance. It is somewhat remarkable that, while on the Oregon side the basalt covers every stratified rock or sedimentary deposit, on the Washington side the hills are im- mense deposits of coarse gravel or sand and water-rolled stones. About in the central portion of the Wallaraot Valley are some gravel-beds of no great thickness ; while in Washington, along the Columbia and in the Puget Sound i-egion, the soil is gravelly to an extent which renders it almost unfit for cultivation. Did the facilities which the sound offered for drainage prevent the deposit of soil-making matter during the period of its submergence? There are evidences, in the elevated beaches of the Oregon and Washington coast, of great changes of water level over i : h 190 ATLANTIS ARISEN. that portion of these countines west of the Cascades. At Shoal- water Bay, for instance, where the action of the surf has under- mined large portions of the bluff shore, breaking it otf, there are, exposed to the eye of any observer, vertical sections of sedimentary deposit one hundred feet above the present sea- level. Mixed with this deposit, and sometimes occui-ring in beds, are vast numbers of sea-shella, of the kinds now common to our oceans. The presence of oyster, clam, and other shells, only found in shallow water ; as also of trunks of trees, leaves, seeds, and cones, — their forms preserved unbroken, — proves these fossils to have been deposited quietly in water of no i^reat depth, and to have remained undisturbed since. Granting this apparent fact, the waters in Avhich they were deposited must have stood more than a hundred feet higher than the present level of the ocean, or enough higher than the highest of these deposits to have sufficiently covered them. •Mr. Condon's theory, to which reference has already been made, supposes what is now the Wallamet Valley to have been the basin of a largo body of water, to which, in an article in the Overland Monthly, of November, 1871, he gives the name of the Wallamet Sound. The conclusion of that article has this interesting summing up : " And now, with our amended theory in mind, as a meai=f the precious metal. Travelling overland to and from C' ifoi'nia gave them opportunities of obsor^'ing the nature of the country, and it was not long before the gold- hunters stopped north of the California line. As early as 1852 18 tt \ ;!!pa ;!r i4 ft 194 ATLANTIS AEISEX. good placer diggings began to be discovered, and for a number of years were worked with profit. They still yield moderately, but are chiefly abandoned to the Chineh'^ miners, who content themselves with smaller profits than our own people. Jackson County was formerly divided into several mining dis- tricts, the gold being placer and coarse gold. Formerly nuggets were found not far from Jacksonville worth from ten dollars to forty dollars, one hundred dollars, and even nine hundred dollars ; but such discoveries are i-are of late. I note, however, the recent discovery of a three-hundred-dollar nugget in Jack- son County. From first to last Jackson County has contributed thirt}' million dollars to the gold market of the world. Without going into mining geology, it is suflSeient to remark that the rocks of Rogue River Valley, where gold jjlacers were discovered on Jackson Creek in 1852, are of the Cretaceous period rnaijily, instead of the earlier Jurassic. All the aurifer- ous rocks are metamorphio, and tilted up at high angles. It is not among rocks of this formation that large or continuous veins are to be looked for, while small gold-bearing veins of quartz are numerous and often misleading. The annual pro- duction of gold in Jackson County had dwindled in 1870 to two hundred thousaud dollars per annum, which was mined by Chinamen. ' ■ - . - At Wagner Creek, in Rogue River Valley, arc some quartz mines that have yielded fairly well. Gold Ilill, discovered in 1860, and located at the extreme western limit of the valley, is re- garded by geologists and miners with a curious interest, — by the former because it is in the midst of a tract of eruptive granite unlike anything else in this region, and by the latter on account of its wonderful promise and pitiable failure. A pocket yielded one thousand ounces per week at the first, which was expended in mining machinery, and it was then discovered that the claim Avas exhausted. The most recent discovery in Rogue River Valley is of a reputed silver-bearing ledge on Evans's Creek, assaying ninety dollars per ton in silver and two dollars in gold. There was scarcely a stream in Southern Oregon which would not pay to Avork, and all were tested. The well paying were Jackson, Althouse, Apple^ute, and Illinois Rivers; ai:d the best of those were the streams tributary to Applegate, Illinois, and THE MINERALOGY OF OREGON. 195 middle Eogue Elvers, where mining is still carried on by the hydraulic process, and where large sums have been expend od in the construction of mining ditches. The Stirling Mine, south- west of Jacksonville, is the most important bj'draulic mine in the State, and is owned in Portland. Near Waldo, in Josephine County, there is another well-equipped and paying gravel mine. The water is conveyed to it by a ditch twenty-three miles long, capable of delivering one million two hundred and fifty thousand gallons per hour. Its width is eight feet at top and four at bot- tom, and it is three feet deep. The hydraulic mean pi-essure employed is three hundred feet, with three nozzles of six inches aperture. The slope of this ditch is thirteen feet to the mile. Near Uniontown is a hydraulic claim owned and worked by a Chinaman, who employs his countrymen. Water is brought to it by a ditch seven miles long, carrying one million four hundred thousand gallons per hour during the season. The cost of these ditches was ten thousand and twelve thousand dollars lespcctively. The Applegate ditch, which furnishes water to several claims, is five miles long, with a width at top of six feet, at bottom of three feet, and a depth of three feet. The slope is twenty-two feet. Squaw Lake ditch, twelve and a half miles long, cost, with the dam at the foot of the lake, twenty-six thousand dollars. These ditches render available a large extent of auriferous ground whose working would other- wise be debarred by elevation. Squaw Lake, situated on the Oregon and California line, is a considerable body of water, with an altitude of five thousand feet. A new hydraulic mine has recently been opened in Southern Oregon, at a cost of t^'^euty- two thousand dollars, which promises to return double or treble that amount per annum. It yields twelve and a half cents per yard, which is considered rich dirt. Some nuggets have been picked up in this claim valued at from tiiree hundred and fifty to five hundred dollars. This is a Blue Gravel mine, situated on the Klamath, and there are other claims on this deposit. Douglas County lias several mining localities, the best of which are on the affluents of the South Umpqua Kiver. Of these the chief ia Cow Creek, where the placers are extensive and nave been worked for thirty years. Quartz mines are also found in the lateral cafions. Two, the Lucky Queen and the Esther, have m Vt ! Ill i f ' *1 i'^i'i ll ;l I: Wi 196 ATLANTIS ARISEN. enjoyed some notoriety. They are just over the line in Josephine County, the Queen being a few miles only from Grant's Pass. The company expended tweniy-five thousand doUare on it, but abandoned it in 1879, since which it has been re-located. The Esther was also abandoned and its machinery sold, the company having expended as much as the mine produced. The ra'nes of the southern part of Josephine County yield annually about seventy thousand dollars. The pocket mines of Jackson County have furnished a total of about seven hundred thousand dollars, nearly all of which was yielded in the years from 1860 to 1865. The failure of quartz mining in Southern Ore- gon seems to be owing to a lack of skill and persistence quite as much as to the quality of the rock, which yields assays that should warrant the necessary expenditure to work them. Coos and Curry Counties, being of the same geological forma- tion as those immediately cast of them, have mines of the same character, quartz, gr /el, and placer, but not to so great an ex- tent as Josephine. Thoy have besides the black sand of gold beaches, which has been rained quite steadily ever since its discovery in 1852 by some half-breed Indians, at a place a few miles north of the Coquille River. In 1853 they sold their claim to McNamara Brothers for twenty thousand dollars. Pans of black sand taken from their claim yielded from eight to ten dollai's. Over one hundred thousand dollars wore taken from this claim, which led, as might be expected, to a rush from the valleys to the sea-shore. But few locations paid like the first one, and, alt hough the sand continues to be worked, no one makes more than fair wages. An ancient sea-beach, three miles inland, was discovered by Mr. Hinch, who took up a claim there which he sold for ten thousand dollars to John Pershbaker & Co., who sold it again for thirty thousand dollars. Like the first location on the lower beach, it was better than any afterwards taken. The beach sands are black in color because they are composed chiefly of magnetic iron, or oxide of iron, called magnetite. It is hard, strongly magnetic, and infusible. The particles of gold aceompanyitig the sand are extremely small, and so flaky that often they will flo;.t upon water, nor can they be brought to unite with quicksilver. This latter quality has caused miners to con- uBBMUcga THE MINERALOGY OF OREGON, 197 :fl lend that each particle is coated with a film of iron sulphide which prevents amalgamation, but the microscope reveals noth- ing to confirm this theory. It is easy to see that, with the sand so heavy and the gold so light, it must be difficult to capture a fortune fi nn beach mining, the sand of the ancier t beaches yielding an average of three dollars i)er ton. There are more than a hundred of these auriferous beaches, extending from Gray's Harbor on the north to Gold Bluff I^i California. Twenty- seven of theni have been worked. The most important of these are at Yaquina, Alseya, Cape Lookout, Umpqua, Coquille, Ellens- burg, and Chetco. The production varies. The estimate for 1883 in Curry County was twenl^y thousand dollars. On the other hand, one mine in Coos County yielded eighteen thousand dollars in twelve months. ^ -, Quartz and gravel mining are now on a better basis in Southern Oregon than formerly. There are more mills, more mining ditches, and altogether belter facilities for extracting the gold of the country, handled undoubtedly with a belter knowledge. What the farmer gets out of tlie earth in one shape the miner extracts in another, and the exchange of products results in a benefit to the agriculturist ; hence it is desirable to have a mining population for consumers, a happy comoina- tion which exists in Southern Oregon. ^ • The mines of Lane County lie high up on the Middle Fork and McKenzie Fork of the Wailamet Eiver in the foot-hills of the Cascade Range. The Bohemia mining district, on the Middle Fork, is about thirty-five miles southeast from Cottage Grove, on the Southern Pacific. The rock of this district is slate and granite, the veins cropping strongly and canying free gold at the surface. In general the quart:": is rose-colored, containing gold and silver, with galena, pyrites, zinc blende, and occasion- ally antimony. A small stamp-mill is at work in this district, and some rich gold discoveries have been made within the present }ear. ;i,., ,,,.;■,.,, The Blue River mining district on McKenzie Fork is in a rough and almost inaccessible region, abounding in the mag- nificent scenery of this lange, well wooded and well watered. The quartz veins in this district are in an amygdaloidal trap rock, or graywacke, an altered and decomposed form of igne- 198 ATLANTIS ARISEN. 0U8 rock, which rests upon gi-anite. The veins are largo, some of them twelve feet in thickness. The rock is easy to excavate near the surface, but will probably be found harder as it goes down. Free gold is found at the top. It has been known for twenty-five years that gold existed in tliis district, and the Treasure mine was worked by arastra for a little time, but abandoned as unprofitable. Moi*e recently it has been reopened by other parties, who find it to assay from thirty- dollars to forty dollars per ton, and to bo free milling. There are several locations on the Blue River ridge dating back no further than 1887. The Eureka, just .south of Treasure, is an extension of the same. It has been tested in a small mill, and yields from twenty dollars to thirty dollars per ton. A group of three locations, thrje-quarters of a mile west of Treasure, are incorporated together under the name of the Blue River Mining Company, and owned in Eugene. The assa^-s of the ore from thu Croesus vary from three dollars and Boventy-dve cents to one hundred and nine dollars per ton, and of the Im- perial from five dollars and fifty cents to twelve hundred dollars. This company has a small mill. The Lane County Mining Company also own tliree claims in this vicinity, but have worked only one, the Durango, which assays from two dollars and twenty-five cents to eighty-seven dollars per ton. The King-Bee, a large ledge, was worked to a limited extent twenty-five years ago, and abandoned. It assays from three dollars and seventy-five cents to two hundred and eleven dollars per ton, principally gold. Near the King-Bee is the Buck, owned in Eugene, which assays from four hundred dollars to nine hundred dollars. There are perhaps as many more claims on and immediately about Treasure Hill, which have yet to be heard fi'om. But there seems little doubt that this is a veritable gold-mining district. Discoveries were also made twenty-five years ago, as well as more recently, at the heads of the Santiam and Molalla Rivers, in the Wallamet Valley. On the latter, in Clackamas County, is a very thick ledge of bluish-white quartz, carrying free gold and pyrites, which a.ssays twentj'-five dollars in gold and two hundred and thirty five dollars in silver to the ton. Specimens from this district are shown which assay seven hun- THE MINERALOGY OF OREGON'. 199 Pi dred ounces of silver per ton, besides some gold. Other speci- mens not so rich contain cubic galena, copper, iron pyrites, and zinc blende, — a good smelting ore. The mines near Wilhoit Springs, on a branch of the Molalla, at an altitude of about twelve hundred feet above sea-level, are found in rocks of a more recent geological era than elsewhere. It is here that a deposit is found, of great extent, which is not rock at all, but a soft, light, silver-bearing earth, in some places sixty feet in depth, with a hardness about that of gypsum. In color it is a gray, varying to red or brown, with a specific gravity of 1.5. The silver contained varies from one to ten ounces per ton, with a small admixture of lead. No practical tests have been made of the value of this remarkable earth. The most promising mining districts of those bordering the Wallamet Yalley are situated on the North and South Forks of the Santiam, and are reached from the Southern Pacific by wagon from Turner, in Marion County. The formations are porphyritic and gi*anitic, similar to the belt along the range, north and south. Some slate, silicious and approaching sand- stone, is found. Quartz is abundant, and float carrying gold is frequently found in t^ 8 water-courses. Greenhorn district was discovered by Dr. E. 0. Smith, of Portland, in 18G4. Several locations were made, of which the White Bull became famous for giving to the world the most beautiful specimens of arbores- cent gold ever seen. The quartz was of the nature called " rotten," — that is, crumbling and stained ; and in it occurred what wei'e called "eagles' nests," which, in fact, they resembled, being cavities as lai'ge as the crown of a man's hat filled with sticks or straws of gold, which, on examination, proved to be skeins of the finest wiregold, as evenly twisted into threads as if it had passed through a thread-mill. These skeins were attached to the irregular pngies of the quartz on the walls of the cavity, and, crossing in every direction, held some bits of quartz in the tangles they made. The effect of the whole was surprising and magnificent. These elegant specimens, worth twice the gold they contained, were simply ground up like com- mon ore. There was another class of quartz in this mine which was hard, white, and stuck full of bits of gold from the size of a pin-head to a bird-shot. ! I' II (I pi 200 • ATLANTIS ARISEN. The sight of these treasurep naturally caused great excite- ment, and gave the owners hope of fabulous riches. A quartz- mill and saw mill "were purchased and set up in the district; but, like the Gold Hill mine in southern Oregon, which, indeed, it resembled, it suddenly failed, the pocket being exhausted. Af- terwards the mill was burned. A second effort to make some- thing out of this mine by other parties was also a failure, and a second mill was burned. It is believed, however, that with dif- ferent methods and concentration, this mine might bo made to pay, and recent developments go to confirm it. Another mine in this district, — the Canal Fork, — carries free gold at the surface only. By working-test it yields from nine- teen dollars to thirty dollars per ton. Lower down the ore be- comes very base with galena, and assays from two hundred dol- lars to five hundred ounces per ton ;.' silver. There is a mill on this mine which produced from two hundred tons five thousand dollars, or twenty-five dollars per ton. The cost of the mill and other expenses were twenty thousand dollars. Even at this amount the mine could be made, with good management, to pay. Other mines in the adjoining district of Galena assay well, and quartz leads charged with lead, copper, iron, and zinc sul- phides, the galena carrying silver, are frequent. One galena lode, four feet in width, assays forty ounces of silver to the ton, with no minerals prejudicial to smelting accompanying it. The Bonanza mine, owned by the Albany Mining and Milling Company, is in the Quartzvillo district of the Santiam. The ore is free gold in decomposed quartz, and resembles the product of the While Bull mine, assaying, in some instances, tweni3'-six thousand dollars to the ton. At present this mine promises to hold out for a year or more of milling, in which case the com- pany will secure an ample fortune for all. Why these mines are not more developed may be owing to several causes. Primarily, a heavy expense attends quartz mining anywhere, and in a country so difficult of access it is increased. Again, these locations have not been made by prac- tical miners, but by mei'chants and farmers, who have an assured living out of other pursuits, and who have neither the knowledge nor the capital to make a success of mining, but who T THE MIXERALOGY OF OREGON. d6i hold thoir discoveries by paient away from improvement by others. West Oregon has never had a mining population, except so far as they became such temporarily througli efforts to mend their fortunes in occasional rushes to placer diggings.* The nearly impenetrable character of the forest on the western slope of the Cascades, hiding Irom observation by travellers, and even explorers, the character of the rocks, is also a potential reason why so little is known of the mining possibilities of the Wal- lamet Valley. Quartz veins are found in rock — sandstone running into a smooth whetstone rock, with limestone and soapstono sugges- tions of a cretaceous origin — in Tillamook County. A few thousand dollars were spent in exploiting a claim on Trask River, which exhibited some good top rock that soon gave out. A working result of sixty-six dollars per ton was obtained from one location, but no development further has ever been made. The most interesting recent discovery in mining is of a de- posit of nickel near Eiddle, in Douglas County. It is owned by a California company who purchased it from the Oregon owners for three hundred thousand dollars, and eastern capitalists are neijotiatintj for it. It is claimed that the oi'e can be worked and refined at a profit of twenty-two dollars and fifty cents per ton. Natural gas is a recent discover^', made in Linn and other counties, which is regarded as of great importance. The indi- cations are confirmed by the very general presence of coal un- derlying the foot-hills in almost any part of West Oregon, espe- cially along the lower Columbia and in the Coast Range. Iron most fi'equontly is I'ound near the coal-beds, a feature which promises well for the future manufacturing interests of the State. Columbia County, which faces on the Columbia River, possesses these features in a striking degree, and combined with * Anexampleof m ning by unprofessional miners is this : William Ruble, of Salem, a farmer, and well advanced in life, has been working a mine in Josephine County for the past seven years. His claim consists of three hun- dred and fifty acres of gravel, out of which, without much capital, he has man- aged to obtain twenty-five thousand dollars, and to get his ground into good working shape. He could sell it now for ten thousand dollars per acre, but it is worth more to hold and work. ! '1 I <• i I 1 n J^ 1 ! ] If -i 1 1 i State somewhat by counties, it may not be without interest to present the following table of mineral productions by counties, which I borrow chiefly from statistics published by the State Board of Ap-viculture. Baker. — Gold in quartz and pladers, silver in I'^des, copper (native), coal(?), building-st'ines, nickel ore, limestone and marble, cinnaba.". Benton. — Coal, building-stone;., gold in bcacb sands, iTO\ pjritcs 14 210 ATLANTIS AEISEN. Clackamas. — Iron ore and ochres, gold in quartz lodes, copper ores, build- ing-stones, galena, coal. Clatsop. — Coal, potters' clay, iron ore, and jet. Columbia. — Iron ore, coal, salt springs, manganese ore. Coos. — Coal, gold in beach sand, stream plac3rs, and quartz lodes, plati- num and iridosmine, brick-clays, chrome iron, magnetic sands (auriferous). Crook. — Gold in p' icers and ledges, opal, building-stones, coal, mica, chalk, moss-agate, iron and copper ores. Curry. — Iron ore, gold in stream placers an^. beach sands, platinum and iridosmine, chrome iron ore, silver(?), coal(?), br.iate oi" lime, building- stones. Douglas. — Gold in lodes and placers, nickel =, . . xsilver, building- stones, copper, native and ore coal, salt springs, natuia' cen ent, chrome iron ore, platinum, and iridosmine. Gilliam,. — Coal(?). -■<■ Orant. — Gold in lodes and placers, silver in lodes, coa'., iron ore. Jackson. — Gold in lodes and placers, iron ore, quicksilver, mineral waters, graphite, building-stonos, coal, limestone, infusorial earth. Josephine. — Gold in lodes and placers, copper ores, heavy spar, limestone, and marble. Klamath. — Mineral waters. ..: .' V^ e ; ,' ^ - i I '" Lake. — Mineral waters. Lane. — Gold in quartz and placers, zinc ores, coal(?), magnetic iron ore. Linn. — Gold in quartz and placers, copper ores, galena, zinc blende. Malheur. — Nitrate beds, alkaline salts. Marion. — Gold and silver in quartz, limestone, bog iron ore. Morrow. — ■ " Multnomah. — Iron ore, building-stone.s. Polk. — Building-stones, salt sprinsrs, mineral waters, iron pjr: »' li ro- stone. Tillamook. — Gold in beach sands, coal, rock-salt, iron ores, building-stones, iron pyrifes. Umatilla. — G^ld in lodes on head-waters of Umatilla Eiver, placer^ on Columbia River, coal and iron ore. Union. — Gold in lodes and placers, silver in lodes, hessite, ochre. Wallowa.— (ioidi in lodes, silver in lodes, t^per, building-stones. Wasco. — Mineral waters. - Washington. — Yamhill. — Mineral springs, iron pyrites. , rt^ THE FORESTS OF THE NORTHWEST. 211 CHAPTER XVI. A TALK ABOUT THE FORESTS OF THE NORTHWEST. s on In the Northwest the forests are foand nhnost exclusively on the mountains. Along the margins of streams there is usually a belt of timber a quarter of a mile in breadth ; and ci Puget Sound the timber reaches from the mountains down to this inland sea, the same as on the outer coast. On the Columbia this bolt, even on the low grounds, is wide, and, as there is a range of highlands of considerable elevation extending from the mouth of this river to and beyond its passage through the (-ascade Mountains, with only occasional depression?-, there is a great body of timber within reach of tide-water. The base of the Joast Mountains on the west comes within two to six miles of the sea, and frequent spurs reach quite to the beach, forming high promoiitories. From the coast to the eastern base of the Coast Mountains is a distance of from twenty to thirty miles. Allowing for the margin of level land toward the sea and for openings among the foot-hills on the eastern side, hei-e is an immense body of forest lands extending the whole length of the State, from north to south. Again, the Cascade Range has a base from east to west of about forty miles, including the foot-hills. All the west side of this range is densely wooded; making another great supply of timber. The east side, having an entirely diflFerent climate, does not support the same heavy growth of trees. These forests furnish a most interesting study to the botanist Bemnning our observations on the coast, we find that near the sea we have, for the characteristic tree, the black spruce (Abies Menziesii). It grows to a diameter of eight feet, and to a con- siderable height, though not the tallest of the spruces. Its branches commence about thirty feet from the ground, growing densely, while its leaves, unlike the other species, grow all round the twig. The foliage is dai'k green with a bluish cast. The bark is reddish and scaly, and the cones, which grow near the ends of the branches, are about two inches in length, and t; 212 ATLANTIS ARISEN. purplish in color. In appearance it resembles the Norway spruce. It loves a moist climate and soil, growing on brackish marshes and inundated islands. The timber is used in making packing-boxes for fruit, as it has no strong flavor like the fir. The Oregon cedar {Thuya gigantea) grows very abundantly near the coast. This tree attains to a very great size, being often from twelve to fifteen feet in diameter, but is not so high as the spruce. The branches commence about twenty feet from the ground. Above this the wood is exceedingly knotty; but the lumber obtained from the clear portion of the trunk is highly valued for finishing work in buildings, as it is light and soft, and does not shrink or swell like spruce lumber. For shingles and rails it is also valuable, from its durability. The Indians make canoes of the cedar nearly as light and elegant as the famous birch canoes of more northern tribes. Formerly they built houses of planks split out of cedar with no bettor implement than a stone axe and wedge. An axeman can rplit enough in two or three days to build himself a cabin. This tree is nearly allied to the arbor vitce, which it resembles in foli- age, having its leaves in flat sprays that look as if they had been pressed. On the under side of the spray is a cluster of small cones. The bark is thin, and peels oif in long strips which are used by the Indians to make matting, and a kind of cloth used for mantles to shed the rain. It is also used by them to roof their houses, make baskets, etc. Altogether, it is the most useful tree of the forest to the native. Hemlock-spruce (Abies Canadensis) is next in abundance near the coast. It grows much taller than the cedar, often to one hundred and fifty feet, and has a diameter of from six to eight feet. The color is lighter and tho foliage finer than that which grows in the Atlantic States, and the appearance of the tree is veiy graceful and beautiful. Another tree common to the coast is the Oregon yew {Taxus brevifolia). It is not very abundant, grows to a height of thirty feet, and flourishes best in dump woods and marshy situ- ations. The wood is very tough, and u.sed by the Indians for arrows. When much exposed to the sun, in open plaetis, the foliage takes on a faded, reddish appearance. It bears, a small, sweet, coral-red berry, of which the birds are verj' fond. -fil THE FORESTS OF THE NORTHWEST. 213 A few trees of the red fir (Abies Douglassii) occur in the Coast Mountains, but are not common ; also an occasional white spruce (Abies taxifolia), and north of the Columbia small groves of a scrub-pine (P. contorta) appear on sandy pi-airies near the sea- beach. It grows onl)- about forty feet high, and has a diameter of two feet. Of the broad-leaved, deciduous trees which grow near the coast, the white miiple (Acer macrophyllum) is the most beauti- ful and useful. It grows and decays rapidly, — the mature tree attaining to the height of eighty feet, and a diameter of six feet; then decaying from the centre outward, lets its branches die and fall off, while from the root other new trunks spring up and attain a considerable size in four or five years. The wood has a beautiful grain, and is valuable for cabinet manufactures, taking a high polish. The foliage is handsome, being very broad and of a light green. In the spring long racemes of yellow flowers give the tree a beautiful and ornamental appear- ance, which make' it sought for as a shade-tree. The Oregon alder (Almis -Oregona) is another cabinet-wood of considerable value. The tree grows to a height of sixty feet, with a diameter of two or three feet. It has a whitish-gray bai'k, and foliage much resembling the elm. On short stems, near, the ends of the branches, are clusters of very small cones, not more than an inch in length. When grown in open places, with sufficient moisture, it is a graceful and beauf^ul tree. Three species of poplar are found near the coast, — the cotton- wood (Populus MoniUfera), the quaking asp, Populus Tremuloides, and the balsam-tree (or P. Angustifolia). They are found on the borders of streams and by the side of ponds or springs, but not so abundant near the coast as east of the Coast Mountains. Along the banks of ci'ceks and rivers grows one kind of willow (Salix Scouleriana), about thirty feet in height, and not more than a foot in diameter, with broad, oval leaves ; of very little value. The vino-maple (A. Circinaturn) is more a shrub than a tree, seldom growing more than six to twelve inches thick near the groupd, and not more than twelve to twent}', rarely thirty, feet in height. It grows in prostrate thickets, in shaded places, twining back and forth and in every direction. The wood being ' 214 ATLANTIS ARISEN. *: Sl- veiy tough, it is almost impossible to get through them ; and they form one of the most serious obstructions to surveying or hunting in the mountains. The leaf is parted in seven dentated points, and is of a light green. These bushes make a handsome thicket at any lime from early spring to late autumn, being ornamented with small red flowers in spring and with brilliant scarlet leaves in autumn. Another shrubby tree^ which makes dense ti>ickets in low or overflowed lands, is the Oregon crab-apple {Pyrus Rivularis). This really pretty tree grows in groves twenty feet in height, and so clo.sely as with its tough, thorny branches to form im- penetrable barriers against any but the smaller animals of the forest. The fruit is small and good-flavored, growing in clusters. The tree is a good one to graft upon, being hardy and fine- grained. Another tree used to graft on is the wild cherry (^Cerasiis Mollis), which closely resembles the cultivated kinds, except in its small and bitter fruit. In open places it becomes a branch- ing, handsome shade-tree, but in damp ravines sometimes shoots up seventy' feet high, having its foliage all near the top. When we undertake to pierce the woods of the Coast Moun- tains, we find, in the first place, the gi'ound covered as thickly as they can stand with trees from three to fourteen feet in diameter, and from seventy to thi'co hundred feet in height. Wherever there is room made by deca}-, or fire, or tempest, springs up another thicker growth, of which the most fortu nately located will live, to the exclusion of the others. Every ravine, cieek, margin, or springy piece of ground is densely covered with vine-maple, cotton-wood, or crab-apple. As if these were not enough for the soil to support, every interstice is filled with shrubs, some tough and wood}-, others of the vining and thorny description. Of shrubs, the sallal (Gaultheria Shallo7i) is most abundant. It varies greatly in height, growing seven or eight feet tall near the coast, and only two or three in the forest. The stem is reddish, the leaves glossy, green, and oval, and the flower piak. It.s fruit is a berry of which the Indians are very fond, tasting much like summer- apple. This shrub is an evergreen. Three varieties of huckleberries belong to the same range, — THE FORESTS OF THE NORTHWEST. 215 one, an evergreen, having fruit and flowers at the same time. This is the Vaccinium Ovatum, with leaves like a myrtle, and a black, rather sweet berry. The second has a very slender stalk, SLiall, deciduous leaves, and small acid berries of a bright scarlet color. This is V. Ovalifolium. The third — V. Parvifolium — resembles more the huckleberry of the Eastern States, and bears a rather acid blueberry. In favored localities these ai'o as fine as those varieties which grow in Massachusetts or Michigan. In addition to these is a kind of false huckleberry, bearing no fruit; and a species of barberry, resembling that found in New England. Of gooseberries there are also three varieties, none of them producing very good fruit. They are Bibes Laxiflorum, J5r. ''e- oseum, and Lacustre. The salmon-berry {Rubus Spectabilis) is abundant on high banks and in openings in the forest. It resembles the yellow raspberry Of plants that creep on the ground there are several varieties, some of them remarkably pretty. Of wild roses, spircea, wood- bine, mock-orange, thorn-bushes, and other familiar shrubs, there are plenty. The devil's walking-stick (Echinophanax horridum) is a shrub deserving of mention. It grows to the height of six feet, in a single, thorny, green stem, and bears at the top a bunch of broad leaves, resembling those of the white maple. When en- countered in dark thickets it is sui-e to make itself felt, if not seen. Add to all that has gone before, great ferns, — from two to fourteen feet in height, with tough stems, and roots far in the ground, — and we have the eai'th pretty much covered from sun and light. These are the productions, in general, of the most western forests of Oregon. When we try lu penetrate such tropical jungles, we wonder that any animals of much size — like the elk, deer, bear, panther, and cougar — get through them. Nor do all these inhabit the thickest portions of the forest, but the elk, deer, and bear keep near the occasional small prairies which occur in the mountains, and about the edges of clearings among the foot-hills, except when driven by foar to hide in the dark recesses of the woods. In the fall of the vear, when the acorn ! n1 216 ATLANTIS ARISEN. crop is good in the valley between the Coast and Cascade Moun- tains, great nuuiberrt of the black bear are killed by the farmers who live neur the mountains. As this region just described is, so is the whole mountain system of West Oregon and Washington. Along the eastern slope of the Coast Eange, around Puget Sound, along the Co- lumbia highlands above a point forty miles from its mouth, and on the western slope of tbo Cascades, the same luxuriance of growth prevails. Indeed, nearly all the trees enumerated — the black spruce and scrub-pine are exceptions — belong equally to the more eastern region. And the same of the shrubs. But in this more eastern portion grovv some trees that will not flourish in the soil and climate of the coast. Of these the most important is the red fir (Abies Douglassii). Very extensive forests of it inhabit the mountain-sides and Columbia Elver highlands. It grows to a great height, its branches commencing fifty feet from the ground. The bark is thick and deeply fur- rowed, the leaves rather coarse, and the cone is distinguished from other species by having three-pointed bracts between the scales. The red fir is more used for lumber than any other kind, though it is of a coarse grain and shrinks very much. It is tough and durable if kept dry. It is a very resinous wood, from which cause large tracts of it are burnt off every year. Yet it keeps fire so badly in the coals that tljere is little danger of the cinders carrying fire when buildings constructed of it are burned : it goes out before it alights. The yellow fir (^4. Grandis) is also a tree which does not like sea-air, and is very valuable for lumber. It is distinguishable at a distance b}'^ its superior height, often over three hundred feet, and by the short branches of the top, which give it a cylindri- cal shape. It is admirably adapted for masts and spars, being fine-grained, tough, and elastic. The best of lumber is made from this fir, and large quantities of it a' exported from the Columbia River. The bark of the yellow fir is smoother and not so deeply furrowed as the red, and the oval cone is destitute of bracts. The other species of fir are Abies ccncolor, called white fir in California, and found in the mountains south of the Three THE FORESTS OF THE NORTHWEST. 217 Sisters; Abies nobilis, inhabiting the mountains at an elevation of three thousand to five thousand feet ; Abies amabilia, or lovely fir, the most beautiful of its genus; and Abies sub-alpina, a mountain tree. The hemlocks are the mountain hemlock, known as Abies Williamsonii and Pattoniana. Sitka cedar, Cu- pressus nutkaensis, is found at the base of Mount Hood ; and Libocedrus decurrens, thick-barked cedar, from Santiam Eiver southward. Of foliaceous trees not found on the coast, is the oak (Querciis jarryana), which does not attain a very great size, not growing more than fifty feet high, except in rich, alluvial lands, where it attains fine dimensions. Another and smaller scrub-oak {Quercus Kelloggii) is common, and the wood is good for axe- helves, hoops, and similar uses. The wood of the larger variety is used for making staves, and the bark for tanning. Of all the trees growing along water-courses, the Oregon ash {Fraxiiius Oregona) is the most beautiful. In size it compares closely with the white maple. Its foliage is of a light yellow- green, the leaves being a narrow oval. Like the maple, it has clusters of whitish-yellow flowers, which add greatly to its grace and delicacy of coloring. The wood is fine-grained, and is useful for manufacturing purposes. A little back from the river, j-et quite near it, we find the Oregon dogwood (Cornus Nuttalii). It is a much handsomer tree than the dogwood of the Atlantic States, making, when in full flower and in favored situations, as fine a display of broad, silvery-white blossoms as the magnolia of the Southern States. As an ornamental tree it cannot be surpassed, having a fresh charm each season, from the white blossoms of spring to the pink leaves of late summer and the scarlet berries of autumn. Its ordinary height is thirty or forty feet, but in moist ravines and thick woods it stretches up towards the light until it is seventy feet high. A very ornamental wild cherry, peculiar to Oregon —a species of choke-cherry — is found near water-courses. The flowers are ari'anged in cylindrical racemes of the length of three or four inches, are white, and very fragrant. It flowers early in tho spring, at the sai-ie time with the service-berry, when the woody thickets along the rivers are gleaming with their snowy sprays. •J- 'I • r ti ; 218 ATLANTIS ARISEN. r ■ A broad-leaved evergreon is the arbutus (A. Menziesii), com- monly called laurel, which is found in the forests of the middle region from Puget Sound, north of the Columbia, to California and Mexico. In Spanish countries it is known as the madrono- tree. The trunk is from one foot to four feet in thickness, and when old is generally twisted. The bark undergoes a change of color annually ; the old, dark, mahogany-colored bark scaling off, as the new, bright, cinnamon-colored one replaces it. Tho leaves are a long oval, of a bright, rich green, and glossy. It flowers in the spring, and bears scarlet berries in autumn re- sembling those of the mountain-ash. Altogether, it is one of the handsomest of American trees. White oak, Quercus garryana, is common to all parts of West Oregon and Washington, but the Quercus Kelloggii, or black oak, is confined to the southern and middle counties of Oregon. Mountain-ash, Pyrus sambucifolia, a beautiful ornamental tree, is a native of the sub-alpine ranges. Chittim-wood or be».i*- l: ycvy, Rhamnua pursh'ana, a shrubby tree growing in the valleys, furnishes a bark whicu ib an article of commerce, being exten- sively used in the })reparation of cathartic and tonic medicines. A very peculiar and ornamental shrub is the holly-leaved bar- berry (^Berberis aquifolium). It has rather a vining stalk, from two to eight feet high, with leaves shaped like holly leaves, but arranged in two rows, on stems of eight or ten inches in length. It is an evergreen, although it seems to cast off some of its foliage in the fall to renew it in the spring. While preparing to fall, the leaves take the most brilliant hues of any in the forest, and shine as if varnished. The fruit is a small cluster of very acid berries, of a dark, bluish purple, about the size of the wild grape, from which it takes its vulgar name of "Oregon grape." In damp places away from the rivers grows the rose colored spircea (S. Douglassii), in close thickets ; it is commonly known as hardback. Near such swamps are others of wild roses of several varieties, all beautiful. I am not able to give the names of all the numerous kinds of trees and shrubs which grow in close proximity in the forests of the Northwest, although I have been at some trouble to do so. Beginning at the river's brink, we have willows, from the red cornel, whose crimson stems are so beautiful, to the coarse, THE FORESTS OF THE NORTHWEST. 219 broad-leaved G. pubescens, ash, cotton-wood, and balsam-poplar. On the low ground are roses, crab-applo, buckthorn, wild cherry ; a little higher, service-berry, wild cherry again, red-flowering currant, white spircea, mock-orange, honeysuckle, low blackberry, raspberry, dogwood, arbutus, barberry, snowborry, hazel, elder, and alder. Gradually mixing with these, as they leave the lino of high water, begin the various firs, which will not grow with their roots in watei-. As the forest increases in density the flowering shrubs disappear, to reappear at the first opening. The blue elder becomes a handsome tree forty feet in height in the Columbia region, and two other varieties, with red and yellow berries, arc highly ornamental. It would be impossible to exaggerate the beauty of such masses of luxuriant and flowering shrubbery covering the shores of the streams. Even the great walls of basalt which are fre- quently exposed along the Columbia are so overgrown with minute ferns, and vivid-green mosses and vines, as to be much more beautiful and picturesque than they are forbidding. In the Southern Oregon forests one finds some trees and shrubs not found in the Wallamet division of Oregon, nor in that part of Washington drained towai'ds the Columbia, — namely, the mj'rtle, Umbellularia Californica (preodaphne), a beautiful tree with glossy foliage, and one hundred feet in height ; Port Orford cedar, Cupressus lawsoniana {chamcecyparis), one of the most valuable trees of commerce, growing two hundred feet high ; redwood (Sequoia semper virens), two hundred and fifty feet in height ; nutmeg, resemblin'^ the myrtle, and found in the same habitat, bearing a smalk i-vli than that of commerce. In the southern valleys the live-oak (Quercus chrysolepis), chestnut-oak (Quercus densiflora) ; on the foot-hills of the Cascade Range, the chinquapin {Castanopsis chrysophylla), sugar-pine {Pinus lamber- tina), a magnificent tree, two hundi'ed and fifty feet in height, bearing cones eighteen inches in length, and having a sweet and viscid sap, which when dry i-esembles sugar ; and Pinus tuber- culata, a small tree found in patches. The flowering shrubs of Southern Oregon, not common to the Columbia and Wallamet regions, are the manzanita (Arctostaphylos pungens), blue spiraea, found on the Umpqua and at Coos B&y, and the Rhododendron maximus, found there and also on the foot-hills of the Cascades. |r7- I i ' i ' ' 'i M 1 !■ t ; Mi 'i 1 .i B ' Ti H ; 1 ■. ,1 . 1 ' 1 , ; i • ' '■■ 4l I! 1 ' 220 ATLANTIS ARISEN. It is a singular fact that this beautiful shrub reappears as far north as Port Townsond, w hile it avoids intermediate country in both Oregon and Washington. On the east side of the Cascades and on the Blue Mountains, the trees not common to the whole State are the larch, or tama- rack (^Larix occidentalis), used for lumber ; Larix lyallii, a small larch ; Pinus albicaulis, a mountain pine ; Pinus monticola, or silver pino ; mountain mahogany, Cercocarpus ledifoUus ; Juni- pens occidentalis, mountain juniper; and along the stroivms in . East Oi-egon and "Washington a ttmall birch, Betula occidentalis, the box-elder, and the sumach. Doubtless some lew trees and many shrubs have escaped notice, but the omissions are unim- portant. All that is hero said of Oregon nlies equally to Washington, where Puget Sound might bt ' for Columbia Eiver, while the trees of the mountain raui^v.. and soa-cuast are the same in both States, with some local exceptions, such as that of the Port Orford cedar. Washington contains more largo bodies of timber standing on level ground than Oregon does. An immense extent of fir and cedar forest encircles the whole sound and borders all the rivers, besides that which is found on the foot-hills of the Cascade and Coast ranges. It is estimated that three-fourths of West Wash- ington is covered with forest, a large proportion of which is the finest timber in the world, for size and durability. It is nothing unusual to find u piece of several thousand acres of fir, averaging three and a half feet in diameter at the stump, and standing two hundred feet without a limb, the top being seventy feet higher. Three hundred feet is not an extraordinary growth in Washington. It is estimated that the area of forest land in Oregon and Washington covers sixty-five thousand square miles. Not all of this timber is accessible, nor all of it valuable for market, and yet the quantity is immense that is marketable. Some day it will all be found fit for lumber-making, but at pres- ent only the largest and straightest trees are sawed up, and those in a very wasteful manner, a great deal being thrown away and burned up, except in East Washington, where, timber being scarce and the mills located in the mountains, slab and unmar- ketable lumber is cut up into firewood. The mills of Oregon m.inufafture about one hundred and MM If THE F0UEST8 OF THK NORTHWKST. 221 Hovonly million feet of liiml)er annuiilly ; those of Pugot Sound and tho East Washington mills, one billion foot. Most of the Oregon production is eonrtumed at home, while the Washington output is very largely exported. Tho kinds of timber adapted to lumbering purposes are known as the red, white, and yellow fir, cetlar, hemlock, and, in some localities, pine and larch. The red fir constitutes the great bulk of common lumber; tlie yellow fir is used where strength and elasticity are required, tm in spars of vessels, piles, wharves, bridges, and liouse-buildiiig ; and cedar for foundations of houses, fence-posts, and inside finishing of houses. The cabinet-woods are maple, alder, and arbutus. There is oak for stu' h and other purposes ; but nothing that answers for wagon-making grows on those mountains. Hemlock becomes valuable as furnishing bark for tanning leather. Ash is used for some mechanical purposes, and makes excellent firewood. The red fir, being very resinous, might be made valuable for its pitch. Oregon turpentine is of superior quality, but, owing to the high freights and high rates of labor on this coast, has not heretofore proved profitable as an export. It is common to find a deposit of dried pitch or resin in the trunks of large fir- trees — especially those that have grown on rocky soil — of one to two inches in thickness, either forming a layer quite round the heart of the tree or extending for fifty feet up through the tree in a square " stick." Trees that have been destroyed by fire have their roots soaked full of black pitch or tar, and even the branches of growing trees drop little globules of clear white pitch on the ground. This wood makes excellent charcoal, in the burning of which a great deal of tar might be saved by providing for its being run off from the pit. There is also plenty of willow wood for making charcoal growing on all the bottom-lands. Fires ai*e permitted to destroy much fine timber every year, settlers being unable to remove the heavy growth by any other means. hP .JP 222 ATLANTIS ARISEN. Hi CHAPTER XVI I. ABOUT THE BOTANY OP THE N0RTHWF8T. j! 1. Many of the flowering shrubs of Oregon and Washington have already been mentioned in the chapter on forests. One of the first to blossom is the red flowering currant (Ribes sanguine- rum), which puts forth its flowers before its leaves are fully expanded, like the Judas-tree of the Missouri Vallo}', which it resembles in color. There appear to be two or three varieties of this species, as the color varies from a pale rose-color to si full crimson. Tha flower is arranged in clusters upon a slender stem like the green I'lussoms of the garden currant, but is much larger, and of a dlfl'erent dhape. The bush is nighly oriiamcntal when in blossom, and generally introduced into gardens for deco- ration. It flowers in March. East of the CascadeLi is a ycll-^w species very similar. Both of these grow near streams, and in the edge of the forest. Of the spircea there are sevei^al specks. Tlie wax-berry, with its tiny pink flowers and delicate leaves, Is found in bottom-lands and on river-banks. In autumn the bottoms of lup Columbia furnish thickets of wax-berries which, gro\ying side by side with the wild roses, make a pretty contrast to the crimson capsules of the latter. In higher ground, yet subject to overflow, is found the Spircea tomentosa , or hardback, as it is commonly called, which grows in thickets and bears a duster of a purplish-pink color. But the most beautiful of the spirceaa is the kind known as sea-foam (^S. aricefolia), which its great creamy-white clusters really resemble. This grows along the river-banks and in the shade of the forest's edge, and blooms in Juno and July, accord- ing to its locality. It sometimes grows to a height of twenty feet in the shade, though usually about five or six feet high. The stems are very delicate, like all the spirceas, and bend most gracefully with the weight of the clusters. Side by side, usually, with the last-named spircea is the beauti- ful mock-orange {Philadelphus), with its silvery-white flowerd crowding the delicate green leaves out of sight. Throughout THE BOTANY OF THE NORTHWEST 223 Oregon this shrub is called syringa, to which family it does not belong. It is very ornamental, and blooms in Juno and July. Of wild roses there are several sjiecies and many varieties, from the dainty little " dime rose," of a palo pink color, to the large and fragrant crimson rose which grows in overflowed ground. There are always some roses to be found from June to December. It is usual to find the shrubs here mentioned growing in close proximity; and these, with the flowers of the woodbine {Lonicera Occidentalis), and the blossoms of various kinds of wild fruit trees, make a perfect tangle of bloom and sweetness along the river-banks in .mmmer. We have elsewhere spoken of the dogwood, which is as hand- some as a magnolia-tree when in blossom, and of the wild cherries and other fruits whose flowers are sweet and beautiful. The Oregon grape, or holly-leaved barberry, bears a flower that is very ornamental, of a bright yellow color, in clusters a finger long. The leaves of this sh>'ub are also very beautiful, which makes it desirnble to cultivate. Its fruit is ripe in August, and is of a bluish-purple, like the damson plum. In Southern Oregon, the Rhododendron maximmn is one of the glories of the mountain-tops, with its immense branches of rose- colored flowers. It is occasionally seen in gardens. The buft- colored Azalea occidentalis is also confined to the southern and eastern portions of Oregon. It is sa'd that the clematis grows east of the Cascades, but we have not seen it ; and also the ^\ex- leaved mahonia. The wild gra\\e (Vitis Californica) is another sbrub or vi. which is confined to the southern portion of Ore- gon. In the Eogue Eiver Valley, in October, it is a striking ornament in the landscape, the foliage being turned a rich ruby-red color, and forming clumps upon the ground or hang- ing pendent from way-side trees. It does not seem, however, to furnish much fruit. Of field flowers there are a great many in all pans of Oregon and Washington, beginning witli ilie early spring to beautify the earth, and kind succeeding kind throughout the summer and autumn. There are, especially near the Columbia, where the soil which covers the rocks is often a thin, black mould, countless varieties and species of very minute flowers, so small frequently as to need a microscope to analyze them successfully, but of III! 224 ATLANTIS ARISEN. I have found within the range of an lovely shapes and colore acre forty kinds of flowering plants in the month of July, half of them of this minute size. Of the plants peculiar to the Northwest which bear handsome flowers the Camas family isprominert. The Camasia escidenta, or edible camas, of whose roots the Indians make bread, grows about eighteen inches high, and bears at top a bunch of star- shaped flowers, of a beautiful lavender color, with a golden centre. The leaves grow from the root, and are lanceolate. The places where they are most abundant usually are called '■ Camas prairies," and they form a feature of Eastern Oregon and Idaho. They are also plentiful in Western Oregon. The flowering season is about the middle of May near the Lower Columbia. There are several species of the camas, one of which is poisonous. Only a very thorough and industrious botanist could enumer- ate the flowering plants native to this country. Among the most useful is the yellow lupine, which with the white, blue, and purple varieties grows abundantly in East Oregon. The yellow variety is found to be a power in reclaiming the sandy wastes where it is sown. The seed should be mixed with rye, which grows faster and protects the young plant from the en- ci'oachments of the sand; but once the lupine is fairly" above the ground it becomes aggressive, not only defending itself, but absorbing the life of the rye. In the autumn the lupine sheds its leaves, which form a pasty muck over the ground, while new ones start out; and this it does for five years, when it dies, having fulfilled its mission. The ground can now be sown with grass and harrowed, when the grass comes up richly, and the billowy sand waste is a verdant plain. It was by this means that the military reservation and Golden Gate Park at San Francisco were reclaimed. The same method might be applied to making the sandy Union Pacific Eailroad line along the upper Columbia more comfortable, as well us more agreeable to the eye. The blue iris, familiar to all observers of the brook-side in spring, is not absent here; nor the purple larkspur; nor the musk-plant, Mimuhis longiflorus ; nor the Mimulus luteus; nor yet the buttercup, Ranunculus occidentalis. Violets blue and yellow embroider the verdant earth-mantle, and anemone detroidea shelters itself under every bush. Running over the ground in THE BOTANY OF THE NORTHWEST. 225 the open woods is the yerba buena, or "good herb," after wnich San Francisco was first named. It bears a tiny trumpet-shapeci flower close to the main stem. Botanists call it Micromeria Bouglassi, after David Douglass, Oregon's first explorer in this field of science, who vas killed by wild cattle on otie of the Hawaiian Islands v, iiilo in pursiiitof nis studies of plunis. The early settlors used its aromatic leaves in place of tea, which caused it to be called Oregon tea. Side by side with the yerlia buena is the twin-flower, Linncea borealis, with a very similar leaf, vine, and flower, except that it supports, upon a slender peduncle two inches in length, a pair of blossoms instead of a single one. The red columbine, Aquilegia formosa, looks quite at h<^vne among the ferns in woodsy places and on mossj' banks b^ the roadside ; and the adder's-tongue keeps compan}' with the anem- one among the bushes. The lilies, golden erythroniiim, Lilium canadense, and Lilium Washingtonium, display tlieir royal robes as in the days of King Solomon, some in the fence-corners, some among i crrass and ferns by the rivulet, and otherb in the grain-field^^ Tli. Wasluagtonium is a .a! ve of the Wallanut Valley. When it fi -.-. I :\i at 13 ift lure ) ^ ■ i T^^TTI^ CT1.W Jl. LWi!!W«ll '9T FROM OLYMPIA TO GEA.Y S HARBOR. 251 reminds me that the meaning of the word Hoquiam ia " hungry for wood." The growth and business of Cosmopolis and the two Aber- deens was incited by Hoquiam, which is the father of them all. The histor}' of this section is interesting. Gray's Harbor extends inland fifteen miles, and has a width for half that distance of twelve miles, gradually narrowing towards the etxst until it forms a rather sharp point at the mouth of the Chehalis Eivor. Tlie tout ensemble is not very different from an arrow-head. The entrance is between two sand spits, Point lirownj on the north, and Point Hanson (Che- halis, or Petersen's Point), on the south, and is a mile and a quarter witie, with a nearly straight channel a little north of east to the mouth of the river ; the water in the channel being for the greater part of the distance twenty-two feet at mean low water, and thirty-one feet and upw'ards at mean high water. North Bay and South Bay are north and south of the entrance, and separated from the sea only by long and narrow necks of low land. Channels from the main one ramify into these bays, also one to the mouth of John's River, which enters on the south side, another to Jones's Point, a little further east, which continues on to the mouth of the Chehalis, and is known as the South Channel. There is also a channel running north from the main one to the mouth of the Humptulii>s Eiver, an important stream, and to two other streams flowing into North Bay, besides some cross-channels ; and there is an anchorage of fully six thousand acres in the harbor where twenty-live feet at low tide is to be found. Nothing has ever been done to improve Graj-'s Harbor. Its commerce has been created by private enterprise alone ; but there is a petition before Congress asking for surveys and improvements, and to have it made a port of entry. xV very favorable f'^.-'^lt- 252 ATLANTIS ARISEN. i^i^ spent three days in it with his vessel, trading with the natives, who probably came out to him in canoes, as he makes no men- tion of any riv.-rs or the appearance of the shores. Gray pronounced the entrance a good one. Vancouver's lieutenant, Whidby, was ordered to survey it, but, after doing so, — veiy im- perfectly, it seems, — pronounced it "a port of little importance," which afforded " but two or three situations where boats could ajjproach sufficiently near to effect a landing." He also declared the water on the bar to be so shallow that it was impracticable for vessels even of f\ very moderate size to pass it except near high water, and then "with the utmost caution," because he believed it a shifting bar. Whether in compliment or not, he renamed it G-ray's Harbor. So doctors disagree. But it happened^ as it so often has, that the professional was wrong and the nor-professional right. The bar is quite straight and well defined by breakers on each side, with a channel through it a third of a mile in width, and a depth of water at low tide of twenty-two foet, and at high tide of from eight to fourteen more. Vessels go in and out all the time with perfect safety ; but a new survey is in progress, which will have the result — no doubt desired — of calling attention to the actual merits of the harbor. Whether it was the doubtful reputa 'on of this port or other inscrutable cause which prevented it, no commerce sought its waters. It is true that in 1850-51 a town-site was laid out by John B. Chapman, and named Chehalis City; but nothing ever came of it, and Chapman went to the Sound. In 1852 J. L. Scammon and four othei-s took claims where Montesano now (Stands, on the Chehalis ; but the only man who resided at the mouth of the river was James A. Karr, who settled on the east side of the Hoquiam River in 1858, and who still resides there. But one settler does not make a c^'nunercial jiort any more than one swallow makes a summer, and Karr remained solitary with all Asia in front of him until some lumber-dealers bethough t themselves of the fine timber in the Chehalis Valley and deter- mined to get it to market. In 1882 the Hoquiam Mill Company was organised, with Mr. George H. Emerson, manager, and a new era was inaugurated. The saw-mill of to-day is very unlike the saw-mill of the past. FROM OLYMPIA TO OUAY 8 HAEBOK. 253 It means stoara-powor, a vast amount of machinery, possibly a railroad, a large force of men both in the logging-camp and at the mill, with capital to set all in motion. No attempt was made at lirst, or at any time, by the mill company, to found a town at Iloquiam ; but the activity imparled to the lower Che- halis Yalloy by the company's businesB led Mr. Benn, before mentioned, to lay out a town on the Chebalis and invite other lumbering establishments to locate in it by oifering them a gen- erous portion of his land. These offers were at once accepted, and the town of Aberdeen was making rapid strides befcre the Hoquiam Land Company was formed, which is a separate con- cern fro.Tti the Northwestern Lumber Company which owns the Iloquiam mills. It was organized in 1889 by John G. McMillan and J. L. Whitney. Lots were readily disposed of to residents, and new- comers were attracted to this location, which had a greater depth of water along its front and looked out on the tine ex- panse of the harbor. The town was a little more than a year old when 1 paid my respects to ''* with the purpose of verifying the reports of it which I had received, aijd had then about fif- teen hundred inhabitants. I found the Northwestern Lumber Company to own thirteen hundred acres of fine timber, which would yield from two hundred thousand to five hundred thou- sand feet per acre. Their mill turned out from thirty-five thou- sand to one hundred thousand feet daily, which was used in building and street improvements with no need to export any. The company also carried on a general merchandising business amounting to two hundred and treiit\ thousand dollars per annum. A second milling establis!.Miont had just commenced operations. The town boasted an opera-house, gas- and water- works, a bank, a newspaper, the Washingtonian, and a board of trade. It was just completing a hotel of metropolitan size and elegance. The chief di'awback appeared to be the lack of trans- portation, steamship and sailing linos having not yet ai'ranged regular schedules, and the steamboat and railroad lino to the Sound being inadequate to the needs of this and all the other communities in the Orray's Harbor countrj', Great improve- ments rapidly followed, the traveller of to-day finding increased facilities of all kinds, and a (own of a growth which huM culled 'iiil 254 ATLANTIS ARISEN. ^m for several acMitions to the original town site. As a lesson in town-making Hoquiam might be studied with profit. Although the original business men of Hoquiam took no part at first in founding cities, Aberdeen and Hoquiam had demon- strated the resources of Chehalis Valley and the importance of Gray's Harbor as an outlet to them. Mr. Emerson was the possessor of a tract l^'ing three miles west of Hoquiam, and directly facing the main channel, but riot on it. It would require long wharves to reach out to deep water, but did not commerce build a Venice in the midst of the sea? and would it not more easily call into being a city which required only some expensive harbor improvements ? He answered this question by forming the Gray's Harbor Company, composed chiefly of eastern capitalists who were seeking a loca- tion. That coiTipany put money to his land, constructed a forty- thousand-dollar wharf, cleared and impi'oved the site of Gray's Harbor Cit\', all of which was pold for out of the sale of lots in the first six months, and pointed out to railroads the short cut to the seaboai'd, which they at once proceeded to take. The work of laying out the city began in the spring of 1889, at which time the ground was covered with a heavj' growth of timber. By employing hundreds of laborers this was removed, streets opened and improved, and at the end of a year elegant buildi.igs were going up whei'e late the plumy fir and spruce tossed in the sea-breeze. It is an oft-quoted saying that " Rome was not made in a day;" but we do things better now, and a year or two suffices to establish a city. Two railroads are at this writing striving to reach Gray's Harbor befoi'e the close of 1890, and they will very nearly do it. There is no longer any doubt, if ever there was one, aboiil (he t\iture of Gray's Harbor. Additions are being laid out. wh-ch with the additions to Hoquiam and Aberdeen will some time compel a consolidation. Already their several city governments are proposing to have one Chamber of Commerce. The site of Gray's Harbor resembles that of Tacoma in being upon a high bluff with railroad tracks and wharves in front of It on the bench, and also in having a grand view. Mr. Emerson kindly explained to me the plan of the company to extend sev- eral of thi streets out to the channel. This will be done by FKOM OLYMPIA TO GRAY'S HARBOR. 255 piling and cribbing and filling in with the material taken up by dredgers. Between these " fills" will bo channels kept open by dredging. One of the "fills" will be used for milling purposes, basins being provided for them made by confining the water by tide-gates. This will be an expensive but a very convenient arrangement, and, as the numerous streams coming into the Chehalis and the harbor will float the logs to the basins, the ex- pense of i-ailroads into the forest will be obviated. The other channels will furnish room for shipping in the most compact shape po,ssible, where it will be safe from the most violent winds that blow on the Pacific. One advantage of Gray's Harbor is an abundance of excellent water on the bluff, obtained without going to any great depth. Wnenevcr extensive water-works are required, there are streams and lakes intiie high lands bordering the Chehalis Valley, the wat 1' from which can be brought down at comparatively small cost. A featu"o common to all new cities where the people are drawn togcUier from older towns is the ease with which they conglomerate A common interest levels for the time the usual distinctions. I found in Hoquiam and Gray's Harbor, however, suflScient of an intellectual society to forni a class, and enjoyed its variety, for it was made up of all profes.sions. Among the most interesting men one meets in a new country are surveyors and engineers. Their profession makes them accuiate ; they have more or less the poetical temperament, being close observers of nature; and they have had real adventures, which they tell with becoming modesty. I cannot swell the pages of this book by describing the people I have met, though T would like to do so, but the reader will get the benefit, if benefit it is esteemed, of some things I have learned from them, in the cource of these chapters. One of my excursions from Hoquiam was to a logging-Camj) several miles from town, the journey being performed in a small boat propelled by oars in the hands of the owner of the camp, who treated our party most politely, and by his exploits showed himself a thorough lumberman. Our boating ended, wc walked a mile or more through the woods, over a very rough tT.iii, really performing a portage around the dam constructed for Pi mm <: 256 ATLANTIS ARISEN. v! [i ' :' t "chuting" logs into the stream below. Having been refreshed with an excellent dinner in a comfortable mess-house, we wore taken to where the woodmen were felling trees, standing on tiny platforms made by inserting a short board in a cut in the tree, five, ten, or fifteen feet from the ground. I had suppofeed that this was necessary, either on account of the size of some trees at the butt, or because of the pitch contained in them ; but our host assured me the great height at which some of the choppers or sawyers stood was simply an exhibition of bravado — the common ambition to excel one's neighbor in skill or daring. In felling a tree the foreman takes pains to direct its fall so as not to injure any other valuable tree in its descent, and they do this to a nicety by inserting wedges on the side opposite to the direction in which it is to fall which give it the necessary tilt. — for so straight are these great firs and cedars that, frequently, they will stand erect after they have been cut to the centre all round, and wait for a breeze to- sway them to a fall. It was evident there was an immense wr.cttj, ten or twenty feet of a tree at the thickest part, and then the reckless destruc- tion of all that are untit for the finest lumber. I was regretting this to our host. " The timber grows as fast or faster than it is consumed," was the reph'. Admitting that this is true where young timber is left undisturbed, the forest lands when cleared by axe and fire are put under cultivation, except on the moun- tains, and thus the amount must be rapidly lessening. Having seen a few trees fall, we were shown the manner of hauling them to the stream, six or eight 3-okes of oxen being hitched to a single log. The lower side of the log has been peeled before )eing placed on the skid, which is well greased. The oxen are 1 eti ilHvplj (ly experienced men, who receive bet- ter wages thai nhy l>ui tlie foreman and cooh. This latter ex- ception made nie HiiiiK-, but 1 tlnd that cooks are important personages in camps everywhere. These western lumbermen do not feed their men, as the AJichigan liiuiliei'liien fin, hwf give them a variety of fresh luid canned foodM. Having watched the hauling of logs, and their HkiU'nl fTififi- agement to prevent tlieni fVom slipping forward on the cattle, and their descent into the basin above t]ie dam with a deep FROM OLYMPIA TO GRAY'S HARBOR. 257 dive, or a splash and a glide, we walked down to the dam to witness a '• shoot" of the chute when the gate was raised. Tliis operation requires quickness and nerve, and was superintended by our host. The water rushing out of the basin carries with it a groat weight of logs, which must not be allowed to make f "jam" against the dam. The men are on the logs with pikes directing them so as to head them for the opening and send them endwise down the slide below the dam^ when they take a header into the stream with a mighty splash, and go floating tumultu- (nisly down the agitated water to be arrested by a boom at the creek's mouth, and made into a raft for Gray's Harbor. . The wages paid to men in this camp is from forty dollars to sixty dollars, the foi'cman getting one hundred and forty. The price of logs is three dollars and fifty cents per thousand feet in the water. The price paid to the owner of the land is fifty cents per thousand. The average per acre is fifty thousand feet of fir and spruce. The cost of putting in a dam is from three thousand dollars to ten thousand dollars ; the skidded road costs one thousand dollars per mile ; the teams for hauling, one thou- sand dollars; the mess-house and dormitory, two hundred dollars or three hundred dollars. Nine or ton men at the wages named above, with their board, cost per month about six hundred dol- lars, and the supplies for the oxen eighty dollars. These figures make this camp cost for its first outfit, being very conveniently located, about five thousand dollars, and its expenses for a season of six months five thousand dollars more. Its profits depend, of course, on the amount gotten into the water ready for the mills. A. good deal of money is disbursed in the towns of Washington, every winter, by loggers. As I shall have occasion to speak again of the lumber interest, I will leave it here for the present and return to the subject of towns and settleme.its. Facing the south channel, and almost directly opposite the city of Gi-ay's Harbor is Gray's Harbor City, whichvhas not yet become formidable as a rival to the towns on the north side. A little distance beyond or west of it is South Harbor, another small place, which has the advantage of being at a point where the south channel approaches closely to the shore with a cross- channel almost due north to the Gray's Harbor wharf. At 17 258 ATLANTIS ARISEN. ^i' n i'A^ .^' * ' the mouth of Johns River is the Mivrliham iiost-offlce, and still farther west is Bay City, at the bead of South Bay. A milling establishment — Tiaidiovv's — has just thought of starting a sale of town lots on the neck of land between South Bay and the ocean. Thus the success of one point stimulates ambition in others to compete with it. About half-way between Markham and Bay City is the point selected bv the Northern Pacific Euilroad for a terminus on the harbor, and its name is Ocosta. This terminal cit}' was founded on the first of May, 1890 ; therefore I was almost at its christen- ing. Over throe hundred lots were sold on this occasion, but the company have exhibited but little interest since, and some observers have expressed the opinion that it was the company's intention to extend its line to Shoalwator Bay, about fifteen miles south of Ocosta. But whether or not that is the com- pany's present intention, it can do so whenever there is a motive for it. , The situation of Ocosta with reference to the channel is some- what similar to that of Gray's Harbor; that is, long wharves will have to be built out to it, if not as long as those on the north side. It has a tide-flat in front, and the main part of the town plat on a level bench thirty -five to fifty feet above the flat. There is good anchorage in South Bay, and a belt of timber shelters the site of the town from the strong ocean winds which blow up and down the coast not more than four miles west of Ocosta. These are the main features of the new Northern Pacific Terminus. . [I have learned authentically, since writing the above, that the population of Ocosta now numbers (January 1, 1891) three hundred, and about fifty buildings have been erected. A wharf and warehoiise have been built, and a saw-mill with a capacity of seventy-five thousand feet per diem, a sash- and door-factory abont completed, and three shingle-mills have been added to the substantial improvements of the town. A bank has been doing business for tw.o months. Two hotels entertain guests, and a third is in course of construction, while the land company and railroad company are planning one of those modern cara- vansaries which ai*e the corner-stones of new western cities. Ocosta, like Hoquiam and Aberdeen, has resorted to planking FROM OI.YMPIA TO OTJAY's HARnoil. 259 for improviiiijf itn main business street. TIki railroad company's shops and rouiul-liouse will bo hero, and trains will bo running from Tacoma to Ocosta on the 1st of March, IHOl. About tho same time, if not sooner, trains will bo runnini^ from Tacoma to the city of Gray's Harbor, over the Tacoma, Olympia and Gray's Harbor Railroad, or, as people hero call it, " Hunt's road." Tho developments to follow on both sides of the harbor will prob- ably far outdo tho progress of the previous year.] It is evident, from the superficial observations hero recorded, that the State of Washington has a good possession in the valley of the Chehalis, from its eastern end, where it includes the coal- fields and lumber-tracts in tho vicinity of Chohalis City and Centralia, to tho Pacific Ocean. Its destiny will bo given shape when the two railroads now nearing completion reach the har- bor and have settled do^vn to transportation business. It may not be uninteresting to know that Hoquiam and Gray's Harbor gave Hunt a bonus of one hundred and sixty thousand dollars ; Aberdeen, one hundred and thirty thousand dollars; and Montesano, twenty-five thousand dollars. That is not the way pioneers used to begin life. The resources of this valley, which includes the whole of Chehalis, a corner of Thurston, and the western end of Lewis Counties, are prodigious. In the first place, the coal-fields at its eastern end embrace one hundred and fifty thousand acres. The quality and reputation of lignite which attached to the Chehalis coal-fields for a long time militated against their devel- opment, but enterprises of a few recent years have established the existence of a practically exhaustless body of clean bitu- i.n'nous coal in these fields, containing from ninety to ninety-five per cent, of carbon, in veins of a thickness of six feet, with a dip favorable to mining. Hence these railroads i'ivalling each other to cover this territory. And these coal-mines lie beneath a forest of merchantable timber. It will, no doubt, be a casus belli between the railroads, — the control of the ti'ansportation of coal and lumber from this favored section. But as the Pacific Ocean is only from eighty to one hundred and thirty miles from any of the coal-fields here referred to, Gray's Harbor has a great advantage over the Sound or Columbia River towns as a direct route to the sea, there being a saving in distance over the 1 M in i f- • I w IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // '/. 1.0 I.I 1^ 12.8 |50 *" US ■2.5 2.2 - IJ£ 1.8 1.25 11.4 III 1.6 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 ■^ ^ 260 ATLAKTIS ARISEN. J:« I 'I >; former of several hundred miles, and over the latter of about eighty. It is claimed here that vessels loading or discharging in Gray's Harbor save seven hundred miles in going and return- ing to Puget Sound ports, from eight to ten days of lime, and from six hundred dollars to one thousand dollars in towage, — only ton miles of towing being required to take a ship out of the harbor, — and that they decrease their rates of insurance by avoiding the stormy coast of Cape Flattery, at the entrance to the Strait of Fuca. The arguments in favor of Gray's Harbor reach further, and say that wheat from East Washington once loaded onto cars could moi'e cheaply roll right on to Gray's Harbor over the Northern Pacific or Hunt's road, and be transferred to vessels there, than to sail the additional distance from Tacoma out through the Straits. Certainly the dikes projected in front of the city of Gray's Harbor will afford admirable sites for grain- elevators, to be used in loading ships. With some comparatively cheap improvement upon the bar it is contended that this port is equal, if not greatly superior in its facilities for commerce, to any on the Northwest coast. And it seems as if nature should have provided such an outlet as this is claimed to be for the wealth within easy reach of it. The timber which is tributary to the Chehalis Valley is not only that which covers so large an area in the valley proper, and its tribulaiy valleys, which is estimated at ninety billions of feet, but there is an equal amount on the south and west of the Olympic Mountains which can only be brought out in this direc- tion, and which is the largest and best timber in the State, un- surveyed and untouched bj'' the axe of the logger. Great as are the well-known timber resources of Washington, it appears that more than a third of the whole must find its outlet at Gray's Harbor. A glance at the map shows a stream every few miles falling into Gray's Harbor or t^e Chehalis, which seem to have been designed for " driving" logs out of this immense forest. Many of these are navigable for considerable distances where not choked up with a "jam" of fallen timber, some of them having a depth of forty feet and over. The largest of the streams emptying into tide-water are the Sumptulips, Hoquiam, Wishkab, and Wynooche, all on the FROM OLYMPIA TO GRAY'S HARBOR. 261 north, showing their sources to be in the Olympic Eange. There are many lesser streams on the same side, and also many coming from highlands south of the mouth of the Chehalis. Above Montesano the Chehalis receives the Satsop from the Olympics, and Black River from the Cascades. The aggregate length of streams available for logging purposes is two thousand miles. Such figures stagger comprehension, standing on the shoi'eof this broad, bright, butlonelj- bay, its townlets crowded for room in the edge of those " continuous woods" which are their dependence and their glory. As to agriculture, its day has hardly begun. The lands of the Chehalis raise cereal and root crops, fruit, and hops equally well. There is a ready market in the towns for everything pro- duced. The countr}' near the coast, on account of its moist and cool climate, is an excellent one for grasses and dairying. The valleys of the streams named above are rich and fertile. In the Ilumptulips are about thirty townships of excellent land, little of which is occupied. Other valleys are almost unexplored. The industries of the county are not yet shaped, if we except lumbering, ship-building, and fish-canning. The only one I heard spoken as about to be commenced wasbrickmaking, there being a quality of clay near the city of Gray's Harbor which it was believed would make a brick which could be vitrified, and which was desired for the construction of a grand hotel. I also heard it mentioned that the hemlock growing so abundantly near the coast offered inducements for tanneries to be located in this region. There are banks of cod and halibut off the coast for deep- sea fishing; salmon ("Columbia River turkey," I have heard it called) in abundance in the harbor and rivers tributary, and trout in the mountain-streams. There are in the harbor porgies, tom-cods, rock-trout, flounders, iierring, smelt, sardines, and salmon-trout, while the tide-flats abound in clams and soft- shell crabs. Some idea of the commerce of the lower Chehalis Yalley may bo gathered from the fact that for one year, ending Jul}' 1, 1890, there was imported seventy thousand tons of merchan- dise. This trade was carried on with San Francisco and Port- land. It remains to be seen what effect the completion of rail- |: !! li M? Ifll 262 ATLANTIS ARISEN. roads from the Sound will produce, and whether Gray's Harbor will not set up jobbing-houses of its own. In 1889 there was but one steamer a month from San Francisco; in 1890 there was one every twelve days. When the railroads are opened to travel, that will of course be too slow, with such marvellous quickness do affairs move in this wondrous wilderness. CHAPTER XXI. OLYMPIC GOSSIP. There is a club-shaped piece of territory north of the Che halis Eiver and, Gra)''8 Harbor, fifty miles broad at its base and probably eighty ut its northern end, which has the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Fuca Strait on the north, and Hood's Canal on the east, and is known as the Olympic Peninsula. It consists of a mass of mountains, highest and most broken on the norih and east, the range following the strait and Hood's Canal, and sloping off in a chaos of lesser mountains towards the west and south. It was a happy thought of the Englishman Meares, on July 4, 1788, to name the highest peak of the main range Mount Olympus, for sacred to the gods it has remained from the crea- tion until the present yeai*, 1890. All that was known of it during forty-five yeare of settlement on Puget Sound was con- fined to a few miles of border land on the three sides bounded, by water. No government surveys were made except at a few points along the strait and a single one on the sea-coast, where a light-house was erected to warn off, not to attract, the curious. Two Indian reservations were located on the sea-side, but nobody on them knew anything about the interior, — not even the In- dians. No " darkest Africa" could be more unknown. Imagi- nation peopled it with giants or pigmies, according to the taste of the dreamer. Through it roamed the fiercest wild beasts, and in the solemn gloom of its forest-hidden caves was concealed treasure incalculable. OLYMPIC GOSSIP. 263 History tells us of numerous native tribes who a hundred years ago indulged in stratagems to board the unwary ship- master's vessel and massacre the crew, and who entertained dusky royalty ivith the exhibition of sawing off the heads of a dozen or two of slaves to show kingly prodigality. They gave the early settlers on Puget Sound a good deal of trouble, being very active pirates, and the opportunities for the invasion of settlements, or capture and murder of small parties in boats, being too convenient to be resisted. The Makahs were perhaps the worst of these, whose reserva- tion is on the extreme northwest corner of the peninsula. They are brave fellows, and dare to chase whales in their sea-canoes. When a whale is seen spouting the fact is reported to a modi- cine-man, who allots to each canoe to bo engaged in the chaso the requisite number of skilled oarsmen and a harpoon-throwor. This instrument is made of pieces of olkhorn, ornamented with carving, joined together in the shape of a V, and having a sharp steel like an awl at the point, to which is fastened a long and strong rope made from the sinews of a whale. When about to be thrown the harpoon is inserted in a slender shaft of tough yew wood, which drives it deep into the body of leviathan, where the barbs hold it. The chase is never undertaken without the performance of religious ceremonies or necromancy, intended to give the har- pooner the victory in the coming struggle. The medicine-man and the harpoonor, blessed by him, occupy the leading canoe ; then come the other members of the whaling fleet, followed by a reserve of two canoes. They cross out over the breakers with great skill, and put to sea to watch for the reappearance of their game. A whale usually plays along near the surface for some littlr time, blowing at intervals, then throws himself out of the water and dives deep down, remaining below for a cori*esponding time, which the Indians from observation can calculate, as well as the place where he will again come to the surface. They take a position near this place and watch for the auspicious moment, which is when the whale " humps himself" to make a dive. The harpooner, his terra-cotta-colored figure nicely poised in the bow of the canoe and harpoon raised above his head, waits 264 ATLANTIS ARISEN. '' ; l.« «* ;f for the command to throw. It comes, " latah !" and the instru- ment descends with cruel force and precision into the whale's body, followed by others, and the oarsmen quickl;' back away to escape the commotion which the creature's huge tail creates in the water when it is wounded. Other lines are attached to the harpoon-lines, to which are fastened "floats" made of the stomachs of the hair-seal, filled with air, to prevent the canoes from being drawn under water. In his agony the whale tit first lashes the sea furiously, then starts off" on a run, and drags the canoes. But with half a dozen harpoons in him he is doomed. Should night come on, or the sea be rough, the canoes are detached, and the whale left to die at his leisure, prevented from going to the bottom by the lines of floats attached to him. He may travel all night and all the following day, but not straight ahead, and is usually found in the morning, when if he shows game the boats are again fastened to the lines, and away they go once more, moving about in a circle of fifteen or twenty miles. When at last the whale succumbs, the carcass is towed ashore, the tide assisting to beach it. When, this happens there is a race to be i\.v first to touch the body, as thereby one becomes eligible to the ofllce of chief harpooner, or hoa-chin-i-ca-ha.* The medicine-man removes the whale's eyes, which he uses in his incantations ; runners are sent out to collect the tribe, and the whale's blubber is cut up and divided among them. As much as one thousand or fifteen hundred gallons of oil are obtained from one whale. When all are present a " potlatch," or feast, is held, presided over by the " medicine," and the fes- tivities close with libations of fire-water, poured, if not to the gods of Olympus, down the thirsty throats of these savages. * This account of whale-chasing is merely a synopsis of a very interesting description by an eye-witness, — H. D. C, — published in the Oregonian. On the occasion of his observations at Neah Bay, one of the pursuing boats con- taining seven Indians became separated from the fleet and was lost. There is a life-saving stiition at Neah. Bay, which could, however, be of no use to a canoe in distress in the open sea. The neighborhood of Cape Flattery is the centre frequently of wild stonns, and is often overhung with thick fogs. A long list of vessels lost about this part of the coast miglit bo given, and yet the life-saving sUition there is very ill equipped and inefficient. OLYMPIC GOSSIP. 265 Whether by the dangers of whale-chasing, the decimation of wars, or the importation of foreign diseases, most of the Makahs have died off, and the places that knew them shall know them no more. On the Quinault (pronounced Keen-nut) reservation are about four hundred and fifty men, women, and children, who occupy about one hundred and forty thousand acres. They are a degraded tribe, whom the agents appointed to instruct thorn have been unable to elevate to a comprehension of the ideas entertained by civilized people. Their houses are more com- fortable than those of the tribes of the interior, being con- structed of planks hewn from cedar or spruce, set up on end, and roofed with like material. The floor is of earth, and is a foot below the level of the ground. A raised platform, which serves for seat or bed, runs along the sides. Mats are used to sleep on. Several families occupy one house, and cook at a common fire in the centre, the smoke escaping from an open- ing in the roof The women are simply slaves. They provide everything the family requires except game and fish, and make all the clothing for both sexes. Chastity is not in favor, the absence of it being more profitable. The food of the tribe consists, after game and fish, of roots, berries, water-fowl, eggs of wild fowl, and shell-fish. Meat is not much eaten, and at their feasts they drink bear-, seal-, and whale-oil, and are not particular about the condition of the whale-blubber, which they consume in every state of putridity. When an attempt was made to establish a salmon-cannery at Quinault, it failed on account of the high price demanded by the natives for fish, they shrewdly deciding, no doubt, that it was not good policy to encourage the too rapid destruction of their food supply. Whether from indolence or superstitious dread, these people were as wholly ignorant of the interior of the peninsula as the white intruders. The names of the streams coming down from the mountains on the coast side are Menotelops, Moclips, Chepalis, Quinault, Eaft, Queets, Ohalat, Bagachiel Killiwah, Solduck, Dicky, Quillayute, Osette, and Waach. On the north, falling into the Strait of Fuca, are Oleho, Clallam, Lyre, Elwha, and Dungeness. 236 ATLANTIS ARISEN. - HU The most of those names, as will bo seen, are aboriginal, while Lieutenant Meares is responsible for Dungenesa. On the east, flowing into Hood's Canal, are the Quilcone, Leland, Sylopish, and Skokomish, and many smaller ones without names. Several of these rivers could be navigated with small steamers by sim- ply removing accumulations of drift. The laying out of towns on Gray's Harbor and exploration of its tributary rivers by " timber cruisers" awakened so great an interest in the Olympic Peninsula that, if any prospector or party of adventurei's penetrated even a few miles beyond the heretofore known limits of exploration, the fact was quickly given to the public with as much eclat as if it had been indeed Darkest Africa, and these pathfinders all Livingstones and Stanleys. Up to this time the most generally accepted theory of the country in the interior, according to one writer, was that it con- sisted of valleys sloping inward from the mountains to a great central basin. In support of this belief it was pointed out that, notwithstanding the country round about had abundant rain, and that clouds constantly hung over the mountain-tops, all the streams flowing towai'ds the four points of the compass were too insignificant to drain the great area shut in by the mountains. (This was not true, as I have shown, concerning the south side.) This writer fancied a great interior lake, but could not account for its drainage except by imagining a subterranean outlet. He urged some adventurous persons to " acquire fame by unveiling the mystery which wraps the land eucii'cled by the snow-capped range." " Superstition," remarked Governor Semple, in his official report for 1888, " lends its aid to the natural obstacles in pro- serving the integrity of this grand wilderness. The Indians have traditions in regard to happenings therein, ages ago, which were so terrible that tho memory of them has endured until this day with a vividness that controls the actions of men. In those remote times, say the aborigines, an open valley existed on the upper Wynooskie, above the cafion, in the heart of the Olympic Range. This valley was wide and level, and the mountains hedged it in on every side. Its main extent was open land, matted with grass and sweet with flowers, while the OLYMPIC GOSSIP. 267 edge of the river and the foot of the hills were fringed with deciduous trees. Hero peace was enshrined and the warriors of the different tribes congregated once a yeai", to engage in friendly rivalry in the games that were known to them, and to traffic with each other in such articles of commerce as they possessed. No account exists of any violation of the neutrality, but a great catastrophe occurred during the continuance of one of their festivals from which only a few of the assembled Indians escaped. According to the accounts of the Indians, the great Seatco, chief of all evil spirits, a giunt who could trample whole war parties under his feet, and who could traverse >he air, the water, and the land at will, whose stature was above the tallest fir-trees, whose voice was louder than the roar of the ocean, and whose aspect was more terrible than that of the fiercest wild beast, who came and went upon the wings of the wind, who could tear up the forest by the roots, heap the rocks into mountains, and change the course of rivers with his breath, became oflbnded at them and caused the earth and waters to swallow them up — all but a few, who wex'e spared that they might cany the story of his wrath to their tribes, and warn them that they were banished from the happy valley forever." " The next person," says Semplo, " to stand upon the scene of the ancient convulsion will be the all-conquering ' average man' of the Anglo-Saxon race, who will tear up the matted grass and the sweet flowers with his plow, and deprecate the proximity of the snow-clad peaks because they threaten his crops with early frosts and harbor the coyote that tears his sheep." Such were the ideas entertained even by intelligent people as late as 1888, and hence "Oljmpic" and "Olympian" were words very appropriately applied to these mountains. The trader Meares knew as little of these mysterious heights as the Greeks of the summits of their Olympus. The loftiest one is eight thousand one hundred and fifty feet, while Mount Con- stance, the second highest, is seven thousand seven hundred and seventy teet above the sea. A few prospectors had penetrated a little distance into the mountains from the settlements along the Strait, who gave glowing accounts of the possibilities of this region,— its im- i 1 1 1' P- 1 r "i t 1 1 5[ I ) I ■' 'H 268 ATLANTIS ARISEN. menso forests of fir, cedar, spruce, and hemlock, its numerous small but rich valleys, and its minerals, including coal, gold, iron, tin, valuable stone, and a variety of clays. The streams were swarming with speckled trout, and the forests with game. These rumors still further stimulated pubiia curiosity and inter- est. I met at Gray's Harbor the first ladies to undertake a journey into the Olympics, — Mrs. John Soulo and Mrs. John G. McMillan, — who, with their husbands, went up the const by a trail as far as the government warehouse at Owyhut, and thonce to the Quinault Reservation along the beach, crossing the rivers at their mouths, where they were most shallow. On the Che- palis one settler was found who had lived there for nine j'cars. At the reservation they were entertained by the (iamily of the agent. Captain Willoughby, who, with Mrs. Willoughby, related to them many Indian legends. But in these legends I see little to admire; they are exceedingly puerile and pointless, and not worth preserving. From the reservation the party ascended the Quinault Kiver by canoe having Indian boatmen. The time occupied in getting to the lake of that name, a distance of forty miles, was three days, many portages around "jams" having to be made. At their first camp, made at an Indian rancherie, there was sot up before the house of the chief a figure-head of a wrecked vessel as a totem. At the lake they found strawberries — time, last of May, 1888 — on the banks, and delicious trout in the waters. The valley of the lake was described to mo as romantically beautiful. They found the lake to be of an oval shape, lying northeast by southwest, and about five by two and a half miles in extent, with a depth of from seventy to two hundred and twenty feet. The theory of its formation held by this party was that an avalanche had dammed the waters of the Quinault, which finally found their outlet by a depression to the south- west, through which they cut a channel toward the sea. The mountains on the sea-side are steep, and a ridge runs along tho north, but the valley lies on the east side. If the theory of an avalanche were true, tho story of the Indians' happy valley of long ago might have a shadow of foundation. Having heard on the reservation that by going up the river beyond the lake, which could be done by the help of Indians, a OLYMPIC GOSSIP. 269 walk of seven miles from the bead of caual navigation would bring them to the head of a river flowing into Hood's Canal, the party determined to win fame by crossing the Olympics by this I'oute. It turned out, however, that the current of the upper river was too rapid to admit of being navigated, at least by its present mouth, and the old mouth into the lake half a mile to the south was found to be dammed by drifts. Small, delicious salmon were found in the lake, and the party remained for several days enjoying the mountains, the lake, the splendid forest, salmon, strawberries, and freedom. This visit to the Olympics was the occasion of the formation of Lake City Town Company, which proceeded to plot six hundred and forty acres on the south shore of the lake, where a summer-resort might very appropriately be located. It was even said that a railroad from the Strait to Gmy's Harbor would be constructed at an eaily day, which would bring Lake City within an hour and a half of tiie Harbor, — namel}-, the Port Townscnd and Quillayute. Quinault City, at the head of navigation on the Hamptulips River, was also projected about this time, " on a beautiful eleva- tion, with half a mile of river front and a mill-site." So easy is it to project enterprises and to dream of future fulfilment in this wilderness ! I also met at Hoquiam Ex-Lieutenant-Governor Oilman, of Minnesota, and his on, S. C. Gilman, who had passed a winter in quietly exploring the Olympics. They found three hundred and fifty square miles of rich bottom-land along the streams, and described the soil between the mountains and the ocean as well adapted whe.i cleared to grazing, fruit-raising, or general farming. There were few prairies, and those small ones, but they found float-coal, croppings of iron, and quartz containing gold, silver, copper, and tin. They entered the mountains from the south and experienced little difBculty, while, by report, those who attempted to enter from the north or east were met by many and severe obstacles. That this is true is confirmed by the report of an exploration conducted under the auspices of the arm}-, as well as by the failure of several parties from the Sound to eflfect a crossing from the east side. The Gilmans en- countered dangers and performed feats of daring which to an ordinary tourist like myself seemed extraordinary, but which I Hi '111 ' I. it ■■'\ i I i 270 ATLANTIS ARISEN. were as coldl}' recited aw if it had boen a usunl tiling to climb perpendicular wuIIh, clinging like limpet to its rock, or to promenade on a shelf six inches wide above a frightful abyss. There was alno another party which wintered in the Olympics and had not yet come out when I was at Iloquiam. This was an expedition organized by the Seattle Press, consisting of five men and an Indian guide, who deserted when he discovered the purpose of the explorerr* to penetrate to the interior of the peninsula. They started from Port Angeles, on the north, with mules, boats, provisions, and a thorough outfit, proceed- ing up the Elwha Rivei. To recount their experiences would i-equire more space than can be allowed to it in this volume. They were in the mountains from December 7 to May 21, and came out at Aberdeen in a disreputable plight, plus hair and beard, but minus those articles of clothing considered indis- pensable to pi'opriety. Their report concerning the nature of the country and the minerals to bo found in it agreed with that of the Gilmans, and they made many additions to the map of the country, naming peaks and lakes which hitherto had not been observed or named. Lake Crescent and Lake Sutherland are both near the Elwha River. Mount Brown is in that vicin- ity. Mount Seattle near the head of the Quinault River, while Mount Ferry, named after the first governor of the State, Mount Childs, Barnes, and Grady are elevations no longer without a " local habitation and a name." Following the return of the Press expedition were half a dozen lesser efforts to learn the character of the Olymj^ic Peninsula in uU its parts, most of these being directed to the discovery of minerals, and all bringing in some specimens. A copper-mine discovered in Kitsap County east of and at the foot of the Olympic Range seemed to confirm the existence of copper higher up. I have spoken of the Peninsula as unknown and unexplored. But it would ill become me to pass over other attempts made at a comparatively recent date to unveil the Olympian myster}-. In 1881-82 Colonel Chambers, commanding at Fort Townsend, endeavored to construct a road from the fort into the mountains, the result of six months of toil being a trail to and fvcroc^ I oth branches of the Dungeness River, which was then absHioned 4 V' (» If f'l ii OLYMPIC GOSSIP. 271 ns impracticable, from the density of the forest and under- Itrusli, and the equally groat obstacles of windfalls, cations, and precipices. In 1885, Lieutenant J P. O'Neil. being stationed at Fort Vani.()uver, was detailed by General Miles to make a roconnois- sance of the *' Jupiter Hills," and entered upon this duty with enthusiasm. After a month of r"*'er perilous adventures in its e.xocution, and losing one man, wh > rayed from the trail and perished, O'Neil was ordered to Foi ^ Leavenworth, and the ex- pedition returned to Vancou . ;r. ^'oncoming hie part in it O'Neil remarked that "the tiavel was difflcult, but the adven- tures, the beauty of the scenery, tlio magnificent hunting and fishing, amply repaid all hardships, and it was with regret that I left them before I had completed the work." lie also said, '• There must be groat mineml wealth here, for gold has been found in the foot-hills, as has also coal. There are now two chums which have first class coal located near Hood's Canal. Iron ore is in some places most abundant and very pure. I also carried a specimen out which was pronounced by a learned man to be copper. The formation of those mountains seoms to speak jtlainly of mineral wealth. . . . The day will come when the State of Washington will glory in their wealth and beauty." In the month of July, 1890, General Gibbons sent out an ex pcdition to make a thorough exploration of the Olympic Eange, and again Lieutenant O'Neil was placed in command. Accom- panying it were members of the Portland and the Washington Alpine clubs, and the expedition, which consisted of fifteen rank and file, started early in July from Union City, at the mouth of the Skokomish River, on Hood's Canal. They carried a box similar to those placed on the tops of the Oregon snow-peaks, containing a record book, to be deposited on the highest peak of the Olympics, the summit of Mount Olympus. The trail lay by Lake Cushman, which is described as a para- dise for anglers. Nestled among the foot-hills at an elevation of four hundred feet, it reflects in its placid bosom the overhang- ing crags and snow-peaks. The Skokomish River runs into and out of it, as the Quinault does on the other side of its lake. A trail led to some copj^er deposits several miles from the river, and from that point the only roads open to the explorers were the 272 ATLANTIS ARISEN. H^: elk-trails. In short, they had the sirne experience that all pre- vious explorers had met with, travelling over " a succession of fine bottoms and precipitous mountain-sides, which in places approach the grandeur of a cafion, until they arrived at a real and impassable caRon where the stream rushed out between rocky walls one hundred feet in height." This experience was repeated on an ever-increasing scale of grandeur, the incidents of which the reader would find it wearisome to follow, until the summit of the range was attained, and the party descended the Quinault to the coast, and finally to Graj-'s Harbor, where they were welcomed with enthusiasm. I had the pleasure afterwards of hearing Lieutenant O'Neil deliver a lecture descriptive of his expedition, at the close of which he made the interesting state- ment that Mount Olympus has forty glaciers, and the surprising one that the Olympic Penin&'ila was good for nothing but a National Park. Whether the people of Washington will agree with him I know not, but I think it will take the strong arm of the government to keep them from the timber, minerals, and fi.sh which it contains. -i; , , The last explorer of note who proposed to make the acquaint- ance of the Olympics is Lord Lonsdale, who was going to take the route via Port Townsend, when Mr. J. T. Duncan, of Gray's Harbor, met him at that place to persuade him to take the safer and easier route from the south. It cannot be said hereafter that the Olympics are terra incognita, but only that they are, for the most part, an inhospitable country which, having once seen, few would care to see again except at a distance, and at a dis- tance they are the most beautiful of all the ranges in the North- west, — a joy forever to the resident on either side of the Strait or the Sound. As a country in which to hunt game there is nothing more formidable than black bear, wolves, deer, and elk, the latter of which are numerous and not at all shy. SHOALWATEU BAY OB WILLAPA HARBOR? 273 CHAiPTBR XXll. SHOALWATER BAY OR WILLAPA HARBOR? While I was at Hoquiam I discovered that there was au appearance of rivalry between the population of Gray's Harbor and the inhabitants of the region about Shoalwater Bay, fifteen miles south of that place. I was myself conscious of a pvejii-^ dice against this baj- on account of its name, although its his- tory for the last hundred years did not justify the feeling. In fact, I think a part of my aversion to this harbor was that it did not furnish a reason for this want of confidence', by wrecking some vessel, thus showing its true character as indicated by its name, — for shams of any kind are hateful to me. Called to question my authorities on this subject, I could not learn that this bay had ever betrayed its trust, but, on tie contrary, a number of vessels which had been unable to got into the Columbia River, in former time-*, had found shelter and safiety in Shoalwater Baj-. The history of the harbor since the settlement of the countrj- is about this : A vessel or two in 1849, having blundered into this port in looking for the Columbia in heavy weather, drew attention to the harbor and surrounding country. In 1850, C. J. W. Russell settled on the bay. and, find- ing the extensive shoals a natural oj-ster-bed, opened a trade in oysters with San Francisco. In 1851 the schooners "Sea-Ser- pent" and " Robert Bruce" were regularly employed in supply- ing the Cahfornia market. The "Bruce" was unfortunately burned at her landing, which place was called Bruceport. as her owners were named the Bruce Company; hence, Bruceport is the oldest settlement on the bay. Another company were at the '^ame time cutting a cargo of piles for the San Francisco market from the grand forests around the port, and in 1852 a number of immigrants settled on the streams emptying into it. A party had already projected the laying out of a town on the bay, when their leader died. The first saw-mill was ei'ectcd in 1852-53, near the mouth of North River, by David K. Weldon, one of this compn,ny. 18 274 ATLANTIS ARISEN. \i V jjl In 1853-54 there were two hundred men on Shoalwater Bay and its estuaries who lived by oysiering, and these natural beds furnished all the fresh oysters consumed on the coast until 1859, when planting was begun. An unusual frost in 1861-62 de- stroyed nearly all the oysters in the bay ; but in 1874 one hundred and twenty thousand baskets were shipped from here. The oystermen of Shoalwater Bay and Puget Sound inlets have to contend with the imported eastern moUusk since the open- ing of transcontinental railroads, but the small native oyster remains a favorite for its delicacj' of flavor. From what I have said it will appear that this part of the Washington coast, although deserving well of the outside world, received little attention from it for many years, the rich valley surrounding it being sparsely settled, and even the Vt^ealth of its forests remaining almost untouched. The entrance to Shoalwater Bay is thirty-five miles north of the Columbia Eiver entrance, although its south end reaches to within four miles of that great river. This thirty miles of water— actually shoal — south of the entrance is what gives the bay its name, and it is separated from the ocean by a long spit of an average width of two miles. Inside the bay are no mud- flats such as ai'e seen in Gray's Harbor, but the channel is more tortuous. The north headland of the bay, called Toke Point, after a Chinook chief who had his home here, is a jutting headland reaching out into the harbor for a distance of seven miles in a curving neck which protects a small bay called North Cove. From this cove the harbor extends eight miles east to the mouth of the Willapa (pronounced with a broad a, and accent on the second syllable) and up this estuary for some distance to a point twenty miles inside the bar. The mean dei)th of water on the bar is said to be over twenty-six feet, while. inside and all the way to the head of deep water in the Willapa the channel carries from thirty-five to sixty feet. The harbor is perfectly landlocked and safe from the sou' westers which blow in the winter months. Twenty miles from the ocean, on the south bank of the Willapa River, and throe miles from its mouth, is the town of South Bend, first settled in 1881, and having an active growth, SHOALWATEK BAY OR WILLAPA HARBOR? 275 backed by a rich furming country forty miles long by three miles in breadth, and a g-reat body of fine timber. A large saw- mill, in addition to the one already there, will be put in opera- tion soon, together with other mills and business enterprises. South Bend is but forty miles west of the main line of the Northern Pacific (Portland Branch), at Chehalis City, and the difference in the elevation of the two places is one hundred and fifty feet. This makes railroad construction easy, and in fact a branch to South Bend is already being built by the N. P. com- pany which will be completed early in 1891, or about as soon as their line to Ocosta is opened, under the name of Yakima and Pacific Coast Railroad. This will be a boon to the inhabitants of the Willapa Valley, v^ho have hitherto been comoelled to depend upon a chance vessel, or a small propeller fro n Hoquiam to a landing on the south spit, whence a beach-wagon conveyed passengers to North Cove — a very boisterous route in rough weather. Or if communication with the Columbia River was sought, again a chance vessel or tug carried travellers out to sea and across the bar of the Columbia; or more recently to Sealand on the beacli near Baker's Bay, whence a local railroad completes the journey to the Columl)ia via the sea-side resorts described in a former chapter. When the Chehalis road is finished one can come from Portland or Tacoma in four or five hours b}' rail. Whereas South Bend was a hamlet of perhaps twenty houses until this prospect opened up a future, it is now an incorporated city which is spending large sums in street improvements, hoteb, and business houses. A newspaper, the South Bend Enterprise, reyjresents the interests of the town and Willapa Valley. Like Aberdeen, the principal streets of South Bend are built upon piling to raise them out of the reach of the tides. On the north bank of the Willapa River, at its confluence with the harbor, on a level and open tract of land containing about three square miles, another town has been laid out, with broad avenues fronting on deep water, called North Pacific Ciiy. It has not yot received mpch attention or been advertised after the manner of new cities, from which I draw the inference that the railroad powers are holding it until they are prepared to give it a good send-off. If I were the son of a prophet I should 276 ATLANTIS ARISEN. say that it is the intention of the powei*s just referred to, not onl}- to bring the Yakima and Pacific Coast Railroad here, but also to extend their Gray's Harbor line down to the same place. So the strife for ascendency between the Gray's Harbor and Shoal water Bay towns is not without foundation in reason. Within a distance of fifty miles on the coear that the fact of Tacoma's existence had been already determined, as indeed it was in the month of June prior to this report. Some transactions in real estate hud taken place previous to the failure of Jay Cooke & Co., and continued to take place in a doubting wa}', and without any excitement. When the railroad had recovered from this failure, and was straining eveiy nerve under Villard's management to make con- nection with Portland, and thence to reach the Sound by this branch and avoid the expenditure of many millions in crossing the Cascades, came the second — Villard's — failure, ten years after the first. Public confidence was unsettled, not only b}' these financial difficulties, but by fears that the management would not, after all, cross the mountains, or, if it did. that it might make the terminus at Seattle. Thus fourteen years slipped away, during which the Tacoma Land Company laid out the first streets and made considerable improvements, C. B. Wright, of Philadelphia, being very active in directing these. Under his management the Hotel Tacoma was completed in 1884. Tie 19 290 ATLANTIS ARISEN. . i 11 t: ,h( built a handsome churoh, and endowed the Annie 'A'right Sem- inary for girls, and Washington College for boys, with fifty thousand dollars each. Gas- and water-works were erected, wharves built, and with these things the value of real estate increased. But it again declined, and from 1884 to 1887, while there was a doubt of the final settlement of the question of terminus, ihere was a contin- ual depression. But when on the 1st of July, 1887, the road was opened to Tacoma the reaction was like the rebound of a bent bow. Sales of real estate were quadrupled in six months, and in another twelve months had quadrupled again, after which they increased by about four million dollars annually. In 1887 the population was about nine thousand ; in 1889, thirty thousand ; in 1890, forty thousand one hundred and c^xt^'-five, and Pierce County, until recently sparselj'^ settled, contained fifty thousand and sixty-five inhabitants. Without stopping to inquire what brought all these people together here in so short a space, or whence they came, let us consider what they have done. They have covered the land as far as the view extends and for some distance back from the bay with tasteful homes on cleanly, sidewalked, and sewered streets. To do this at the rate of thousand.? of houses a year implies an enormous amount of material and an incalculable amount of labor in putting it in shape. The city's expenses for street improvements in 1889 were three hundred and fifty- thi'ee thousand seven hundred and eighteen dollars and ninety- six cents. In its infancy the city was compelled to import all kinds of manufactures with the exception of lumber, coal, wheat, hops, and hides, but the tide is turning, and already there are machine- shops, locomotive-works, iron- and brass-founderies, furniture- factories, sewer-pipe, tile, and pottery works, brick-yards, flour- mills, shingle-mills, sash- and door-factories, with many minor industries, the number of which is daily increasing. Tacoma's public school property is valued at two hundred thousand dollars. A Methodist university is being erected, which has been endowed by a gift of seventy-five thousand dollars from citizens of Tacoma. The Pacific Lutheran Univer- sity is to be here. There is also a business college, a Catholic WW-TVP-TW. THE CITY OF DESTINY, 291 academy, the Tacoma Academy (Protestant), Tacoma Kinder- garten, and other private schools. Of churches there are twenty-throe, divided among the vari- ous sects as follows: Presbyterian, Protestant Episcopal, Con- gregational, Baptist, and Lutheran, three each ; Methodist, four; Unitarian, Free Evangelical, Christian, and Catholic, one each, having their own edifices ; while other organizations are not yet provided for. Of charitable societies there are a number. The Fannie C. Paddock Hospital was first established when Tacoma was u small town by Bishop Paddock, of this city, in memory of his wife. With the growth of the town it has been enlarged by frequent contributions until it is at present a noble institution. The Tacoma Hospital is a private one. The Seamen's Friend Society, the White Shield Society, Humane Society and Union Relief Association, and Young Men's Christian Association, all do good work. There are besides these the usual secret benevo- lent societies with a large membershii). The last want to be recognized is the intellectual or literary need, because, forsooth, it scarcely exists during the rush and whirr of the wheels of rapid material progress, but, as leisure comes and quietude, it makes itself felt. Tacoma has no public librar}' commensurate with its means, although the Young Men's Christian Association Library and the Tacoma Mercan- tile Library Association supply the place of one to a consider- able extent, or rather they fill their places well while they leave room for the other. The. Young Men's Christian Association has a handsome building, and does a good work. Of newspapers Tacoma has three dailies, the Tacoma Daily Ledger, an eight-page morning paper; the Globe, also a morning sheet; and the News, an afternoon dailj\ The Sunday Times is an illustrated eight-page journal, giving the society news of the week ; besides which the Baptist Sentinel, Northwest Horticul- tural and Stock Journal, and the Ihal Estate Journal are week- lies. Of monthlies there are the Real Estate and Investment Journal, the Bulletin, and Washington Magazine, a literary ven- ture. A Daily Hotel Reporter and the Puget Sound Guide are weekly publications to inform the public of changes occur- ring in the facilities for travel and hotel accommodations. ! i 1 V f' l-Sf H ^ I 1 1 lit * 292 ATLANTIS ARISEN'. The Puget Sound Printing Company is an institution of Tacoma. The most conspicuous public buildings in Tacoma are the Norihern Pacific Headquarters, the Hotel Tacoma, Hotel Rochester, Tacoma Theatre, Fannie Paddock Hospital (new), Annie Wright Seminary, Si. Luke's Church, New Presbyterian Church, Swedish Lutheran Church, the Gei-mania Hall, and Chamber of Commerce. But just at this day and hour the Tacoma Land Company have under consideration the plans for a new hotel to surpass the "Tacoma," and to cost half a million. They are also looking for the source of a future water-supply, the result of which will be something fine in the way of water- works. Every morning's jjaper tell us of some projected im- provement involving a great expenditure of money. All this is nothing when compared with — let us say Chicago; but it is pretty well for Tacoma, whose real growth began four years ago. The money to do these things, wo suggest, was drawn from the East. Yes, from the Eastern United States largely, but also from the Orient, from Great Britain, from South America, and from nearer home. Take an example of the introduction of capital from St. Paul. The St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company purchased from the land department of the Norihern Pacific Railroad Company a tract of timbered land comprising the odd sections in fourteen townships lying southeast of Tacoma and south of Wilkeson and Orting in the Puyallup Valley, comprising eighty thousand acres covered witji a heavy growth of fir, cedar, and spruce, estimated to amount to three billion feet. One of the conditions of the sale to the St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company of this immense tract of valuable timber was the construction by them of a railroad of standard gauge and equipment from the town of Orting, on the line of the Northern Pacific, in a southerly course to the Nisqually River, and thence eastward into the coal fields of the Cascade Moun- tains, to serve the double purpose of bringing out timber and coal and opening up the country to settlement. The St. Paul company also bound itself to cut a certain amount of timber per year on these lands, which should be shipped to Tacoma, where they were to build mills with a capacity of one hundred ' • ■ Puyallup, which name seems to have superseded Franklin, is situated i the south side of the river, and just beyond the Indian ret ^ n. It is a town of two thousand inhabitants, neatly built, h a good hotel and a general air of thrift. Everything is on one level at Puyallup, and for a change from the diversity my eyes have lately beheld, J. am pleased with it. This "Valley was once an arm of the Sound, as is plainly evi- dent from the nature and direction of the water-courses on the east of Admiralty Inlet. Look at the map. There is the Puyallup River coming down from Mount Rainier, and falling quite abruptly into the Valley. There is White River coming down from another peak on the north of Nachess Pass, a coun- terpart of the Puyallup, only half a dozen miles from it, and connected with it by the Stuck, a sluggish stream that flows through marshy ground north or south indifferently, according to the state of the two rivers. Two or three miles north of the Stuck junction with the White comes in Green River, a branch heading on the north side of the Stampede Pass. About twelve miles north of Green River Junction the White River unites with the Dwamish, which comes out of Lake Washington . and flows northwest into the Sound at Seattle. But the Dwam- ish is only another stretch of Cedar River, which comes down from the mountains also and flows into Lake Washinixton, to flow out again by the same mouth and become the Dwamish. Lake Washington, twenty miles long, is connected with Sam- mamish Lake, six miles east of it, by Sammamish River, which resembles the Stuck for sluggishness, but which Las seven smaller streams comins; into it from the north and east. Bo- sides. Lake Washington is connected with the Sound through Union Lake and a natural outlet into Salmon Bay. Green Lake is also connected with Lake Washington, and there are a dozen smaller ones between Pu} allup River and the larger lake, which is in the centre apparently of a basin once occupied by the waters of the Sound. This is the coal basin whence both Tacomn and Seattle derive their present and prospective wealth ; THE CITY OF DESTINY. 301 but only the southern portion of it is immediately tributary to Tacoma. The soil of the Puyallup Valley is in general an alluvial de- posit of great depth. About Puyallup it is sandy, and espLcially adapted to hops, which is the chief production of the fields in this vicinity. Nothing could be prettier than these hop-fields about harvest time, and few crops are so satisfactory as to income. There were "raised this year between Tacoma and Seattle, including one hop-farm at Snoqualmie, forty thousand bales of two hundred pounds each, or eight million pounds. As the price was very good this year, the money realized, above the cost of raising the crop, was one million six hundred and eighty thousand dollars. About ten thousand bales were raised in other parts of the State, which brings the year's returns on this one product of the valleys about the Sound up to two million dollars. I might say here, also, that the hop-crop of Oregon this year netted about one million dollars. And yet the extent of territory covered by hop-farms ii comparatively small. The acre value of hops in a good year is about three hundred and fifty dollars; this year it was more, on account of a poor crop abroad. The Northern Pacific carried its first solid hop-train from the Puyallup in September, 1890. It consisted of twenty- five cars carrying fifteen thousand pounds each, or one hundred and eighiy-seven tons. They were shipped to Baltimore to go to London. I hear it said that hop-vines are to be used in making paper and twine. If this is so, there need be no waste on the off years. It is a great feature in favor of Puyallup that its transporta- tion facilities are so good with the Northern Pacific, a transcon- tinental road, at its doors, a road to Seattle and Tacoma, and its special local road to the latter, making it a suburb of that city. The Valley is prolific of vegetables and small fruits, as it must be of orchard fruits when they come into bearing more generally. Apples, pears, peaches, pnines, and apricots are said to yield large crops. Thus, with so favorable a soil and climate, and a market within seven miles bv rail, the farmers of this favored region should become rich. Continuing up the Valley, Alderton is the next station we come to, a small place, but with the same general and aatural nt 1 i: ' ■1 ■)■ . .■■ ' ' '■ t S'l' I' 302 ATLANTIS AEISEN. ImM advantages enjoyed by its neighbors, and just beyond is Meeker, the junction of the Seattle branch. Lime-Kiln is what its name implies, and then we have Orting, — "the Queen of the Puyallup Valley," — "an agricultural, business, and railroad centre." It is quite that, unless appearances deceive us. I have already spoken of the railroad being built by the St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company south from Orting. A few miles beyond are roads branching off from the main line of the Northern Pacific to Carbondale and Wilkeson. All these roads bring business to Orting, and so do the logging-camps and the farms round about. It has, besides, a saw-mill, chair-factory, and railroad shops, and, in short, seems likely to take care of its future, although but an infant in years. At the head of the Valley is WilUeson, where the first coal- mines of the Northern Pacific were opened. I have spoken in a general manner of the coal deposits of Washington, but will quote a paragraph or two from W. H. Ruffner, LL.D., on the Puyallup Mines : " There are, however, only three collieries at work in this group. One is called the Carbonado Mines, which are on Carbon River. Three miles north, a little east, are the famous Wilkeson Mines ; and two miles northwest of Wilkeson are the South Prairie Mines, on South Prairie Creek. " There are some diflferences in the coal at the three mines. That at South Prairie was sold chiefly for making gas. The best of the Wilkeson coal is made into coke, and is in demand beyond the supply. The price is seven dollars a ton at the ovens. The entire product of the Carbonado Mines is said to go to the Central Pacific Railway." Ruffper's opinion of this group of mines is rather unfavorable, on the whole. " To all appearance the amount of coal here is not large, and the beds are sadly faulted, and pitch deep into the ground." It is comforting to know that, so large an area as the whole eastern shore of the Sound and the Chehalis Valley being xinderlaid with coal, there will be some left when this group fails. Wilkeson is a pretty nook at the very extremity of the Valley, where I fared well and had a pleasant chat with the superin- tendent of the mine, after which I returned to Puyallup to take the train for Seattle. eeker, at its of the lilroad us. I t. Paul A few of the e roads md the factory, re of its rst coal- )oken in but will , on the ieries at is, which ^ are the ^ilkeson 56 mines. :a8. The demand )n at the is said to favorable, ,al here is !p into the ,rea as the illey being •oup fails, the Valley, le superin- lup to take i m J I! lit' • » ', ' i| (f ji 1. Ml k.., ,. THE QUEEN CITY AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. 303 CHAPTEE XXIV. THE QUEEN CITY AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. There is little diiference in the aspect of the country as we proceed north through the basin described in the foregoing chapter. Sumner, named after the statesman Charles Sumner, is a small and p~, tty town in the midst of hop-fields. Slaughter, a little further on, is in a rich agricultural region, and ap- pears to be prosperous. It is named after Lieutenant W. A. Slaughter, who was killed in this vicinity by Indians during tho war of 1855. Kent is a place of considerable importance, about one hour's travel from Tacoma. There are fine woods all along, and hills in sight on one side or the other, show- ing that the valleys of the streams are narrow as they are rich. A little distance beyond Kent is Orillia, also in a good farming country. Black River, full in spring-time, winds among meadows valu- able for large hay-crops. Hyde Park is a suburb of Seattle, and seems given up to brickmaking at present, brick being in demand since the great fire which swept Seattle on the 6th of June, 1889. From Hyde Park to the city is a continuous suburban town. Indeed, the continuous settlements from the Puyallup to Elliot Bay sti'uck me with surprise, knowing how recently towns began to appear upon the maps of this thickly- wooded region. A dozen years ago I was in Seattle, and thought it the ugliest of places, — thought, in fuct, that it would bo impossible to re- deem it from ugliness. The hills, rising sharply from the water- fi'ont," which was narrow and disfigured with rude structures, were roughly terraced with streets running parallel to the bay, and which were cut at right angles by other streets, steep and by no means smooth, seemed to present hopeless obstacles to the development of beauty. Long before the summit of the ridge was reached the uncleared forest began, hemming in the town between water and woods. Along the business front was a mass of sawdust, the accumulation of many years, in which i'l I! hi I ( » 1 I' 1 1 , Aik. 304 ATLANTIS ARISEN. the pedestrian's feet sank, and which the tides kept water-soaked, the only attractive feature of the place being some wonderfully large, broad-leaved maple-trees, growing down at the south end of the water-front with their roots in the bay, and which, alas! are no longer to be seen. In truth, there was little in the Seattle of 1890 to remind one of what had been. What I saw, in place of the former tovvn, was a city of fine proportions spread over a smooth slope, and extending not only to the summit of the hills, but out of sight bej-ond, with lines of cable and electric cars traversing the streets in every direction, a solid front of docks and wharves where shipping lay, or came and went with the houvs, and which had altogether the most metropolitan look of any city in the Northwest. Seattle is not, like Tacoma, a new town. It was founded in 1852, by D. S. Maynard, C. D. Boren, A. A. Denny, and W. N. Bell, who took claims side by side on the shore of the bay. Henry L. Yesler was admitted to the company the same year, and built the mill whose sawdust helped to fill in the city's front, as aforesaid. It was to Yesler's saw-mill more than anything that the town was indebted for its growth, this being the first mill to establish a lumber trade with San Francisco. Its mess-house was a place of general rendezvous for travellers up and down the Sound for more than one decade. Around its rude but hospitable board, and about its ample hearth piled high with blazing fir-slabs, were recounted the many strange adventures which befell the numerous guests, inclading volun- teer Indian fighters, naval officers, judges of the courts, and shipmasters. . The founders of Seattle belonged to that class of men born to follow the beckoning of the star of empire in its westward orbit. Talk about Columbus discovering a new world I What was his voyage to the months of dreary marching across the continent, the setting out from Portland, then a cluster of rude cabins, in a sailing-vessel for the Sound, and the disembarkation upon an uninhabited shore, in the midst of a November storm, of women, children, and household goods! When they were landed, after many hours of labor, " the women sat down and cried," says one of their chi'oniclers. Alas, how often women's tears bedew the earth which brings forth plentifully of its riches THE QUEEN CITY AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. 305 in for husbands and sons, but not for Ihem, their strengtli being spent! - ,:'-;>'>'"->■■■ :■■>'"»-:■• ; '• ■•-- ; • > r.^v , ■ ' The place where the pioneers of Seattle first landed was on the west side of the peninsula which encloses Elliot Bay, and MAP OF SEATTLE AND HARBOR. this point they called by the Indian word Alki, which signifies " by and by." Here was laid out a town, called New York ; but a chief of the Duamish tribe of Indians informing them during the winter of a pass in the mountains to the east, and other matters of interest, they decided to remove to the main- land, and, in acknowledgment of the services of this chief, named the future city after him — Seattle. Among the West Washington tribes was a superstition that if the name of a dead 20 Tl^ I f !:.i 11 ■■ 11 r, ii:i ^1 306 ATf.ANTIH ARISEN. ])or80n were Kpukoii the spirit would bo rowth of Seattle was slow so long as there were no railroads in the country, and the commerce of the Sound was confined chiefly to an export trade with Cal'^ lia in lumber and coal, with some cai-goes of lumber to n ports. In 1870 the whole exports of Puget Sound in foreign and American vessels amounted to four hundred and forty thou- sand nine hundred and fifteen dollars, the largest part of which was in lumber. The imports from foreign countries were light, amounting to only thirty-three thousand one hundred and five dollars. Ship-building added something to the business of the Sound, but the spell of loneliness which brooded over these silent shores had not then been broken, except by ?' " The first low wash of waves, where soon .' . Should roll a human sea." Then came the promise of a transcontinental railroad, and then the road itself Presto, change ! Up went business houses and dwellings, with improvements of every kind. In 1880 the pop- ulation of this tweuty-eight-year-old town was three thousand five hundred ; in 1888, one year after the railroad had crossed the Cascades, it was twenty thousand ; in 1889, when over seven million dollars' worth of property was destroyed by fire, it was twenty-seven thousand ; and in 1890 it is, according to the census, forty-one thousand four hundred and sixty-four. No wonder that to repair the damages by fire, and to provide shelter for so rapid an influx of people, the streets are obstructed with lumber, brick, stone, and iron, while many tent-cloth houses are yet to be seen. Order is, however, in the main restored, and, as I have said, the city has a metropolitan aspect, jjarticularly when THE QUEEN CITY AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. 307 n viewed from the bay, which belongs to no other town on the Sound. Seattle, like all towns in their formative periods, was, and still is, a combination of the now and beautiful with the de- caying and grotesque, although the great conflagration was of service in wiping out much of the latter, as well as in intro- ducing even more largely the former. As it stands to day it contains hundreds of buildings which would be a credit to any city in the United States for grand proportions and grace of outline. The Hotel Rainier and Hotel Denny aro built upon the heights, with magnificent views on every side, themselves constituting a part of that pic -ing tout ensemble presented from the approach by water. Like Tacoma, Seattle has extended its suburbs in all direc- tions. It is a saying that the two cities meet halfway, in spite of their confesned rivalry. North, the street railways carry you to Queen Anne Town, the fashionable quarter ; Oilman's Ad'iition, the terminal centre of three railroads ; Ballard, another addition just being put on the market, on Salmon Bay ; Bay View Addition, on Salmon Bay ; Kilbourne's Division, on Green Lake; Tremont, on Lake Wasliington. East, to Bryn Mawr Park, on the west shore of this lake; Boston Heights, on the summit of the elevation between Elliot Bay and Lake Wash- ington, to Green's addition, and Summit addition, and I do not know how many more. A ferry carries you to West Seattle, where a company with half a million is making improvements, as before mentioned. In none of these places do you find the view lacking in inter- est, whether you aro thinking of the wonders of nature or the works of men : both are horo worthy of attention. West Seattle sits upon a high sandy point, which having once attained, you have water on every side except the southern, a city on the east. Port Blakely mills, the largest in the world, the smoke of whose burning sawdust ascendeth forever, and serves as a beacon on the Sound, is a little north of west ; and Port, Orch- ard, the newly-selected site of the United States navy yard, is a little south of west. But transferring yourself to Seattle, and taking a cable-car to Boston Heights, here again you have a water-view on both sides i I i ; , 308 ATI^-.>rtation re- quires, we are told, caravans numbering thirty-six t) ousand camels and bullocks and one hundred thousand horses. This state of affairs cannot be permitted t" continue in this the nineteenth century! and the question is seriously asked, "Who is to have control of this vast trade?" and as seriously answered, America. Why? Because America h.;^ .e capital, material, energy, and pluck to obtain it. That i .it conceded, the next one of importance is that of distance, and Seattle is nine thousand six hundred and fifty miles nearer to the Amoor River than Liverpool. It is twelve hundred miles nearer Singa- pore, three thousand five hundred nearer Canton, six thousand nearer Shanghai, and eight thousand miles nearer Vladivostok than is Liverpool. But that is not all. Seattle is five hundred miles nearer Vladivostok than San Francisco is, three hundred and fifty nearer Shanghai, three hundred nearer Canton, and three hun- "i<\ m m ^^*lr wu I' ff 'I 1 ' k 312 ATLANTIS ARISEN. dred nearer Singapore. It has aho slightly the advantage over Portland in some of these distances, and very sliglitly over Tacoma." It has nothing, then, to fear in the matter of distance except from some port upon the coast either of Washington or British Columbia. And here comes in the consideration of latitude and productions, which are in favor of Washington. These are weighty topics to discuss in a railway or drawing- room conversation, yet one hears them everywhere. And they arc stirring themes, too, when we remember that Jefferson and IJenton discussed them in the early part of the century, and the nation has been moving westward on the chosen line ever since. Just what point will secure the prize of pre-eminence is not for ine to prophesy. Besides, the country is so vast and so rich in resources that there is room fur all to grow and prosper. So let us leave the future to reveal itself, and comment upon Seattle as it now is. The volume of jobbing trade for Seattle in 1889 is variously estimated at from seventeen million dollars to twenty million dollars. The confusion in business incident to the fire prevents a closer estimate. Seattle merchants carry largo stocks of all kinds v^f merchandise, although the tendency now is to separate wholesale and retail business, and to segregate merchandise into special lines. Retail trade is not dependent, as in other States, upon the coming in of certain crops. June furnishes a heavy hay crop and garden stuff. The immense wheat crop begins to move in August; hops in f-^; jjiember; potatoes in October; fruit in its proper seasons, from June to October; lumber and coal at all times ; and cattle and dairy products during most of the year. Manufactures are quite numerous in Seattle, but are stiil lack- ing in many things. Previous to ■:he fire it had ten saw-mills, whose plants cost four million dollars, and tributary to it, within a radius of thirty-five miles, seven great milling establishments. It had ship-yards ; several sash- and door-factories ; shingle-, barrel-, and fui-niture-factories ; brick -yards and tile-factories; carriage-factories; four breweries; toundries, brass and iron, and boiler-works ; soda-works ; and fifty other kinds of loan- ufactures. The capital employed in factories in 1880 was $G,285,000, and the value of production $10,407,488. It is men- tioned in the press of Seattle that there is room for a large •TTiTT^^f^-^-^T^" THE QUEEN CITY AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. 313 tannery and boot- and shoe-factory; for a woodenware- and willow ware-factory : for powder works; for two flouring mills, and for wholesale houses dealing in men's furnishing goods, in hats, in paints, oils, glass, drugs, stationery, millinery, and gen- eral machinery, as specialties. This gives a better idea of the condition of trade than an enumeration of business firms. Seattle has eleven banks, — not as many as Taeoma by two or Portland by five, — with an aggregate capital of about four mil- lion dollars and deposits amounting to nearly six million dollars. The coal-mines of King County which are tributary to Seattle are the Franklin, Black Diamond, Cedar Mountain, Newcastle, Gilman, and Durham. Their total output for 1889 was three hundred and ninety-one thousand one hundred and eighty-three tons. There was a suspension of production for a couple of months while the coal-bunkers destroyed in the fire were being rebuilt, which lessened the amount. The present facilities will enable the companies to receive and discharg^i two million tons a year. It is in contemplation to erect iron- and steel-works at Kirk- land, on Lake Washington, which will employ one thousand men, a company having already been formed for that purpose, with a capital of two million five hundred thousand dollars. The ore is to be obtained from the Denny Mines in the vicinity. The manufjxcture of railroad material will be carried on in con- nection with the iron-works. From these items, putting that and that together, it is safe to say that Seattle is no bubble which a pin-prick will cause to collapse, and that a century hence it will be here with added area, wealth, dignity, and history. Speaking of history reminds me to give a leaf out of Seattle's past. It is not about the siege of the town by the Dwamish and other Indians in 1856, when a stockade was built with Mr. Yesler's lumber to protect the settlement, and when Captain Gansevoort, of the United States ship-of-war, which was fortu- nately in the harbor, came to their relief, together with the terri- torial authoriiies, but concerns a period about ten years later. The want of Washington during the territorial times was women ; excepting the families of the original pioneers, few had come to settle here, the majority of men who had drifted I I '( » m •»=? , r' ' f ' ; 1 1 ■ ! i H 314 ATLANTIS ARISEN. to Puget Sound from the Fraser Eiver Mines, or by soa, being unmarried. This condition of society resulted in the union of Indian women with white men, and the degradation of the latter. It was suggested to Governor Pickering that it would bo a philanthropic action to furnish the white bachelor popu- lation of Washington with wives from among the widows and dauirhters of soldiers killed in the war of the rebellion. The man selected or permitted to take charge of the enterprise was Asa S. Mercer, of Seattle, who, armed with a certificate of character, rej)aired to Washington, D.C., with the intention of appealing for aid to President Lincoln, but arrived on the day of his assassination, which seemed to put an end to the undertaking. However, ho then formed an immigration scheme of his own and secured contracts with one hundred and fifty young women, and as many families, to take them to Washington and guaran- tee them employment at good wages, on the payment to him in advance of a certain amount of passage-money. He made terms with a steamship company, and, instead of notifying all those who had contracted with him, set sail for Puget Sound with half the number, leaving the remainder to their vain regrets. For this violation of trust he was sued in the Superior Court of New York, which decided it had no jurisdiction, and his victims were left without redress. As for the seventy-five young women who reached this coast, an Immigrant Aid Society had been organized to provide homes and employment for them, and they disappeared like morning dew before the sun, being too few to create much of a change in Washington society or morals. In this city, where such a movement was possible twenty-five years ago, there arc now forty-three church organizations, — and we all know that churches consist chiefly of women, — with over eight thousand communicants. Sermons are preached in tho English, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and Welsh lan- guages, and sixteen denominations are represented. Haifa million dollars is to be expended this year in fifteen new church edifices. Seattle has four daily and several weekly newspapers, of which the Post- Intelligencer and the Seattle Press are the princi- pal ones. The State University is located here, and in the heart of the city. Its endowment being inadequate to its needs, a movement is on foot to sell the ground, and with the proceeds llti-.!- THE QUEEN CITY AND ITS DEPENDENCIES, 315 erect better buildings farther from the centre of the town, and with the remainder enlarge the endowment. There is a hirgo Chautauqua circle here, and the society owns property on Vashon Island, near Taconia, where it holds its annual meeting. A Young Men's Secretarial Institute also owns twenty acres adjoining the Chautauqua-plat, which is about establishing a training-school and gymnasium, with ball ground, boating-club, and a variety of physical-development accessories. This institute consists in the first place of the secretaries of the Young Men's Christian Associations throughout the North- west, and the stock is sold only to active members of the asso- ciations. They will have twenty-five thousand dollars with which to make improvements in 1891. The two organizations promise to be helpful to each other, and together will make Vaslion Island a popular summer resort. The institute has already published among its rules that " boiled shirts" are not admissible ; polished shoes only admissible on Sundays ; no study to be allowed in afternoons ; the hours of sleep to extend from ten o'c n the evening to seven in the morning. The last of theso fo..r rules may wisely balance the effect of the first three. The common schools of Seattle are of a high order, and the city has erected handsome structures for their accommodation. The city supports an Orphans' Homo and three hospitals, Provi- dence Hospital being the la ■ i^est on the Pacific Coast. The charitable orders are numerous, as in other ciiies. The tourist has a choice in departing from Seattle of steamboat or railway service. The railroads going out of the city are the Puget Sound Shore line to Puyallup, where it connects with the Northern Pacific, and through that road with the Union Pacific, or O. E. and N. Eailroad, and the Southern Pacific, or Oregon and California Railroad. The Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Eailroad I have already referred to. This is an extensive sys- tem, only partially completed. The Snoqualmie branch on which I travelled opens up coal and iron fields in that region, and is eighty miles in length. Another branch, one hundred and twenty miles in length, known as the Seattle and West Coast Eailroad, will connect with the Canadian Pacific, making Seattle one of its terminals. When completed the main line will cross ffi;i iH i; B ■f« 1 1; i I . . i .t -■■... ^r 15 i ? li H^^^ if Iw-i^ i 1 :1 i bM^. 316 ATLAXTIS AKISEX. the Cascades by Civdy's Pass, at the head of the SkoUomish or north fork of the Snoqualmie Eiver, and join the eastern division west of Spokane. The Cohimbia and Puget Sound Railroad is a narrow-gauge lino connecting Seattle with the Newcastle, Cedar River, and Green River coal-fields, by a system of branches aggregating sixty miles, and sustains an enormous traffic. Its ultimate destination is tlie Columbia River at Wallula. Of lines projected but not built, the Seattle Southern is to run from West Seattle direct to Portland, to connect with the Southern Pacific system. Thus the Queen City looks to being the ter- minus of three, if not five, transcontinental rouds. It seems the intention to make West Seattle tenninal ground for several roads, the initiative being given in the organization of a West Seattle Terminal and Elevator Company, which is to build on trestles across the bay at its southern end, and erect wheat-elevators on the bluff shore. The height of the elevator above the fioor of the warehouse, which is one hundred and twenty by five hundred and thirteen feet ground area, is one hundred and twenty feet. It will have a capacity of seventy thousand bushels, and the warehouse of one million. A ship- dock twelve hundred feet long will be constructed, with over five thousand feet of side-tracks and other facilities for receiving and discharging grain, the whole to cost two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. A belt-line railroad around Lake Washington is reporteil pro- jected, to be built by the Lake Shore and Eastern and Nf)rthern Pacific. The Northern Pacific, it will be observed, is at the bottom of most of the greatest enterprises in the Evergreen State. The Union Pacific Avould willingly enter into competition, but circumstances have not been favorable in the Puget Sound region, where it is confined to the control of the leased steam- boats of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, but will construct in the near future a line from Tacoma to Olympia and Gray's Harbor, and, if we may believe rumor, several other lines. But it is not for me to say what railroad companies will do; there is more certainty about what they have done, a part of their policy being to puzzle the public about their intentions until they have secured whatever portion of " the earth" seems to promise the largest harvest. Railroads are tricksy things. 1 THE QUEEN CITY A-ND ITS DEPENDENCIES. 317 It is only on great watoi'-ways like the Columbia or the Sound that one feels the bounty, the beauty, and the peace of the fi*ee gifts of God. Such a highway is always at the door of those mediterranean cities. Upon it may float a palace or a plunger. Let us take something intermediate and visit some of Seattle's outlying territories. '■■•■•. ' j : ." ■ i ;':i : ;• „ >.,<,^ j'vi.- •> The first of these may be said to come under the head of saw- mills, and to give an idea of the importance of these to the State of Washington, let me borrow some figures from the Post- Intelligencer for January 1, 1890, showing the number of feet of lumber cut in the State for the previous year. .^^ . ;. ., ,,. ; Mills. Port Discovery "Washington, Uadlock, Port Town- send Port Blukely Port Gamble Port Ludlow Puget, Utsalady Tacoma, Tacoma St. Paul and Tacoma Gig Harbor Port Madison Pacific, Tacoma Local, in Tacoma Local, in Seattle On Bellingham Bay . . Other Local, Puget Sound Total Puget Sound Lumber. 32,537,459 24,800,737 02,092,701 42,138,399 25,040,695 20,781,721 53,578,108 36,000,000 14,722,971 25,400,000 40,000,000 94,500,000 140,500,000 35.000,000 37,000,000 684,182,851 Lath. 13,774,800 7,482,000 11,387,100 10,280,617 6,168,076 7,897,247 18,156,250 3,750,000 0,038,420 8,128,000 12,000,000 12,000,000 18,000,000 5,000,000 3,000,000 143,052,610 Pickets. 1,071,470 307,855 629,038 181,180 63,067 05,534 221,910 300,000 98,820 300,000 8,209,476 OTHER SECTIONS. ; . •- ■•■■ Lumber. Five Gray's Harbor mills 98,500,000 feet. Two Shoiil water Bay mills 35,000,000 " Six Columbia River mills 76,000,000 " Nine mills between Columbia Kiver and the Sound 81,000,000 Eleven other mills 92,000,000 ■' v'vi-:^;, .; 382,500,000 Puget Sound mills 684,182,851 . 1,066,682,851 II i< II M f^^^^^^p 318 ATLANTIS ARISEN. About seven million feet was dressed lumber. The value of this product for this one year was 012,800,284. The larger mills own a fleet of vessels, but aside from these hundreds of vessels come here to load. Statistics from eight Puget Sound mills show that four hundred and two cargoes sailed from their docks in 1889. Port Madison and Pacific mills furnished no list of vessels, but they probably loaded another hundred. These cargoes go to the ports of California, Mexico, Central America, Hawaii, Peru, Chili, Australia, Brazil, China, and Great Britain. The Port Blakely mill filled one order from Cardiff, England, for one million feet in timbers sixteen by six- teen inches square and sixty-one feet long, and twenty-four inches square and ninety feet long. The value of this cargo was seventeen thousand dollars. , .; ,; Let us, then, go to see Port Blakely. It lies ten miles west of Seattle on the southern end of Bainbridge Island, and is owned by Captain W, H. Ecnton and associates. Most of the great milling establishments of Puget Sound were founded about 1852-53, when the devastating fires of San Francisco's early history suggested the need' of lumber manufacture. Benton was one of the many sea captains — chiefly Maine men — who saw their ideal haven in Puget Sound. It is related that in 1851 Dr. Samuel Merritt, of San Francisco, sent a vessel, of which he was owner, to these northern watei'S for ice. When the vessel returned, the captain surprised the doctor by saying as soon as they met, "Why, doctor, water don't freeze in Puget Sound 1" This was a revelation, and many a sea-going man from the coast of New England, looking at the waters which never froze and the limitless forests, determined to stick his stake there. And so it fell out that, in 1853, Captain Ronton joined C. C. Terry on Alki Point in erecting a mill, which they afterwards removed to Port Orchard, and subsequently sold. Renton then .went to Port Blakely, and with a partner named Howard erected in 1864 an establishment costing eighty thousand dollars, and , which would cut fifty thousand feet a day. In 1880 its capacity was increased to two hundred thousand feet per diem of twelve hours. It now cuts three hundred thousand, and could add another one hundred thousand, having a great number of saws, THE QUEEN CITY AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. 319 and a three-thousand horsepower. Captain Ronton resides here, and employs two hundred and fifty men, many of whom have families. Their homes constitute a pretty village, with a public hall and reading-room. Education and amusement ax*e encour- aged to make pleasant the lives of the workers. And surely they need it. I never behold great manufactories like this without resentment. towards the vandalism of progress. What a creature is man ! What dreadful machinery he invents to rend in pieces, to pull down, to drag along, to dig up, and to build up — a fortune for himself! The forces of nature move silently and majestically, but man's inventions harrow your nerves and confound your understanding. They whizz, bang, whistle, roar, shriek, clang, rattle, pound ; they break, crush, tear ; they are violent ; they wound and weary your spirit. Yet here is Captain Ronton, who has spent along life with the scream of machinery in his ears, and he is the kind friend of all who serve him, himself deprived of his sight by an accident which might any day befall them. About eight miles farther down the Sound, on the north end of Bainbridge Island, is Port Madison, an inlet so narrow that our steamer is compelled to back out without turning around. The village lies on a smooth hill-side, made picturesque by some large trees of broad-leaved maple. Twenty miles or more north, and just at the entrance of Hood's Canal, is Port Ludlow. This establishment, with one at Utsalady on Camano Island, opposite Crescent Harbor, and another at Port Gamble, seven miles inside the canal, belongs to the Puget Mill Company. The village at Port Gamble is called by the pretty Indian name of Teekalet. The Washington Mill Company is located at Hadlock, at the head of Port Townsend Bay. The last of these great mills, all of whioh contribute to the business of Seattle in some measure, is on Port Discovery, well up towards the foot-hills of the Olympic Eange, and near the foot of Mount Constance. There is a road across the peninsula between Port Discovery and Port Townsend. Squim Bay is another inlet, three to five miles west of Port Discovery, and the government has reservations on each side of the entrance, as it has at all these harbors. On many of them are light-houses which shine gratefully across the waters kf um ' i> 320 ATLANTIS ARISEN. liil ; III I' as our stoamor glides througli tlto dusk of a summor night, and brings us bade by morning to Seattle. >' ^ ' The real country tributary to the Queen City lies to the north on the oast shore of tlio Sound. Tlie first river falling into tho Sound north of Seattle is the Snohomish, formed by tho junction of the Snoqualmie ami the SkyUomish llivers, about twenty- five miles northwest of Snoqualmie Falls. The tourist can take the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Kailroad, and by a branch roach Snohomish City in about an hour and a half, or can take a stoamboat to that place. There is little to catch the eye of tho traveller in the region traversed by the railroad. It is a scone of newly-opened forest with new settlements, such as we have seen so frequently, and must continue to see wherever we go in the lower Sound country except on some of the islands. This is the case because the chief and most profitable pursuits of the people hitherto have been logging for the great mills, growing hay and vegetables on , the rich bottom-lands, bee-culture, and cattle-raising. More recently they have taken to lumbering, and a good many mills have been erected in Snohomish Valley. Snohomish City is a town of three thousand inhabitants, located near tho head of navigation by steamboat on the river. It is well situated on the north bank, with several hotels, three churches, a scientific society and museum, a fiftoen-thousand-dollar school-house, two dozen stores, a more than average number of professional men even for a county-seat, and other signs of an intelligent population. Here and in tho vicinity are half a dozen large saw-mills, five shingle-mills, three sash-, door-, blind-, and moulding-factories, and many logging-camps. The export trade of Snohomish Eiver is of the value of two million dollars annually, while tho local trade between farmers, loggers, other people, and tho merchants exceeds that sum. It is estimated that the improvements of 1890 will be of the value of one million dollars, and will include a court-house and a theatre. The Snohomish Agricultural Society and Turf Club will make a speed-track near Lake Blackman, for the exhibition of blooded horses ; from all of which it is evident that the people of Snohomish are progres- sive. Machias is a now town located on the Pillchuck, a branch of THE QUEEN CITY AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. 3iU t, and north to the notion kventy- ,n tako bi-anch tn take region I forest ,ly, and country luse the •to have ables on More ny mills City is a head of d on the c society 'O dozen ion even puUition. nills, five iictories, ish Eiver the local lerchants naonts of U include ricultural jar Lake )m all of e progres- jranch of the Snohomish, at the point of contact of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern, and near Lake Stevens, a beautiful »hoet of waior. Lumbering is (he great industry at present, but 1 hoar a good deal about mines of coal and of silver in the neighborhood. Cathcart, Lowell, and Marysville are milling-towns on the river below Snohomish. The river is crooked and not wide, with low banks which must bo overflowed in some seasons. It parts into several channels five or six miles from Port Gardiner, into which it flows by three mouths. On the north side of the enti'ance is the Tulalip Indian reservation, including thirty-eight square miles of excellent land. On the south side of Port Gardiner is Muokilteo, a fish-cannint Hudson. It is under the loe of the latter that the city is located. There is a strip of low-lying land along the front where the business of the town is ceutred, and rising abruptly back of it is a high bluff, level and bare, ou which the residence portion of the city is laid off, which is much exposed to winds from all quarters. This is one of the oldest towns in Washington, having been founded in 1851 by L. B. Hastings, P. W. Pettygrove, C. C. Bachelder, and A, A. Plummer. It was soon'made the port of entry' for this district, which it still remains, and which gives it the sobriquet of Key City. For many years there was a mili- tary post on the west shore of the bay, two and a half miles distant. The customs office, trade with the people at the fort and the scattered population along the shore of the Strait of Fuca, as well as of the more thickly inhabited Whidbey and Camano Islands, witb some local lumbering and ship-building en t' ■.•prises, kept the Port Townsend people fairl}'' prosperous d ring the period from 1852 to 1888, and not only that, in an oyster-like content, but with a wide-awake, intelligent, courteous, and modish spirit. Tbcy had enough, they were able to vait, they cultivated social habits, and enjoyed the beauties of their situation. For one could not reasonably ask to be shown any- thing finer than can be seen from the bluffs at Port Townsend. To the northeast is Mount Baker, with its ragged double peak fretting the heavens. In the southeast is Mount Eainier ; ou the west. Mount Olympus ; on the east, Whidbey Island, the garden of Pugot Sound, aud across tiie Strait the San Juan group, in the P\ica Sea. It is claimed, and I have no doubt with iruth, that the cUmate of this locality is superior to other parts of the Sound country, the average annual rainfall being sixteeii or seventeen inches against from forty to sixty at Olyinpia. The southeily winds which prevail during winter, and bring copious rains to West Washington when they reach the Strait, seem to be met by the warm-air current from the Japanese gulf-stream and the rain- clouds carried away eastward, for there is much less precii)ita- tion on Quimper Peninsula and the islands in the Fuca Sea than elsewhere. My attention was called to the fact that the flower- ing shrubs of three degrees farther south reappeared on the ABOUT THE KEY CITY AND VICINITY. 325 latter along rising ch the xposed g been , C. C. port of [rived it a mili- f miles ;he fort trait of jey and ouilding )spcrous at, in an )urteous, to vait, of their iwn any- )\vnsend. ible peak nier ; on and, the km Juun a climate country, en inches ly winds to West ot by the 1 the rain- prec'pita- i Sea than he flower- ed on the bluffs about Port Townsend. Even the city of Victoria, on Vancouver Island, enjoys this exemption from surplus moisture, which at the mouth of the Strait is excessive. The superior mildness of the climate of this locality and the archipelago still farther north is to be attributed to the warmed water of the gulf stream which flows inland with the tides, warming the air above it. Port Townsend has a population of about seven thousand, a good part of which has been gained in the two years just passed. The recent sudden impulse given to the growth of the city was the effect of the inception of the Port Townsend and Southern Railroad, a local enterprise which was to connect it with Portland, and thus with two transcontinental roads from thore, as well as with the Northern Pacific somewhere south of Olj'mpia, which would give it a third overland route. The enterprise was soon taken in hand by the Oregon Impi'ovement Company, a syndicate which is closely allied to the Union Pacific and the leased Oregon Railway and Navigation Com- panies. Over one million dollars was expended in 1889 in the con- struction of new business buildings. The government also be- gan work on a new custom-house, to cost two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. A fine hotel, the " Eisenbeis," was erected, three miles of street railway built, a company formed to supply the city with water, and several new manufactories started. Besides all this, half a dozen " additions" were made to the old town. Truly, the power of railroads, or even the prospect of one, to give life to business, is marvellous. Besides the lumber-mills before mentioned as being in the vicinity of Port Townsend, there are the Puget Sound Iron- works at Chimaeum, or Irondale, near the head of the bay, which turned out in 1*^89 three hundred and fifty thousand dol- lars' worth of pig-irrn, employing in the mines, the woods, and the works six hundred men. The rival, but hitherto an unsuccessful one, of Port Townsend is Port Angeles, on the south shore of Fuca Strait, and west about thirty miles. It has a good harbor, and there is no natural reason why it should not be the port of entry instead of Townsend. When, in 1861, Victor Smith was appointed col- 11 ji f If , called At the red and spruco- k'hon re- 3y when 5. The ho most I of drift [les jams ivcr, but t City, is channels Vernon e county brought of the station use of its it ought ed on the eral mer- signs of Northern after its a large 3 the iron d Mount Columbia. This mountain is said to bo filled with coal on one side and with iron on the other. It is covered with heavy timber, which is being removed to facilitate the opening of the mines, and a town site is being cleared, which will bo req^uired when the mines are opened. The river flows with a twelve-miles an-hour current at this distance from the Sound; thirty-fivo miles inland the pat^sago grows narrower and the scenery nmre striking. Bird view is a pretty spot, where a water-fall twenty-five feet in width comes plunging down from a height, and runs the machinery of a saw-mill. Above this point the fall in the river increases, and it takes iho steamer half an hour to pass through a rocky defile three hundred feet in width, but of no great length. Not far beyond this pass, Baker River, a large stream, enters the Skagit from the south, seeming .-.carcely to augment its volume. Its valky is heavily timbered, and, if rumor is correct, the hills which bonier it are stored with coal, iron, and marble. On the north hank of the Skagit, eight miles beyond the junction of Baker liiver, is Sauk City, at the mouth of Sauk fiiver, a stream which comes down Irom Mount Baker through a very rugged country. Sauk Mountain, close to the river, is six thousand feet in height. Beyond this point navigation be- comes difficult, even in high water, and at Cascade we turn about to descend. The Seattle and Northern Railroad, which is chartered to build from Anacortes to Spokane, with a branch to Seattle, and which has already completed a connection with the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern, is surveying its line east of the head of navigation, making for the Skagit Pass. Until transportation is afforded by railway, little development will take place in the mining region beyond. , , ■ ,,,^ ■•; , ,■ f;.' ,>! '^:, >_..,. ■•r ; It is curious to note, that, whereas we set out with the im- pression that our route lay through " twilight woods" almost perpetuall}', we found quite a number of good farms and com- fortable farm-houses in the Skagit Valley as far as we proceeded, so rapidly does achievement follow upon attempt in this rich and favored region. I will be quite honest, and say, what I think to be the truth, that the very newness of the country helps the beginner here, by the absence of close competition. It .iS i\:: 334 ATLANTIS ARISEN. 41 By and by, when everybody has found his place and settled down to stay, the home market of the producer will not bo as good as it now is nor the prices bo high. But by then ho will have placed himself in comfort, and need not worry over market prices. I am reminded by being at the mouth of the Sauk of a very interesting talk I had with a gentleman at Olympia — Mr. F. W. Brown — before coming here. Prom him I learned that the scenery on the Sauk, towards its head, is of the wildest descrip- tion. Jets of lava, poured out in former ages fi-om Mount Baker, thrust themselves up through the main ridge of the Cascades where it is nine thousand feet above the sea. The Sauk River is precipitated over frequent falls and rapids. A park — Suiatl, pronounced Soo-i-at — is surrounded b}' basaltic needles of great height, and in it is found the red snow seen only in a few localities on the globe. Hugo blocks of granite occur in tliis region, and in one place a pillar of it five thou- sand feet in height. But the most curious discovery made was of a caflon coming down Mount Baker to within half a mile of the Skagit Eiver, formed by hot lava cutting its way through sand and limestone, and turning the sides of the cafion thus formed to obsidian. This volcanic glass is blue and green in color, and veiy brittle. There is a field here for the scientist and the tourist, which is waiting only until railroads make it reasonabl}- easj' to approach. To return to the archipelago. In cruising about among these islands one is irresistibly reminded of Homer. Here might have been enacted the scenes of the Odyssey. There is the same idyllic simplicity, and even the same occupations of the people, who in the San Juan group are often of Canadian or North-of-Europe stock. These islands are indeed preferable to the •' . , ,. . " Isles of Greece ,..»,■.■,. , Where burning Sappho loved and sung," ■ .■ ^ on account of the forestry upon them. The San Juan group numbers thirty or more islands, large and small, containing together two hundred and fifty square miles. The greatest elevation is two hundred and fifty feet, excluding Mount Dallas, on San Juan, which is ten hundred :^.^*^AiM-»»i^^^:^ SAN JUAN ARCHIPELAGO AND CITY OF THE SEA. 335 )ttlO(l ot be )n ho over I very tfr. F. at the iscrip- Mount of the . The drt. A )a8altic w seen granite thou- tdo was mile of through on thus recn in jcientist make it njr these might e in the IS of the adian or eforable ids, large ;y square fiy feet, hundred and oiglity feet, and Mount Constitution, on Orcas, which is two thousand five hundred feet in Iioight. San Juan, since the days when tlie American collector had the unpleasant episode witii the swineherd, has enjoyed a profitable trade in lirae, of which thirty-eight lliousand barrels are annually exported. There are forty-two thousand eight hundred and ninety-six acres of im- proved land in the group; but stock-raising rather than farming is the business of the inhabitants. Orcas Island is the most modernized of the group, having, as well as San Juan, several lime companies, all doing a good busi- ness ; a lumber company, two brick-yards, and other manufac- tories. A few years ago hotels and summer boarding-houses were erected on this island, with the purpose of attracting visitors and building up towns. But since the I'ailroad era dawned upon the Sound, the Orcas Island people have taken to fruit-growing, which promises to be a great business on these isles. They have organized a Fruit-Growers' Association; and, since I know by actual test that the fruit of all the northwest part of Washington is superior in flavor, I hereby desire to advertise the fact for the benefit of all whom it may concern. The head-quarters of the Orcas Fruit-Growers' Association is at East Sound. Under the auspices of this society fruits will be packed and 8hii)ped in the most careful manner, and guaran- teed to purchasers. The secretary also will undertake to find tracts of from ten to twenty acres, suitable for fruit-raising, for those who desire to enter into this sesthetic branch of agri- cultural life. Summer apples raised hero bring, at the wharf, eighty-five cents to one dollar per box holding about half a bushel. Winter apples bring from one dollar and twenty-five cents to one dollar and seventy-five cents, and keeping apples for spring market still higher. Pears bring from one dollar and fifty cents to two dollars per box. Apricots bring eight and a half cents per pound, prunes for the drying-houso three and a half cents per pound. Strawberries and blackberries sell for ten cents a pound. The most luscious peaches are g'rown among the mountains of the islands. Cherries produce wonderful crops, and so with melons and vegetables. Why should not one love to publish this Arcadian region to the world? Poets not yet born will sing of i m ll!;i U il tft IS:' Hi; ,1 ''ii I V ! ■ " -4 ■ ■ '! i ' til » «l m ' ' 1^ .*.' ■}'■ it, and when a thousand years from now orators shall soek to embellish their speech, it will not be by reference to Greece, but to these far western isles, the new Atlantis discovered by a Greek navigator. Like the Greeks, these islanders have fish in ple'ntv and fish will always be counted riraong their resources. Twenty tons of halibut have been taken in one day by a single boat. Game is still plentiful in the hills, w';Iie the bays and sloughs swarm with diicks, geese, and brant. The farm productions sent to market, bes'dos fruit are chiefly mutton, hay, oats, cheese, and butter. Talking about fish and fowl reminds me of the comical habits of that absurd bird the crow, whose numbers on the beach any- where from the Columbia to the British boundary are immense. They swarm on theeo island beaches when the tide is out, and fish for clams. Seizing their game, they mount high in the air and drop the bivalve upon the rocks to break the shell, when they proceed to make a meal off the contents. When pigs running wild root for clams, the crows roost on their backs until a clam is turned up, and, just as the shell is cracked by the pig, will dart down, seize the moUusk, an! retire to de- vour it. The importance of this archipelago to the State of Washing- ton is suggested by the above observations. L3ing at the head of the Strait of Fuca, the only maritime entrance to the gieat inland sea improperly called a sound, it is upon a naval depot in this vicinity that the defence of the interior depends. The United States, having weakly yielded the island of Vancouver to the British government, must maintain offensive and defensive establishments at least equal to those of Great Britain, and 8uflScien<- to guard the Sound coasts against intrusion by any ibr'MgTi power. It is intereslng to know that the man who first gave signs of comprehending the significance of the archipelago at the head of the Fuca Strait was by birth a British srbject, by education an American, anhe did, and Mr. Bowman purchased a quarter section of land on the northeast corner of Fidalgo Island, built a house to reside in and a trading- house, — for the exchequer bad to be looked after, — asked the Post office Department to establish an office for the Island at his place, and to call it Anacortes, which prayer was granted, and then set about unfolding hie views. The manner of doing this was exceedingly painstaking, and required the courage of conviction. There were but few inhabi- tants on the island, and seldom any visitors to it, yet Mr. Bow- man published a newspajier. lie made and published elaborate mapSj showing the position of Fidalgo Island to the wi^ole w^orld, demonstrating the relation of Anacoites to transconti- nental and oceanic travel and traffic, showing that it was the shortest, quickest, and least " pensive route between Great Britain and Asia, via New \(.vk, the Great Lakes, Chicago, Duluth, Spokane Falls to Anacortes and the Strait of Fuca. He represented clearly tho local advantages of Anacortes over an}' port on the Sound b} careful measurement and lucid illus- tration. These maps — large, colored, and with full explanations — were sent free or as '"prizes" to subscribers and newspaper exchanges. By and b}' they began to awaken attention, and about ten years from the time Mr. Bowman settled upon Fidalgo Island ho vras receiving propositions from railroad companies which sought to make Anacortes a terminal point. In January, 1890, there were not twenty inhabitants in this place; in Febru- ary, when the Oregon Improvement Company advertised that it would sell lots, there were three thousand people on the 22 mm m ^1;, ~zsr- if \i I :i'U r -'^ ? !; I » I It, ft" 338 ATLANTIS ARISEN. .i^rouinl. The Seattle and Northern Eailroad was immediately built to the coal-mines of the Skacrlt Vallev at Hamilton. The Union Pacific graded a few miles, and iransferred its rights to the Northern Pacific, which for the present uses the track of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern from Sedro to Seattle, giving Anacortes connection with Queen City hefore the end of the first year of its history as a town. The Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Eoad will bo extended to a connection with the Canadian Pacific in a few months, giving Anacortes as well as Seattle a terminus, which, with the Seattle and Northern, connecting with the Great Northern at Spokane, will give the City of the Sea three transcontinental roads alnost from the first. These, with first-class steamers running to all points on the Sound, to Victoria, and to San Francisco, leave the traveller free to go where he lists, the world being literally "all before him where to choose." Of the local advantage^* of Anacortes, one is that all the rivers of that part of Washington east of the Fuca Sea and Strait have their valleys opening towards Fidalgo Island, hence their products should naturall} centre here. These are the Snohomish, Stillaguamish, Skagit, Samish, and Nooksahk. The Samish — the smallest of them all, running into the soutii end of Belling- hara Bay — furnished from six logging-camps last year ten mil- lion six hundred and thirty thousand feet of lumber to the mills of Pugct Sound, which was but a small percentage of the lum- ber production iVom the camps in this region. One camp on the Skagit marketed in une 3 ear nine million feet, the price rang- ing from six dollars and fifty cents to seven dollars per thousand. There is wealth for you. Then follow all other kinds of wealth, — minei'al, agricnlfural, manufacturing, — and the market for these is all the world, because the shipping of all the world comes here Ag! in, Anacor*^e8 places great stress upon the nnperioiity of Ship Harbor. The tidal currents in the channel in front of the city are about three knots an hour, — never four, — whereas the tidal currents of New York and San Francisco are w/ knotn, In the inner harbors of Fidalgo and Padilla Bays tb<> '.(i/rant* are very gentle, and these bays have deop-v,ater branches ultimately to be converted into Blip harbor?, the best of all, AIRHAVEN AND BELLINGHAM BAY. 539 with unlimited room. Swinomish Slough, which is navigable for largo vessels only at high tide, is to bo deepened, when it will afford a passage from the south into Padilla Bay. Sailing-masters find the prevailing winds of tlie countrj' to be from the southeast and northwest. Both are fair winds into Ship Harbor and out of it. Ships requii"e no towing, but Bail up to their docks unaided, and such is the depth of water that the largest vessel afloat need not fear to do so. The present permanent jwpulation of Anacortes is two thou- sand two hundred and fifty. At the end of the first year it had cleared two thousand acres of forest, graded and planked ten miles of streets, completed a system of Avater- works, built three saw-mills, a sash- and door-factory, an iron-foundry and ma- chine shop, blacksmith- and wagon-shops, a steam-laundry, a ship yard, eleven miles of electi'ic-raihvay (almost completed), four railroad depots, four hotels, five handsome brick blocks, and expended altogether in building improvements over half a million dollars, besides another quarter of a million in wharves and wai'ehouses. It has two newspaper establishments and good public schools. Banks and other moneyed institutions are on the ground doing a good business. Such is Anacortes, the Venice of the Pacific. I shall often throw down my pen to dream of that matchless sea, over which she elects to preside and over which I floated in June days, taking mental photographs which cannot fade, in company with the kindest of entertainers. CHAPTEE XXVII. FAIRHAVEN AND BELLINGHAM BAT. Lfaving Anacortep «»arly in the afternoon by a fine steamer, I had a delightful voyage tu Faii'haven, another new town on Bellingbarn Bay. Of Bellinghum Bay, as a coal-mining port in years past, I bad ofUm beard, the first coal ever mined in Wash- ington coming from here. The discovery was made by William Pattie, a British subject, in 1852, who spoke of it to Henry ' 'd * if:' P™1 ust. iwiirr»ii 340 ATLANTIS ARISEN. i:-l; Eoeder and Eussell V. Peabody, whom he met at Olympia. Roeder was of German birth but brought up in the United States, while Peabody was frojii Ohio. They had been in Cali- fornia together, and now determined, after hearing Pattle'f* account of the country, to go to Bellingham Bay, and erect a saw-mill, which they did, on Whatcom Creek. They also took donation claims, on one of which coal was found in 1854, sixty- five tons of which were sent to San Francisco to be tested, and found merchantable. From that time until the Seattle Mines were opened this was the only coal mined in Washington. About ISry the mine caught fire and was flooded, since which time it has lain idle. The town of Whatcom was laid off on Boeder's land while the Fraser River mining excitement was at white he; in 1857, and at one time contained ten tliousand people, but rm order of Governor Douglas turning tratTlc to Victoria caused it to be deserted, and all the better buildings to be removed to that place, which acquired thereby a very American growth and appear- ance for an English town. A single brick house remained, which was converted to county purposes. Whatcom remained uninhabited, except by its owners and the coal company, until 1870, when the Northern Pacific, look- ing for a terminus, purchased all the land which could be obtained fronting on the bay, — however, not including Whatcom. In 1882, a Kansas colony numbering six hundred fixing upon this locality, the ownei'S of the town-site agreed to donate a half-interest in the town if the colony would settle there, but subsequently refused to make good their contract, when the colonists laid off a town for themselves called New Whatcom, or Bellingham, while others settled at Sehome, botAveen the two. The population of tiie three places continued to be insig- nificant until 1889., when Fairliavon was taken in hand by a company of which Mr. Nelson Bennet, the contractor who constructed the Northern Pacific's great tunnel through the Cascade Mountains, was president, and C. X. Larrabeo, of Mon- tana, vice-president. I cannot refrain from quoting fi-om a monograph published by the Fairhaven Chamber of Commerce, describing the methods pursued in founding new cities, and particularly Fairhaven : FAIRHAVEN AND BELLINGHAM BAY. 341 mpia. nitud , Cali- ivect a ) took sixty- d, and Mines mgton. whicli I while n 1857, rdcr of t to be it place, appeai*- imained, lers and ilc, look- ould be '^hatcom. ing upon ionate a lere, but rhon the itcom, or le two. be insig- ud by a 3tor who >ugh the '^, of Mon- published methode kaven : "Minors were sent into the mountains to search for coal and iron-ore and veins of silver, load, and gold-bearing ores. En- gineers with barometers strapped to their backs were ordered into the highlands to search for railroad routes. Timber ex- aminers were ordered to examine the forests that stand between the rugged flanks of tlie Cascade Eange and the waters of Puget Sound to estimate the probable amount of marketable lumber they contr.ined. Other men were sent to watch the sweep of the tides through narrow passages and to examine liarbors. Presently gaunt men, toil-worn and haggard, and who carried burdens on their backs, emerged from the forests and stood on steamboat-landings. This man carried silvei'-ore, that man iron-ore, and yonder was a man who was blackened with coal-dust, and the sack that hung heavily over his back contained coking coal. That grouji of worn, tired-eyed men with intelli- gent faces were engineers from mountuin-piisses. Farther down stood men the pockets of whose canvas jackets bulged with note- books that were stuffed with informatioa relative to the value of the timber and the character of the soil of several counties. From out of forests, floating down rivers in canoes, from off the rapid tide-water, out of mountain-posses, from tlie plains east of the Cascade Range, from probable town-sites, men hur- ried to Tacoma and to Nelson Bennett's ofHce. The information was gathered. It was attentively studied, laboriously compared, and thoroughly digested. Maps were drawn and the resources of the region examined were marked on them. Slowly the evidence was sifted. This point was rejected because of the harbor, that because the land directly tributary was uot .irable when cleared, and another because it was too far from coal and iron. It was finally decided that the new city should be built on the shores t)f Belliiigham Bay. When this conclusion was arrived at, to act followed instantly. An extensive tract of land was bought for a largo sum. A cily was laid out. Engineers located a railroad that extends from Fairhaven to New West- minster in British Columbia, and from Fairhaven to >i point far east of the Cascade Mountains, llundreds of men began I » fell trees aiid to shovel dirt along the railroad lino. Other men cleared the timbei' oflf of the town-site and buined it. Streets were graded and town-U^lH offered for sale. Steel rails, locomotives, m m =i?rf m If' il! M I fc MI. t I ■ 1 1 342 ATLANTIS ARISEN. and cars were bought, and in two months from the time the first blow was struck at Fairhaven, which was in May, 1889, trains of cars were running into and out of the town." That is the story in a nutshell, of the founding of cities by the intelligence of this ago. Belliiighani Buy does not differ greatly in appearance from the bay at Seattle. In front of Fairhaven, which is about seventeen miles due north, and a little east of Anacortes, is a narrow peninsula similar to that on which West Seattle is situ- ated, Avhich is occupied as a reservation by the Lummi Indians, and Lumnii Island, extending a few iniles south of the penin- sula. The town-site slopes down hand.soniely to the bay, pre- senting an attractive view to the passenger on the incoming steamer, which is enhanced Ijy the character of the buildings already completed and in course of erection, some of which are surprisingly ornate for the size and age of the town. Mount Baker, with its bx'okon cone, and family of lesser peaks about it, lies almost dii ectly east from Fairhaven, and is a noble object with its ten thousand eight hundred and ten feet of height overtopping the darkly-mantled Cascade Range. The scenic altractions of Fairhaven and the other Bellingham Bay towns are fully as great as any of the cities farther on Puget Sound, and its natural x'esources appeared to me to be almost identical with those of Anacortes, except in the matter of distance from the Strait and length of water-front. Vessels require no towing to the wharves of either. The same valleys are tributary to both, the same iron, coal, and marble deposits, the same timber, and the same fisheries. It rains a little more at Fairhaven than at the head of the Strait, but only about half as much us ai Olyinpia, and the temperature is perhaps a Irlllo less mild, though flowers bloom every month of the year in the open air. The Nooksahk River empties into the north end of Belling- ham Bay, and therefore is more dii-ectly tributary to the towns upon it than elsewhere. The valley of this river is very exten- sive, stretching from British Columbia to Whatcom, south, and embracing a scope of country fifi}'^ miles in width due east of Bellingham Bay. The timber being removed, the soil produces everything entrusted to it in marvellous abundance, — as, ibr in- rt.' -vi '/ FAIRHAVEN AND BELLINGHAM BAY. 343 le the , 1889, ies by b from about es, is a is situ- ndians, penin- ay, pre- coming uildings lich are )!• peaks , a noble f height e Bcenio (,y towns t Sound, identical ice from towing lutary to 13 timber, ven than ich »9 at loss mild, the open ' Belling- he towns ry exten- outh, and east of produces -as, for in- stance, one hundred ruta-bagas of best average size, raised near Lyndon, on the Nooksahk, weighed two thousand pounds. It is excellently adapted to fruit and hops, as well as grass, grain, and vegetables. The mineral resources of the Nooksahk are ^et undeveloped, but are understood to be iron, coal, copper, lead, and silver. There is abundance of water-power. The country is generally level and not rocky, with soft, pure spi'ing-water in abundance. All this is, of course, very valuable, and is for him who comes and takes it. There are many interesting resorts about Fairhaven. Lake Whaccom, two and a half miles east of Belli ngham Bay, is an irregularly-shaped lake, eleven miles long by one and a half in width, of cold clear water over one thousand feet in depth in the centre. Its shores slope gently, and towards the east merge in the mountains five tho^'sand feet above. A summer hotel is erected at Silver Bc.'.Ci), k. c north end of the lake, with a boat-house and other encouragements to visitors. On its west bank is the pretty new town of Geneva, and on its waters the steamer of that name, which carries pkiasure-seeker.s from one end to the other. In its Avaters trout are abundant. It is said that within a stone's throw of the lake gold, silver, coal, and fire-clay have been found in situ, and, if true, the best feature of the lake for a pleasure-resort, its seclusion, will be destroyed. The outlet of this lake is Whatcom Creek, which runs into the bay. On the shore of Lummi Island is Smugglers' Cuve, a tiny harbor with a spring and water-fall, overhung by beetling crags and lofty firs, but, best of all, with a legend belonging to it, of a smuggler who took hiding here from the revenue officers, but being pursued climbed up the dizzy precipice and was never heard of more. The rest of the story is loft to the imagination of the hearer. One of the curiosities of Lummi Island is the Devil's Slide, a vein of nearly white sandstone of a shaly formation, one hundi-ed feet in width and thirteen hundred feet in height, which lies on the side of a mountain at an inclination which causes every detached scale to slide down into the bay. As scales are detached every few minutes, the query is, when will 5*f iii mm, w^ iimiBH iH 344 ATLANTIS ARISEN. this disintegration, which has been going on time out of mind, cease, and the vein be exhausted ? On Eliza Island, in the bay, is a chicken-hatchery, which turns out one thousand per week during the season. Vendori Island, a high, rocky, and picturesque Hplintcr of earth set in the waters just where it ])roduces the most beautiful effect against the sky and tlic far-off shore line, is a sheep rancho. Chuckanut Bay, on the east shore of the greater bay, three miles south of Fairhuven, is the site of the famous sandstone quarry, uj)on which all the cities of the coast have at times had to draw for building-slone. It is i)i the side of a precipice, and the people who live about the quarry are almost as isolated by their elevation as ':he cliff-dwellers of Arizona. Sehome and Whatcom are so near together, and so near to Fairhaven, that all are in effect one city, although under differ- ent municipal governments. Whatcom is the county-seat, and has a fine court-house. The streets are full of busy people, and the town has a substantial and respectable air, as becomes its age, though, truth to say, this appearance has been but recently put on. Sehome has two large hotels, — the "Sehome" and the " Grand Central." Fail-haven, although so young, has four thousand and thirty- one inhabitants. Its linost hotel is the " Fairhaven," built of brick and stone, well situated, with a fine view of the harbor. It has an excellent system of water-works, four banks, two newspapers, electric light service, telegraph and telephone com- municiiiion, three churches completed, and othurs building, good schools, saw-mills, brick-yards, and factories. It has a railroad being built to connect with the Westminster Southern, and through that with the Canau m Ij*aclf}u at Blaine (Fairhaven and Northern, opened in Febrv U-y, 1811 1 j. Tlu! Fairhaven and Soutlieru is also being construi ted, which is making for the coal- mines in the Skagit Valley, crossing the I'lvol' ili Hodro, proceed- ing south to Seattle to connect with the Northern Pacific, and also building east up the Skagit to the coal , marble , granllo-, and silver mines in that direction, and ultimately to go to S|)okano. Foi't Bellingham, a stone f\n% built in 1856 by Captain Pickett, who became a general in the Confederate array, Is situated about PAIRHAVEN AND BELLINGHAM BAY. 345 thirty - >uilt of hai'bor. iB, two no corn- good ailroad n, and r haven on and he coal- roceed- lic, and ^i-aiilii!-) I'ickett, id about three miles from Whatcom, on the shore of the bay. Thoro are several settlements, of small importance at present, on the Nooksahk River: Lummi, at the mouth; Fonidale, just above the Lummi River, the northern outlet of tlic NooksahU ; Nook- sahk post-office; and Lynden, on the line of the Fairhaven and Northern, a growing town in a rich agricultural rei,don. Yeager and Licking are small places in the valley, where the people can purchase necessary articles and get tlieir mail. On the coast, and within two miles of the international boundary, is Seinahimoo, on the west side of Drayton Harbor; and on the east side, touching the line, is the new city of Blaine, the twin of a town of the same name on the British Columbia side. The twin towns act together in the most friendly manner, and are assuming considerable importance ijs the terminus of the Westminster Southern Railroad and starting-point of a line being surveyed to Lynden, Whatcom, and Spokane Falls. But being pressed for time, I abandoned my intention of proceeding as far north as Blaine and Westminster, and, taking steamer again at Fairhaven, returned to Seattle. As one floats for a hundred miles upon these placid w.'iters, always in sight of beauty and of positive if undeveloped wealth, it is impossible not to see that there is a great deal in the daims put forth by the people of this northwest coast concerning its relation to the commerce of the world. Already Alaska is demanding recognition of its commerce and mines. A few years ago one steamer a month sufficed for its trade ; now it requires one every week. Railroads are projected, and will be built, to connect the Pacific States with Asia, across Behring's Strait. Already commercial men are watching and waiting for the completion o'" the Nicaragua Canal to shape by it new lines of transportation. The Pacific front of our republic, extending from ocean to ocean, is to play a great part in the world's history, and it is well fur the founders to stud\- the situation. The great effort ot to-day is to eccjnomize time and obliterate space. The hand (hat from this new West reaches out farthest towards the oldest KnBt will grasp the prize. Why should not these thoughts suggest what these waters will in time resemble, when palaces shall be reflected in their margin.^, and the white-winged mes- i v.i'l m l!fi 346 ATLANTIS ARISEN. songors of commerce shall glide continually from point to point of those now fir-clad slopes, laden with the pi-ecious cargoes of the Orient, making this northern sea a second Bosphorus for beauty and magnificence ? ! fi CHAPTER XXVIII. il QHMPSES OF THE INLAND EMPIRE. The Northern Pacific, which transports you to Pasco or Wallula Junction, according to your destination, whether it be Spokane or Walla Walla, first has to elevate you two thousand eight hundred and eighty five feet to the great tunnel one thou- sand and ninety -five feet lower than the summit of Stampede Pass. The scener}' along Green River is wild in the extreme, making one " pity the sorrows of the poor old man" — who of course was a young one — who engineered the line of this road. To the terrible grandeur of the scenery are added here and there glimpses of a milder foim of beauty, but the general impression given by the western blope of the mountains is that the ascent is very abrupt. After passing the great tunnel, the change in the appearance of the mountains is the same which we notice in passing through the gap of the Columbia, — the disappearance of the firs, the longer slopes of the ridges, and the substitution of pine timber for the fii', which gradually disappeai's. The Stamj)ede tunnel is two miles in length. It cost a great deal of brain-work, as well as manual labor and money. A portion of it is lined with cement, to prevent the disintegration of the earth above, by the action of the air. Few people, I fancy, in passing through it realize that they are one thousand feet underground. Just north of the Stampede Pass the Yakima River has its source in three small lakes, — Kitchelas, Kalichass, and Cle-ee-lum, and the railroad follows down this stream to its entrance into the Columbia. The valley of the Yakima is rather a great basin than a valley, bounded by the Cascade Mountains on the west. GLIMPSES OF THE INLAND EMPIRE. 347 point )e9 of us for 18CO or ler it be aousand no thou- tampeci»J , making )f course oad. To ind there npression he ascent change in notice in jpearance bstitution ,st a great ^oney. A ntcgration people, I } thousand IV er has its Cle-ce-lum, trance into great basin n the west, the Wenatcho River on the north, and the Columbia River on the south and oast, containing several smaller valleys on the west side, namely, the Wenass, Nachoss, Atahaatu, Pisco, Top- unisb, and Klickitat, with numerous small streams debouching into the Columbia. The soil of the Yakima basin is a uniform light sandy loam, with more or less alkali in it. Near the mountains there is more clay and loam, which retains moisture much longer than the soil of the plains, and the river bottoms are largely alluvial tleposits. The country comes under the general head of "arid land," although as a natural slock cotmtry it is unsurpassed, the cattle ranging upon it, instead of coming out in the spring with huik siilos and rough coats, being as round and glossy as if kept up and curried. This is the original home of the Yakima tribe of Indians, who still have a reservation containing about thirty-six town- ships on the west side of the basin, watered bytho Atuhnam and Topunlsh Rivers. These people kept large herds of horses before white men came among them, and now in addition keep herds of cattle. White settlors at first imitated them in the matter of neglecting agriculture for stock-raising, but the advent of railroads and the outcome of some expei'iments in farming have inaugui'ated very important changes. Irrigation is now the demand, and the problem which science and capital are attempting to solve. That it will be solved there can bo no doubt. The first place of any consequence which we come to after passing the mining towns of Cle-ee-lum and Roslyn is Ellens- burg, in Kittitass County. It was first settled in 1867, by two ; I xilies. The present population is five thousand. It was ail' ")st destroyed by fire .July -4, 1889, one month after Seattle vva: burned, and one month before another city of Washington — bpokane — was destroyed by the same element. One million doUai's was immediately expended in rebuilding the burnt dis- trict with brick and stone, and the trade of that year amounted to two million five hundred thousand dollars. EUensburg was not entirely a creation of the great railroad, but of the country whose resources have been developed by its people. These resoui'ces are both mineral and agricultural. iU.1^ m ■hW\ i.A] .^f :^-'' ffi; ,*^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 11.25 tlil2» UTS US III 1.4 11.6 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STRKT WEBSTER, N.Y. MS80 (716)S72-4S03 6^ I III I* 'if III' 348 ATLANTIS ARISEN. There are four irrigating canals in the Ellensburg district. One, the Teanaway Ditch Company's canal, is fifty miles in length, and can water seventy-five thousand acres of land. It is claimed that, without irrigation, forty bushels to the aero of wheat can be produced ! It is in evidence that the Ellensburg Valley pro- duced, in 1887, one million bushels of wheat, without artificial moisture. Fruit, vegetables, hops, and hay do well without ir- rigation ; but with it, they produce larger crops. Ellensburg is the county-seat of Kittitass Counly. It is situated on Wilson Creek, a short distance from the Yakima River, on a plain sloping south. The Cascades and Mount Bainier close in the western view ; the water-shed between the Yakima and Wenatchee defines the valley on the northeast, and the hills of the Cowiehe on the southwest, while the Yakima on the southeast is closed in by highlands forming a long, crooked, and narrow defile, shutting oflf all the landscape on the farther side. The town is regularly laid out, with wide streets, good sidewalks, and well-kept public grounds. There has been a large accession to the population since the completion of the Cascade division of the Northern Pacific. Ellensburg controls the trade of a wide section, and is reach- ing f it after that of the Okanogan mining region and the Big Bend country. Its business men built a steamboat in 1889 to run on the Columbia, between a point about thirt}- miles from Ellensburg and the mouth of the Okanogan Eiver, and, although it was run at a loss the first year, voted a subsidy to keep it on the route the second year, a measure which is bringing its re- ward. All the freight from the West for the mines had hereto- fore been sent to Spokane Falls, and thence across the country by rail- and v/agon-roads, making a long and expensive detour. The Ellensburg and Northern Railroad is being constructed to the Columbia Eiver to connect with the steamer for the Okano- gan mines. Ellensburg has a good water-system, electric light service, one street railway, a telephone exchange, two banks, three news- papers, a foundry and machine-shops, and other manufactures. There are six flouring-mills in the valle}-, three saw-millb, three sash- and door factories, with numerous well-stocked general merchandise establishments. A company has recently been IP! GLIMPSES OF THE INLAND BJfPIRE. 349 One, ingth, aimed at can •y pro- tificial out ir- It is rakima Mount icn the ist, and tima on ■roolfed, farther ts, good 1 been a 1 of the is reach- Iho Big 1889 to es from although eep it on g its re- d hereto- country re detour, ructed to le Okano- irvice, one vee news- ufactures. lillb, three sd general mtly been formed with a capital of one million dollars to develop the mineral wealth of the Kittitass and tributary country. Among other projects is one to build a smelter to reduce the ores of the ConconuUy Mines at the north, and another to organize an iron and steel manufacturing company. Limestone, sandstone, pum- ice, coal, gold, and other minerals, it is said, are only awaiting the action of associated capital to create a great deal of wealth. The second town in the Yakima Basin is North Yakima. Why North Yakima ? Only because when some people of their own accord had laid off a town two or three miles south of them, then came the Northern Pacific Eailroad Company, and in 1885 laid off a town of its own, on the most approved plan, north of them, and drew to itself the trade of the country of Yakima. This proceeding naturally was greatly irritating to the South Yakimus, who complained of the treatment of the railroad company. The company as a corporation could not be expected to have a soul, but it had a fair-to-middling kind of brj^in, and made a proposition to the residents of South Yakima to come over and dwell in the tents of the north town, or, in other words, to let the railroad company remove them, houses and inhabitants, on the railroad town site, whex*e they were to be given lots lor those Ihey left behind, and made wel- come. As the business of the place had already' departed, the majority felt forced to accept the proposition, and the company accordingly had the south town removed, house by house, and set down on its town-site. This procedure increased the value of North Yakima real property. History is silent as to the financial and mental condition of real-estate dealers in the old town, but they probably threw themselves off a rock into the sea. North Yakima is a flourishing town, situated near the conflu- ence of the Nachess and Yakima Rivers. It is admirably laid out, with streets from eighty to one hundred feet in width, shaded by handsome trees, and irrigated by rivulets of pure water flowing next the sidewalks. T 3 county-seat is located here, and its three thousand inhabitants pay taxes on an assessed valuation of one million dollars, which is about one-fourth of the actual value of the town property. It is equipped, like all the new towns of Washington, with water, fire, light, and street- Ill m IIP ■■';:^ mU m u HI 1^ i ^ I 1 350 ATLANTIS ABI8EN. railway service, and with a handsome public-school building, half a dozen churches, and several benevolent societies. A railroad to Portland is talked of, towards which one hundred thousand dollars bonus is pledged. The principal interests of North Yakima are agricultural. Irrigation schemes are the topic of conversation. Two canals were completed in 1889 ; one from the Nachess River extending twelve miles towards town, with branches which open up thirty thousand acres of land, at a cost of sixty thousand dollars, and the other between the lower Yakima and the Columbia, which waters twenty-five thousand acres, and cost thirty thousand dollars. The Northern Pacific and Yakima Irrigation Company is surveying for another canal, to cost six hundred thousand dollars, and to have a length of one hundred and ten miles. A still greater scheme is on foot to expend about two million dol- lars in extended irrigation and in constructing dams in the mountains for the storage of water, which will be wanted when the eight hundred thousand acres, now r3served for the pleasure of the Indians, shall be thrown open to settlement. The Moxee Farm, near North Yakima, is a tract owned by a company, that is experimenting with the soil and other condi- tions of the land. It derives large profits from alfalfa, hops, corn, tobacco, and fruits. Peaches bear profusely the second year after transplanting, and grapes do well. A fair average crop of tobacco is one thousand pounds per acre, and nets six hundred dollars. Hops net one hundred dollars. Fruit and vegetables find a ready market at good prices. The company is also experimenting with cotton and tea. It owns fourteen miles of ditcb, and can flood its fields if so disposed. Dairying and raising blooded stock is a part of the business of the Moxee Farm. If one chooses to take a conveyance south about fifty miles from North Yakima, he will strike Goldendale, the county-seat of Klickitat County, lying south of the Indian Beservation. He will find the ride interesting, even if there is no pioneer present to relate to him incidents of the Yakima Indian War, when Fort Simcoe was erected by Major Garnett, who was afterwards a Confederate general in the civil war. GLIMPSES OF THE INLAND EMPIRE. 361 lilding, 68. A undred ultural. ) canals tending p thirty ars, and I, which liouaand ompany housand liles. A lion dol- s in the ;ed when pleasure ned by a er condi- ,fa, hops, le second • average i nets six ii'ruit and )mpany is ;een miles pying and le Moxee Sfty miles Dunty-seat sservation. 10 pioneer dian War, who was There is a range of hills called the Simcoe Mountains, which yon cross, and find very pleasant, because wooded, after the dun and monotonous grass and sage-brush lands. The road takes us across the reservation, and shows us a good many fat cattle and lusty aborigines, but little improvement. Goldendale is an agricultural town in a level valley among hills. It is a pretty and prosperous place, and looks forward to having railroad connection with Portland when the Hunt Sys- tem is completed to that city. It is making proposals to secure the Soldiers' Home upon a tract of land near the town, and the place seems well adapted to the purpose, the plan being to erect cottages with gardens attached instead of one grand institution. Trout Lake, and the ico caves mentioned in another chapter, are in Klickitat Countj'', to both of which a large number of visitors repair in summer. Mount Adams is only about thirty- six miles northwest of Goldendale, and is the point of sight of the people here, as Hood is of Portland and The Dalles. A new town, called North Dalles, has sprung up opposite the Oregon town, in Klickitat County, Washington. It is proposed to erect manufactories here, and it is said some are already secured. Manufactures on the Columbia, with free navigation of the great river, are what are required to give stability to that development which capital has inaugurated in other ways. " Keep your eye on Pasco l" is the injunction which meets you in newspaper and hand-bill advertisements, making you curious to behold it, as if it were the What Is It. When you arrive, you look about you for something on which to keep your eye, which being blown full of sand refuses to risk more than the briefest glimpses thenceforward. Thefe is a hotel, of brick, an<' some houses scattered about, built, I am told, by the Pasco Land Company, which has also in contemplation a large irrigating canal with which to make cultivable the wastes of sand and sage-brush owned by it. A Chinamen, it is said, has a small patch of ground behind his cabin which he sprinkles with a watering pot, thereby being enabled to grow flowers and vege- tables in luxuriant beauty and proportions. From this it is inferred that the irrigation of these wastes will redeem them I'l i il ■ 1^ J '1. .;;'' ^mI; In. . ! ! 362 ATLANTIS ARISEN. from their present sterility; but in the interim, keeping one's eyes on Pasco is a painful experience. Merely as a location for a city, Pasco, or Ainsworth, which is a couple of miles beyond, at the crossing or Snake River, either, or both together, are fine town-sites. Mr. Villard, it is said, has remarked that a large city must some day bo built up at the junction of the Snake and Columbia Rivers. It is more than probable, and I hope is true, and that it will bo called Ainsworth, to perpetuate the memory of the man, than whom no single individual has done so much to develop the Inland Empire. Captain J. C. Ainsworth was a very young man for the place when he took command of a steamboat, as part owner, on the upper Mississippi River; but, meeting with a painful bereave- ment, this, with the reports arriving at that time of the riches of the California gold placers, gave him a distaste for his manner of life, and he was just in the mood to break away from it when his friend William C. Ralston, also a steamboat man in his youth, returned from the golden shore with such representations as put to flight all hesitation, and young Ainsworth became, as so many others have become, a " man of destiny." He spent a few months in California, in 1850, as deputy clerk of the court at Sacramento, being while there solicited tb go to Oregon to take command of the first steamboat built on the Wallamet, — the "Lot Whitcomb," — in which he bought an interest. This was the beginning of a career which lasted from 1851 to 1879 of continued progress in the development of transpor- tation by steamboat on the Oregon rivers, in which Captain Ainsworth bore an active part. In 1859 he succeeded in form- ing — what he had long been aiming to do — a coinpany which he could control in a manner to help the country and benefit himself This was the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, composed at first of the combined interests of several hereto- fore antagonistic companies or individuals, who were gradually bought off' until the company consisted of a few men who could work together harmoniously, and of this company Captain Ainsworth was president for twenty years. Chief officer though he was, he attended to every detail of the business. He exacted good service, and rewarded generously. The company made money, but it was put back into transporta- GLIMPSES OF THE INLAND EMPIRE. 353 T one 8 hich 18 either, vid, has at the re than sworth, D single lire. be place r, on the boreave- le riches 3 manner jT from it tan in his entations ecame, as )ent a few b court at ,n to take met,— the 'rom 1851 transpor- Captain d in form- any which nd benefit Company, ral hereto- gradually who could Captain y detail of ronerously. transporta- tion facilities, and enterprises which changed Oregon from an impassablo wilderness to a charming route for tourists. Tho United States military officer who was conducting an Indian campaign ; tho miner who wsis exploring for, or had found tho precious metal ; the stock-raiser who fattened his cattle on tho bunch-grass plains, and brought them back to market them at home ; the farmer who learned rather late tho productive qual- ity of the soil east of the mountains, as well as the immigrant and the traveller, all had reason to thank tho Oregon Steatn Navi- gation Company for the means which made it possible for them to carry on their undertakings with ease and safety, — made it possible not from motives of gain exclusively, but with intelli- gent foresight for tho country, as well as the company. No corporation that ever was in Oregon has done for it and for the country north of the Columbia what this Navigation Company did. Its career as a civilizer has been only equalled in Washington by the Northern Pacific Railroad, which suc- ceeded to the ownership of tho 0. S. N. Company's property by purchase, a short time before Jay Cooke's failure, which came near losing the railroad company its lands on the Portland branch. Ainsworth had been made a director in the Northern Pacific, and was general manager of its affairs out here. When Cooke failed the branch from the Columbia to the Sound was not completed, and the men employed were deserting, when the old Navigation Company came to the rescue with its own funds, paid off the men, and completed the road to Tacoma. They were able afterwards to buy back again a majority of the 0. S. N. stock, and made improvements in its property before selling out to Villard, and assisting him to organize the Oregon Rail- way and Navigation Company, the control of which was relin- quished to the Union Pacific. I hope I have shown why the name of Ainsworth should be preserved in the nomenclature of Oregon and Washington. While legislatures are naming now counties, why not remember this and others of the founders ? At Pasco the Walla Walla passengers are detached from the through train, and proceed to Wallula Junction, crossing the Snake River, which is very wide here, by a handsome bridge. A few miles more brings us to Hunt's Junction, which is just above Wallula Junction, and the new town of Wallula, which 28 354 ATLANTIS ARISEN. in general features resembles the old one, where the Hudson's Bay Company had its fort, — once called Fort Nez Perce, but more commonly Fort Walla Walla. It is now fallen into ruins. Could these tumbling old walls speak, strange, tragical, and humorous, often, would be the stories they would tell. Here McKinlay, to avert a massacre, sat on the keg of powder with a lighted match, and threatened to touch it off, if the sullen Walla Walla chief failed on the instant to cease from his insolent demands and lay down his arms. Here Peter Skeen Ogden related his amusing but not always very dainty adventures; and Tom Mc- Kay recalled the death of his father, when the northern Indians seized the Tonquin. Here, also, in the palmy days of the O. S. N. Company, was a large floating wharf; and here was the terminus of Dr. Baker's railroad to Walla Walla. This road causes Dr. D. S. Baker, of Walla Walla, to be classed among the founders, he having built the first railroad in East Washington, from Wallu Walla to the Columbia Eiver, about 1876. It was a naiTow- gauge, and treated its patrons to nothing more luxurious than a wooden seat in a box-car. But then it was not built so much for passenger service as for the transportation of wheat irom the Walla Walla Valley to the Oregon Steam Navigation Com- , pany's boats. Wheat, in sacks, was piled up six feet high, for an eighth of a mile along the beach, jupt after harvest, and it was a pretty sight to watch the loading of the steamers for Portland. A good deal of mirthful comment was provoked by some of the doctors devices, as, for instance, the use of old tin oil-cans to water the engine, the sei'vlco not yet having reached the dignity of tanks and hose. It was effort and not money which made the founders worthy, and therefore we honor them, recognizing that •« The attempt Is all the wedge which splits its knotty way Betwixt the possible and the impossible." This road was finally sold to the Oregon Railway and Naviga- tion Company, and made standard gauge. It is still the only direct route to Walla Walla from the Columbia River, although from Hunt's Junction that city may be reached by the devious GLIMPSES OF THE INLAND EMPIRE. 355 idson's it more Could norous, i\\&y, to lighted 1 Walla emands ated his :om Mc- Indians my, was i of D»-- Dr. D. S. idcrs, he )m Walla i naiTOW- ,U8 than a t 80 much leat irom tion Corn- high, lor 38t, and it lamers for ovoked hy of old tin ig reached not money onor them, ,nd Naviga- ill the only )r, although the devious ways followed by the Hunt system, or, officially speaking, by the lines of the Oregon and Washington Territory Rtiilroad Company. This system was intended to furnish transportation to the farming communities in the Walla Walla and Umatilla Valleys, and as such has been an important factor in the devel- opment of these fruitful regions. Together with the Snake River and the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company, which has roads extending through the Palouse country, or Whitman County, this portion of East Washington is already quite well furnished with transportation, — that is, if the railroads had cars and locomotives enongh on the ground at the proper time, which this year thej' did not have. The distance from the Columbia River to Walla Walla City is thirty miles. The Walla Walla River flows, with short curves, directly west from Round Mountain, in the Blue Range, where it has its rise. Its main branch, the Touchet (pronounced Too- shay), rises on the opposite side of Round Mountain, and de- scribes a semicircle, with the main river for its base, all the other branches describing lesser curves inside of this one, an arrangement by which this valley is well watered. These streams also flow near the surface level, making them easily available for irrigation. The railroad follows the course of the river, and for about twenty miles the country is rolling, but at Dry Creek Grossing the aspect of the landscape suddenly changes, and a level basin, or plateau, bounded by the foot-hills of the Blue Mountains on the east, and stretching away into undulating prairie on every other side, strikes the eye as something new and charming after the mountains, cations, and bunch-grass hills passed during the day's ride. This beautiful valley contains about eight thousand square miles of land unsurpassed for fruitfulness. Its elevation above sea-level is nine hundred and twenty-six feet, or six hundred and one feet above the Columbia at Wallula. Its climate is the warmest of any part of Washington, having a mean tempera- ture of 54°. In July the mean is 73.8", and in January it is 32.4®. The greatest amount of moisture fjiUs in December and January, but its only rfry month is July. Spring opens early, m> f ATLANTIS AHISEN. and is more delightful than in any part of the State, — I had almost said of the United Statefl,— and I speak whereof I know. Some years ago, before the era of railroads, I chanced to travel leisurely through this Walla Walla country, and to go as far as Lewiston on the Idaho border. What a charming journey it was I The atmosphere was almost intoxicating with vitality. Overhead blue sky and sunshine. All about waving grass and wild flowei-s. On every side larks pouring forth their liquid notes. Dodging about among the bunches of grass were prairie- hens, grouse, and a long-necked bird, which I did not recognize, and which my driver said was a curlew. " What is the use of so much neck ?" I in<5[uired. " I don't know," was the Yankee response, " unless it is to eat out of a bottle." Then I told him about the man who grew excessively fat eat- ing mush and milk out of a jug with a knitting-needle. Later, in the summer's close, I returned through the same re- gion, and saw immigrants taking up these lands. There were small cabins of one or two rooms (for lumber is not so plentiful here as in the Puget Sound country) to shelter the families, and just across the road from the cabins were newly -broken fields, surrounded by sod-fences and ditches (no expense for fencing). The seed was put in on the newly-upturned earth, and left to do the best for itself that it could. Imagine the pleased surprise of these immigrants when they harvested twenty-five to forty bushels of wheat to the acre I It was not long before the cabins disappeared and comfortable farm- houses arose in the midst of golden grain-fields. This plenty and prosperity were the joint result of soil and climate, and I need not analyze the one or the other. But as I have generalized rather than particularized when speaking of the productiveness of the soil of Washington, I will now in- troduce some statistics, obtained from the most reliable sources, concerning the Walla Walla Valley, which does not, like the Yakima Valley, require irrigation to produce crops. The Census Bureau quotes Washington as yielding twenty- three bushels of wheat to the acre, which is the largest average given for any State in the Union. The average of East Wash- ington should be placed at thirty bushels of wheat per acre, but OIJMP8ES OP TlIE INLAND EMPIBE. 867 -I had know. ) travel 3 far as rney it vitality. asB and r liquid I prairie- cognize, many farms produce from forty to sixty bushels, and seventy-two bushels have boon raised per acre. Oats go from seventy to ninety and one hundred bushels, hurley from forty to eighty, and corn from twenty-five to forty bushels to the acre. This is not a corn-growing country, as Illinois is, because the nights are too cool, but farmers usijally raise a few acres of it. Alfalfa, clover, and timothy yield heavy crops, — the first named yield- inj5 from two to four crops a years. Mr. Philip Eitz, formerly of Walla Walla, was the first to experiment with fruit-growing in this valley. When his or- chard was three years old from the graft ho reported as follows : is to eat y fat eat- same re- lere were » plentiful I families, ly-broken pense for led earth, tagine the harvested ;t was not ^rm- houses )f soil and ther. But Q speaking rill now in- )le sources, »t, like the ag twenty- ost average East "Wash- er acre, but YIELD OF EACH TREE, VINE, PLANT, AND SHRUB. lit year. Apples 20 lbs. Peaches 15 " Pears .••....... 20 •' Plums 20 " Cherries 5 " 2d year. 60 lbs. 86 «' 50 " 50 " 16 «' 8d year. 126 lbs. 100 " 126 " 126 " 50 " 4th year. 260 lbs. 200 " 260 " 250 " 100 " From Offshoot. iHt year. 2d year. Blackberries 8 lbs. 8 lbs. Raspberries 8 " 10 " Strawberries IJ " Grapes (at 2 years) 3 " 10 " Gooseberries (at 2 years) . . 2 " 5 " Currants (at 2 years) .... 2 " 6 " Pie-plants (at 2 years) . . . 8 " 20 " Sdyear. 4th year. 16 lbs. 85 lbs. 20 2 25 10 10 20 40 2 75 20 20 10 When the trees were seven years old he gave the average yield, per acre, of his orchard : Pounds. Apples 40,000 Peaches 80,000 Pears 40,000 Pluma 60,000 Cherries 20,000 Pounds. Grapes , . 40,000 Blackberries .... 16,000 Easpberries 16,000 Gooseberries .... 6,000 Currants 10,000 The money results of fruit-raising may be learned from the books of a Walla Walla gardener, last year's crop from four acres being as follows : 368 ATLANTIS AKIS£N. 16,000 (lounds strawberries, at cent! m'{ 500 1,000 4,000 7,600 2,000 600 TotrJ |9M 86 80 280 prunes, at 8 to 6 cents SOO ....'... i^ 16 raspberries, at 7 ct>nt8 . blaukbTric at 8 cents rhorries, at I cents . . apples, at 2 oents pcurs, at 3 cents 11710 Tho average yi^'d of vogotables per acre, in buBhols, was : Peas .... Beans . . . . Potatoes . . Sweet potatoes Bushels. . 40 . 80 . 600 . 200 Bushels. Turnips 800 Carrots 1,000 Parsnips 800 Cabbage, pounds . . 20,000 Yegetables will in one year pay one hundred per cent, on ex- penditures. Tho various cereals and fruits of this valley are harvested as follows : Wheat, from the 24th of June to 10th of July. Oats, from Ist of July to 20th of July. Barley, from 20th of June to Ist of July. Rye, from 1st of July to 10th of July. Corn, from 20th of August to 10th of September. Strawberries, from Ist of May to 10th of June. Raspberries, from 10th of June to 20th of July. Blackberries, from 26th of June to 1st of August. Gooseberries, from 20th of June to Ist of July. Cherries, from 20th of May to Ist of July. As an example of what talent, grit, and opportunity may sometimes accomplish, I quote the Blalock Farm, near the city of Walla Walla. Dr. N. G. Blalock, of Illinois, arrived here in October, 1872, having come overland with teams, bringing his family. He at once commenced earning money, — for he did not bring any, — both by the practice of medicine and the use of his teams, putting all his income that could be spared into land along the base of the Blue Mountains, and cultivating these acres, the outcome of which went into more land, until he owned five thousand, and in 1881 harvested ninety thousand bushels of wheat and barley. His practice is now so large that he has no time for farming ! ■ GLIMPSra OF THE INLAND EMPIRE. 359 \0 t6 iO 30 DO 16 10 vas: hels. iOO MO 800 000 it. on ex- t^ested as nity may r the city )d here in jing his or he did the use lared into ting these he owned id bushels hat be has But how would Dr. Blalock have gotten his five thoueand acres except he had come at a time when land was cheap, or gotten ninety thousand bushels of grain to the itcabourd, if he had raised all that, before the day of Dr. iJakers railroad? It is just an iiiHtanco of the man and ihe hour coming together. Perhaps it was Dr. Blalook's action which caused Dr. Baker and other citizens to attempt a railroad. The most serious drawbaci. ^nd every country must have a drawback — to the perfect den ability of the Walla Walla Valley for a residence is the I'.ck of limber. The nearest lum- ber supply is in the Blue I^'" intaiua, about twenty miles distant, but lumber is also broiu^ht by railroad from Piiget Sound and Portland. Fuel is supplied fro^n the Blue Mountains in a novel manner, — namely, by a V-shapod flume, which carries the wood from the mountain.s to within scv^n miles of town, where it i.s loaded on flat cars and taken to its dc-'Mnation, the "Blue Mountain Flume Company" formerly owning a nanow-gauge railway from the terminus of the flume to Walla Walla, which is now owned by the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Compan}-. The wood consumed in the city and at Fort Walla Walla amounts to twenty-two thousand cords, only a little more than half of which comes from the Blue Mountains. It sells for six dollars to six dollai's and fifty cents a cord.. When the coal- mines of the Cascades are sufficiently developed, coal will un- doubtedly come into general use in the treeless regions ; but for the present all the slab and refuse timber of the mills in the Cascades is carried by rail down into the valleys to bo used .is firewood. Walla Walla City is not one of the new towns of Washington, and never had any real-estate excitement. The long occupation of the country by the Hudson Bay Company, some of whose sei'vants remained here with their Indian relatives after white people of American blood were driven out, furnished a basis of settlement dating back to the second decade of the cen- tury. But it was not until 1858 that some American citizen.s established themselves on the site of the present city, under the protection of the United States fort, erected the previous year. In 1859 it was decided among the settlers to lay out a town- 360 ATLANTIS ARISEN. i'j; i site, half a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide, with its east- and-west streets one hundred feet vr'Ae, and its north-and-south streets eighty feet ; and to leave off calling the settlement Step- toe City and name it Walla Walla, which was done. In 1862 the Territorial legislature incorporated the citj', with an extent of eight}- acres. It immediately became an important point, on account of the necessity of an outfitting place for miners then rushing to the Oro Fino and Florence Diggings, in what is now the State of Idaho, and from that time until now it has been the centre of a largo trade, supported first by the mining inter- ests of the upper country, and more recently by the agricultural interests of the valley. A word about the name of Walla Walla, which I observe is frequently translated to mean the '• valley of waters." I had it from the lips of the famous Nez Perce chief, Lawyer, that walla- walla meant the confluence of two rivers, and, being used to designate the junction of the river which waters the valley with the Columbia, became used by Indians and white people to designate the natives who lived about the mouth and the fur company's fort at that place. From this the white men spoke of the river, and then of the river-valley, as the Walla Walla and " the Walla Walla country." It is not the custom of the Indians to name rivers arbitrarily as we do, but to speak of cer- tain localities by some descriptive word, and to call the tribe or family living there by that name. The designation chosen for Walla Walla by her inhabitants is " Garden City," and well does she merit it, for trees and flowers fairly obstruct the view. There are few pretentious buildings of any character, the business houses being usually no more than two stories, and the residences simple cottages and villas. In the outskirts are a continually increasing number of the latter, surrounded by beautiful grounds. The city has a handsome court-house, this being the county- seat ; a large and costly public school ; a collegiate institution, — Whitman College ; several banks ; three daily papers, the most important of which is the Union, published ever since 1869 ; a free library and club-room; a hospital; free postal delivery; water- works; gas lighting; churches of all denominations, and, in short, just what one would expect to find in an Eastern town T GLIMPSES OF THE INLAND EMFIBE. 361 ts east- i-south it Step- ;n 1862 extent oint, on )vs then t is now as been ig intor- icultural )serve is I bad it lat walla- ; used to le valley te people id the fur [len spoke ilia Walla Dm of the ak of cer- the tribe ibitants is ad flowers lildings of more than villas. In the latter, he county- ititution, — toe most ice 1869 ; a 1 delivery; itions, and, stern town of seven thousand inhabitants, besides a board of trade and a business worth eleven million dollars annually. The land-offico for this district is lo ated here. So is the State penitentiary. The flour industry of the city and county amounts to two hundred and seventy thousand barrels annually; the oldest miller in East Washington 'leing Mr. H. P. Isaacs, who erected in 1862 a mill, which has leen twice rebuilt to keep pace with the improvements which he found desirable. The very best of roller flour is manufactured here, which finds a market in Liver- pool and San Francisco. Walla Walla, besides its grain and flour trade, jobs one million dollars' worth of general merchandise throughout the valley. One firm, H. Dusenberry & Co., which has been here since 1858, furnishes a number of establishments in outlying towns, and has connections with San Francisco. No, Walla Walla is not a new town, nor has it ever been said of it that it is a marvel of rapid growth ; but I think I like it all the better that its growth is natural and hardy. Whatever " moss" it has upon it now will fall off with a few more years' increase. The drives about the city are excellent. The chief point of attraction to visitors is the garrison, just outside of the city limits. The post was established, as I have said, in 1856, by Colonel Steptoe, at a point now within the present corporation, but removed in the following year to the slight eminence which it now occupies, and improvements were then begun. I have been informed that the first wheat sown in the Walla Walla Val- ley was sown in this year by the troops at the fort, under the direction of Quartermaster-Gerieral li. G. Kirkham. If we except the grain grown bj' the mission superintendent in the '40*8, this is probably true. Both gentlemen took it for granted that only the bottom-lands were fit for agriculture, devoting the valley in general to stock-raising, and it was some years before it was found that the uplands were ))rime wheat lands. The post was abandoned in 1866, and re-occupied in 1873, since which date there has been a strong force kept here, and it is a handsome and comfortable place of residence for the oflScers and soldiers here stationed. It cuts no little figure, besides, in the trade of the town, there being expended by the military each year about four hundred thousand dollars. M 362 ATLANTIS ARISEN. Another place of interest, although associated only with pain- ful ideas, is the site of the Waiilatpu mission, about seven mileg west of the city, where, in 1847, perisheii Di'. and Mrs. Whit- man, Presbyterian missionaries, and about a dozen others, at the hands of the Cayuse Indians. One common mound murks the spot where they were hastily buried by volunteer troops from Wallamet Valley after the flesh had been torn from their bones by wolves. A movement is on foot to erect a monument to the memory of Dr. Whitman. The most suitable monument, it seems to me, would be an endowment for the college which bears his name, with a tablet inscribed to him set in its wall. Of the towns in the Walla Walla, Waitsburg is one of the prettiest. It is in the valley of the Touchet, where it is joined by the Coppei, in the midst of beauty and fertilify. The place was fii'st settled by Mr. S. M. Wait about 1864, who built a flouring-mill, then very much needed by the settlers, from which he cleared five thousand dollars in two months after it was running. Soon tradesmen of various kinds settled about him, and a town grew up which does honor to its founder. Mr. Wait was one of the first to experiment with grain on the uplands. Waitsburg has a population of one thousand, who maintain good schools, support a daily newspaper, and enjoy life in this garden of plenty, which is also a model of good taste. Another pretty town is Dayton. Like Waitsburg, it lies in a valley, and is embowered in trees, while it is surrounded by wheat-fields which would seem continuous but for here and there a line of poplars pointing out where a farm-house is con- cealed. The swift, cool Touchet flows through the town, and turns the wheels of two flouring-mills, and is joined by a smaller stream with a French name Petite, anglicized into Pattit. Dayton has a population of two thousand five hundred, a handsome court-house, four public scliools, foundry, furnitux'e- factory, brewery, and other industries, besides five saw-mills in mountains near by. It has a national bank, is lighted by elec- tricity, and has water-works. The streets are broad, with good sidewalks, and tempting fruit-gardens just over the fence. The town was founded in 1871 by Jesse Day, formerly of St. Paul. Both Waitsburg and Dayton are reached by the Hunt system pain- miles Whit- ers, at murks troops . I their lument ument, ^ 1 whicli vail. of the joined le place built a s, from after it d about er. Mr. on the Maintain in this lies in a ttded by icre and ?e is eon- )wn, and ed by a to Pattit. mdred, a urniture- ^-mills in I by elec- vith good ice. The St. Paul. it system ^ Sa WHAT ABOUT SPOKANE? 363 of raih'oads, giving them outlets to the Columbia and connection with the transcontinental lines. Between the Touchet and the Snake Rivers, in Walla Walla County, is a sti-ip of country twenty miles in breadth by fifty in length, lying on the top of a bench of the high hills south of the Snake, of which thirty by ten miles is a flat, called Eureka, of rich, loamy soil, constituting a region unsurpassed for fruit- fulness, and through it the Hunt railroad is run. In this favored grain-land has sprung up recently the town of Fairfield, which promises to be able soon to compete with any of the older towns in the county in growth and prosperity. From these brief observations on this part of the Inland Em- pire it will, perhaps, be possible to catch some general view of it and those features which contrast so strongly with the Puget Sound region. It is at the same time an admirable countei'part, each being necessary to the comploteness of the other. CHAPTER XXIX. WHAT ABOUT SPOKANE? The route of the Northern Pacific to Spokane from Walla Walla is a tortuous one, and for a large part of the distance an uninteresting one. It is haying-time, the weather is warm, and travel dusty. The road winds among hills after the manner 01 water seeking its level. Prescott, named after an officer of the company, is a pretty place between hills, the approach to it being along the Touchet River bordered by thickets of mock- orange. From here to the Snake River there is little to attract the eye. The Palouse country north of the Snake appeared more thrifty. Along the streams were dense groves of poplar, birch, and willow, and thickets of wild roses. Endicott is in a good farming region, and well built for a small, new settlement. I observed several tree plantations along the route through Whitman County. About Colfax the hills are dotted with pines. I had a glimpse of Steptoe's Butte, where that officer was badly beaten bj' the Spokane and Cceur d'Alene Indians in 1858. On that butte he buried most of his command and 364 ATLANTIS ARISEN. cached his howitzers previous to a stolen retreat to the south bank of the Snake Eiver. Farmington seemed a town of considerable population, with good houses and fencing. Eockford is in the edge of a lumbering region, and is an old town built scatteringly ou the piney slopes, which furnish timber for milling. Taking it all in all, there is little to remark on the journe}', which ends after nightfall. I was told in "Walla Walla that I should not like Spokane Falls, because it was " right in the woods." If this had been said about many places west of the Cascades, there would have been no surprise ; but a town " right in the woods" in the arid region called a halt to my previous and, as I believed, well- founded impressions. It was therefore with curiosity that I peered through the window beside me, as night drew on. to catch the first view of the northern forest which I was assured sur- rounded the Phoenix of the Plains. But before I had discovered it the train rolled into the well-lighted streets of a cheerful- looking town, and the guard called out " Spokane 1" By good luck I went to a hotel just below the falls which gave the city its name, and where I enjoyed from my room a view different from, but strongly reminding one of, the great cataract of Niag- ara. It is true there is not the heavy roar of a large lake pouring over a great height as at Niagara, but there is enough water and enough fall, or rather succession of falls, all roaring and foaming together, to make a good deal of noise and a vf y attractive spec- tacle. To the music of these waters I slept joyously, if I may be allowed the term, and waked the following morning with a feeling of exhilaration to commence my quest for information. What a strange town ! Ten years ago it was a pioneer settle- ment of half a hundred houses, and had been struggling up to this degree of grandeur for a previous ten years. Only ton months ago thirty business houses, valued at six million dollars, were consumed by fire. To-day the only reminders of this dis- aster to a young city are the piles, not of burnt rubbish, but of fresh buildii.g-material, which obstruct the broad avenues. Nor are the buildings which are replacing the former structures of a temporary nature ' at of granite, brick, and iron, from three to seven stories in weight, and fashioned after the most elegant modern styles. An opera-house costing over a quarter of a mil- WHAT ABOUT SPOKANE? 366 ) south • n, with iibering ■ slopes, there is ill. Spokane ad been lid have the arid id, well- y that I to catch lU'ed sur- iscovered cheerful- By good I the city different , of Niag- B pouring vater and i foaming itive spec- if I may nsr with a ►rmation. leer settle- ling up to Only ten on dollars, )f this dis- ish, but of aues. Nor •uctures of from three ost elegant er of a mil- lion, a hotel costing nearly two hundred thousand dollars, a hand- some post-office, cable and electric street railroads, electric and gas lighting, the power furnished by tho falls, water- works, and every other modern appliance of a luxurious civilization, are to be found here. Yet Spokane Fulls is three hundred rnd seventy- two miles west of Helena, the nearest city on the cast, and four hundred miles east of any western metropolis, standing alone between the Missouri Kiver and Puget Sound, with seven rail- roads radiating to all the points of tho compass, and bringing to it the contributions of an immense area of trade. The population of Spokane Falls is about thirty thousand. There ai'e, I am told, a hundred business blocks, costing from thirty thousand dollars to two hundred and fifty thousand dol- lare each, covering the bm*nt district, and a thousand residences being erected. These latter are chiefly of a cost to suit people of moderate means ; but the city contains a goodly number of elegant and even sumptuous dwellings, excelled by few in any part of the United States, and the impression conveyed by a tour about the streets from which business is excluded is that there is an unusual number of refined homes in proportion to the population. This impression is confirmed by the testimony of house-furnishing establishments, more goods of a costly charac- ter being sold in Spokane Falls than in any other town in Wash- ington. How far the merchants themselves are responsible for this extravagance — for in too many instances it is extravagance — can only be conjectured ; but I know that the same fully pre- vailed in California in an early period, and that it was accounted for not only by the facility with which money was acquired, but by the fact that cheap goods were not imported, and there were no local manufactories, therefore people were compelled to buy that which the market afforded. The excuse of the merchants was that for such long distances and high rates of freight it did not pay to import cheap articles. This truth at once points to the importance of home manufactures. The city has four daily newspapers and several weeklies, nineteen churches, numerous schools, public and private, three colleges, a home for the friendless, seven banks, a mining ex- change, and many handsome public baildings. It has mills for grinding wheat and sawing timber, a smeiter for the reduction 366 ATLANTIS ARISEN. ti I '.!' of ores, and a number of factories in lumber, stone, iron, pottery, lime, and other articles in daily demand and use. The saies of real estate in Spokane Falls for the year ending in December, 1889, amounted to eighteen million seven hundred and fifty-six thousand three hundred and twenty-three dollars, and for the first seven months of 1890 to ten million eight hundred and seventy thousand dollars. If you inquire of a citizen of Spokane Falls what makes his city what it is, he will answer you that on one side lies a vast region of the richest agricultural lands, rapidly being pop- ulated by intelligent farmers, which whether sown to grain or used to pasture stock are productive of great wealth, and on the other hand there are mining and timber regions productive of even greater wealth. The total output of lumber for 1889 was thirty million feet; while the ore shipments from Coeur d' Alene Mines in the same period were seventj'-two thousand tons, of an aggregate value of four million three hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The total of freight brought by the railroads to this city in the last year was about fifty thousand tons, and the freight-bills paid aggregated two million dollars. The city, notwithstanding its recent losses by fire, paid sub- sidies (o railroads to the amount of four hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars, and subscriptions to various city institutions to the amount of three hundred and sixty-six thousand dollars. Such are the figures presented to one. It is plain from these, and from everything we see about us, that there is an abun- dance of capital in Spokane Falls. Since the fire a good q oal of borrowed capital has been employed to build up again, and much of the fine property in sight is covered with mortgages. But this fact does not seem to depress, much less dismay, the mortgagors. They point to the wheat-fields of the Palouse country, the mines of .Kootenai, Coeur d'Alene, Colville, and Okanogan, and enumerate with pride the several new railroads which will soon open up other districts, agricultural and mineral, and always mention the truly magnificent water-power which is destined to " turn the wheels of progress." With a popula- tion annually almost doubling, it seems probable enough that the paragon oity will go on and on until it reaches a rank on the Pacific coast second to no interior city on the Atlantic slope. pottery, sales of jcembor, fifty-six 1 for the Ired and akes his ie lies a Mng pop- grain or I, and on roductivo for 1889 )m CoBur land tons, d twenty railroads tons, and paid sub- ^fty thou- utions to oUavs. om these, an abun- d aoal of ^ain, and ortgages. imay, the Palouse ville, and i-ailroads I mineral, rer which a popula- I II )ugh that nk on the slope. mM !il J WHAT ABOUT SPOKANE? 367 The plain on which Spokane Falls is built is finely adapted to the pui'pose. The bluffs recede from the river by several broad terraces to the high mountains of the Spokane and Coeur d'Alene Ranges on the north and east, and melt away into the rolling plains of tlie Palouse and Big Bond countries. The long slopes up from the river are beautifully wooded with pines, which stand apart with grassy intervals, giving the country a park-like appearance, and causing me to smile when 1 remember the repulsion of my Walla Walla informant towards the forest gloom I should encounter in this timber region. Until within a comparatively recent period the country about Spokane Falls was unoccupied. During the period of mining exciteraent in the '60's, there was a gi'eat deal of passing back and forth to Colville and Northern Idaho, but the prevalent opinion that the country was worthless except for cattle-ranges deterred settlers of a more enterprising class. About 1870 two men, J. J. Downing tind S. 11. Scranton, built a small saw-mill at the falls of the Spokane, which in 1873 they sold to James N. Glover, who disposed of an interest to C. F. Yeaton. They had also laid out a town-site, which they did not sell. There seems to have been some settlement by this time, for these owners found it advisable to enlarge the capacity of their mill from five hundred feet to two thousand .^jt per diem. A trading- post had been connected with the mill from the start, which the new owners enlarged, and a few more people had gathered in the vicinity, waiting for the Northern Pacific Railroad, when its financial agent, Jay Cooke, failed and railroad construction ceased, and after a tedious waiting of five years, from 1873 to 1878, the mill was again sold, to A. M. Cannon and J. J. Browne, together with a half-interest in the town-site laid out bj' the original owners. In 1876 a flour-mill was erected (which is evidence that the agricultural capacity of the country had been discovered) by Frederick Post, after whom Post Falls in Idaho is named. The occurrence of Indian >vars in 1873 and 1877 drove many of the settlers out of the country, v/hom the mili- tary hastened in their flight. It is amusingly related, in view of the present status of the country, that General Sherman expressed himself in this wise : " This country is not fit for white men, at any rate. Give it up i i 368 ATLANTIS ARISEN. i*> ii^ for a reservation for the Indians, and go olsowhore. If j'ou nre bound to stay, you may as well make up your minds to keep your guns ready and fight it out. We cannot cover this im- mense territory with a few companies of troops." However, a post was established at Cceur d' Alone, and named Fort Sherman, and the people remained. The resumption of work by the Northern Pacific brought an increase of population, and when the road was opened to Portland, or to the Columbia Eiver, in 1883, Spokane Falls had fifteen hundred inhabitants. At the present rate of increase it will have in 1893 eighty thousand. A great Northwestern ex- position is to be held here this year,* at which specimens, of minerals found in the adjacent mountain regions will be among the most important exhibits, although grains, fruits, and woods will attract much attention for their excellence. I was shown a novelty recently discovered at Port Spokane, at the mouth of the Spokane Eiver. It is a white sand of a cubular form, looking like granulated sugar. "When found it is in a compact form like rock, but on being struck with a ham- mer falls into loose particles. The only mineral known to re- semble it is found in Fostoria, Ohio, and is used for making glass. In this city this snow-white sand is used in finishing plaster, and makes a wall like marble, on whicli the most deli- cate tints can be brought out in frescoing. As for marble, there are mountains of it along the Spokane River, and a rose-colored building-stone which calls to mind Ruskin's " Stones of Venice." ! mi^ ■■ The second day after my arrival I took passage on the Seattle, Lake ^hore and Eastern for Medical Lake, fifteen miles from the city, and a popular resort. The road winds among the hills, in company with the Spokane River, which is, everywhere that I saw it, most picturesque and interesting. The windings bring into view over and over again ihe city at the falls, until having climbed high enough the road enters a region of fir, cedar, pine, and tamarack, not much resembling the forests of West Washington, but sufficiently woodsy to justify a plainsman in warning a metropolitan against it. ' * It was successfully held, and a beautiful " Souvenir" published. )U ftre keep ia im- ft-ever, Fort rought aed to Ub had ease it arn ex- ens, of among , woods pokane, nd of a ind it is a ham- n to re- making inishing ost deli- e, there colored Venice." Seattle, from the hills, in that I gs bring 1 having r, cedar, of West ismnn in abed. e ^ WHAT ABOUT SPOKANE? 369 Along the river for a few miles I observed woodcutting and brick making, with farming and gardening, and u good deal of sottlomont all the way. I found Medical Lal8ionaiie8 tUey, and and fifty .3, a little id among stant mis- still hold aission at , may still I- town of place was )8t having Da of 1859, bia mines, jricans, re- al length okane and ninates be- ^reat river The railroad takes a nearly direct northerly course, striking the upper valley of the Little Spokane. Within a year con- siderable improvement has been made within reach of the road as fast as it was opened. Walker's Prairie, named after Elkanah Walkei", Presbyterian missionary of 1837, and forty-five miles above Spokane Falls, has now a settlement, — Squire City, or Springdale, — with several business houses, and a daily mail, whereas twelve months ago there was no trading-pos*^ within thirty-five miles. The railroad and the discovery of mines at Chemokano have made the diflerence. Walker's Prairie is a good farming country, whore grain grows enormously high and vegetables marvellously large. There are few settlements as yet in the southern part of Stevens County (named after General I. I. Stevens), and those few quite insignificant. Chewelah, a place of importance on account of it'^ mines, spoken of in another place, is at the foot of the Colville Valley. From here to Colville City, twenty-three miles, the road runs through a natural meadow, and, as hay is a profitable crop, there is little inducement to cultivate the soil. Tlie town of Colville, which contains about eight hundred inhabitants, is picturesquely situated at an altitude of about fourteeen hundred feet, with the valley on the west defined by timbered hills beyond, and mountain walls encircling it on the north and east. The air of this region is recommended for throat diseases, and the beautiful drives about Colville are certainly an inducement to test it. The country around is adapted to dairying, hop-growing, and fruit-raising rather than to the production of cereals, which re- quire more room to become profitable. Streams are numerous. Snow falls and remains without drifting during the winter montlis, melting into the earth in the spring. But Colville does not depend upon the value of its soil for farming. It is the centre of a rich mining district, and boasts of a smelter which turn i oul throe and a half tons of bullion per day, while already the erection of substantial improvements in building has commenced. The Spokane Northern Eailroad has a branch from Colville to the Columbia River at Marcus, a distance of eighteen miles, and from Marcus north along the Columbia to its terminus at Little Dalles. A number of town-sites have been surveyed l.i Ul II I 374 ATLANTIS ARISEN, along the line of the railroad from Colville to Little Dalles, of which Kettle Falls, below Marcua five or six miles, is the most promising. Should the government clear the channel of the Columbia of the obstructions at this place, and the Indian reser- vation be opened up, all of which seems probable in the future. Kettle Falls miglit become a not unworthy rival of Spokane Falls. Much of this now merely suggested greatness will de- pend on the x'o^ite of the Great Northern Eailroad. The Columbia from the mouth of Spokane River flows sharply west, though with many a deviation from a true course, for sixty miles as the crow flies, to the mouth of the Okanogan or Okinakane Eiver, a large tributary from the north which parallels the main river above the b'^nd made at the mouth of the Spokane, and forms the wes;,ern boundary of a reservation set apart for the Colville Indians after the disturbances of 1877. This tract of country is unsurveyod and little explored, but is understood to be a mountainous region, containing small and fer- tile valleys. It is doubtless inch in minerals and timber, but at present is held by about seven hundred Indians, who do (if they do nothing else) a good deal to preserve a small portion of the earth's surface in a state of nature. West of the Okinakane is wbat is known as the Okanogan country', which is interesting at present chiefly on account of its mines, although the valley of the Methow River is known io be of great fertility, and the whole is a good grazing section. The onl}' part which is surveyed is south of Lake Chelan and the forty-eighth parallel, but fanning settlements are being made, and I heard of an orchard of eight hundred apple-trees and various small fruits, including peaches, apricots, and grapes, all in a healthful condition of growth. Ruby City, Silver City, and other mining camps are at present the only towns in this section, which is regarded as exceedingly rich in minerals. Streams ai*e numerous, and, coming from the mountains, serve admirably for mining or irrigating purposes, and their names are those of aborigina' origin, like the Loop-Loop, Chiiliwhist, Eptiat, Zurvush, Chewuch, Stomekin, Twursp, Conconully, Wenatchee at the southei-n boundary, and Similkameen at the northeni. This region is not, strictly speaking, tributary to PI r j.lj 1. Si| ; 1^"' ' m WHAT ABOUT bPOKANi V 376 Spokane Falls, being west of the Columbia and quite as near Tacoma as Spokane. But the latter is making all the effort to connect it by railroad to itself, and will undoubtedly pi-evail, — the Spokane and Northern and the Washington Central both reaching out after it. A more particular account of the Okano- gan mines is reserved for another place. The remainder of East Washington included between the Columbia and Snake Elvers on the west and south is divided by popular consent into the " Big Bund country," consisting of six or seven millions of acres enclosed by the western bend of the Columbia, whose southeast line extends from a point twenty- five miles west of Spokane Falls to Pasco, near the junc- tion of the Columbia and Snake Rivers, and " the Palouse country," which includes all of Whitman County, or all the country on the Palouse River and its branches. A subdivision of the Big Bend country is known as " Sage- brush land," and this sti-ip, unfortunately for the pleasure of travellers of the present period, is on the main line of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The soil is a light nandy loam, which is not anywhere available, without irrigation, for the pur- poses of agriculture, but in this case is also " scabbj'," or rough- ened with outcroppings of basalt. The western part of the Big Bend country, embracing be- tween four and five million acres, was originally covered with the nutritious bunch-grass, and whei'ever bunch-grass grows the land is good for farming without irrigation, — a discovery only made in recent times. One may travel a whole day (by stage) between Moses's Rancho and the mouth of the Okanogan River without seeing in any place ten acres of land which cannot be ploughed and which will not return a rich harvest. I have it from good authority, Judge W. Lair Hill, of Seattle, that the Big Bend country contains "two thousand square miles of the finest wheat land on earth," and I learn from residents in it that there are no less than fifty thoii-;and acres in crop this year which will yield twenty-five busliels to the acre. Its only way out, however, is by wagon to EUensburg on the west side of the Columbia. No wonder the people of Spokane, EUensburg, and the Big Bend country are impatient for a railroad. Wuterville is the county-seat of Douglas County in this great 376 ATLANTIS ARISEN. :!i'. wheat-producing region, but is waiting for the completion of the Washington Central to start it on n career of prosperity, to he supplemented by the arrival of the Great Northern, whose route is not yet selected. There are a number of towns in that part of the Big fiend country included in Lincoln Count}-, near the Columbia, among which Wilbur is spoken of as taking the lead as an agricultural centre. A country that grows wheat and oats six feet, and rye eight feet in height, should have towns every thirty miles, and is a good hind in which to place the agricultural college. Coulee City, on the Columbia, is a striking example of the growth of towns in this age of town-building. A quarter of a year ago there was nothing here but a camp of railroad graders. All about waved perennial grasses, while the view was broken hero and there by dilces of crumbling basalt, and the only moving things in the landscape, aside from the railroad graders, were a few cattle feeding, a rabbit, perhaps, followed by a sneaking coyote, or a curlew lifting its watchful eyes and long bill above a tuft of the prevailing bunch-grass. But now I Well levelled streets stretch from one side of the town-plot to the other. Two good bridges span the creek on which it stands ; substantial buildings are rising all along the main avenue; well- stocked stores and business houses of every class are in place, and the improvements belonging to a railroad division station are already here. A system of water-works is under construc- tion, a school-district is organized and a school-house under way, with a church-building in contemplation, a seven-column newspaper on the spot, and a bank promised. Such is the method of all these railroad or land-company towns. This one is expected to be the terminal point for freight going to Okanogan, Methow, Lake Chelan, Wanacut Lake, Waterville, Douglas City (on the road from Sprague), and the Conconully country. So long as it holds, this position it will make progress, and in the end establish itself on the merits of the Big Bend country. Coulee claims the attractions of being in the midst of "the best agricultural lands to be found out of doors ;" a cool climate in summer, but one that will bring to perfection all the fruits of the temperate zone. In the vicinity is a bottomless lake surrounded by a natural park, and that by scenes of the utmost to and WHAT ABOUT SPOKANE? 377 grandeur, all of which features conspire to make this a charm- ing summer- resort. Most of this is evident and true. But one wearies of the immensity and even of the scenic attractions of the great Northwest : you travel so far to find something that, although undeniably fine, difiers from the view in some other place only by so-and-so. , And yet right here we have at hand one of the wonders of the earth, — the Grand Coulee. It used to be called the "Grand Coulee of the Columbia," from an impression that the waters of the great river had some time run through it. Closer obser- vation has done away with that theory of its formation, and it is now seen to be a vent in the earth, over one hundred miles in length, and from three to eight miles in breadth, with walls in many places over one thousand feet in height. These walls are basalt, thrown out at four several periods, as the rocks give evidence. All the curious features of the place are easily ex- plained if we bear this fact in mind. • But this rent in the lava was made after the last of these outflows had cooled and hardened, because the opposite sides match. There are no traces of the action of water, no gravel, no water rolled boulders, no indications of detritus at its lower end, w^hich is at Island Eapids of the Columbia, as its upper end is just west of Coulee City. Among the many curious forms of the rocks is one called the Steamboat, from its resemblance to a river boat. It is in the Coulee, about eighteen miles from Coulee City, and the stern-post of the steamer is fourteen hundred feet above the bottom of the chasm. Only on the eastern side can one climb to the deck, but once there a fine view of this enormous crevasse is obtained. About half-way up a five-hundredfoot slide of loose angular rock, on the ascent to the Steamboat, are two deposits of ice, which melting a little on the surface furnish ice- water to the thirsty, and are called " ice-springs." It is thought the snows of winter furnish the water and a draught of cold air the freezing, this having been carried on until a solid body of ice has formed among the rocks, which melts a little by day and freezes again by night, so that the supply remains from season to season. It is not clear to me, however, how it is that not enough heat gets in^o the interstices of the rocks to liquefy the li 1,1 378 ATLANTIS ARISEN. I ! :t i'i"! '\i\ i ice in the course of a summer, when the sun's reflection from the walls of this crevice is intense. In the bottom of the Coulee are numerous lakes and ponds, which gleam like silver on their emerald background. Toward its southwestern end the Grand Coulee is divided into smaller fissures, but nowhere except here at Coulee City is there a crossing which could be used by a railroad ; and this one fact secures for this place a certain future. That strip of country through which the Northern Pacific main line is built has no towns of any consequence, present or prospective, unless Pasco, \yy its position with relation to the Columbia Eiver and railroads, should come to be of significance, as before intimated. It i« the county-seat of Franklin County, as Kitzville is of the adjoining county of Adams. Ritzville is named after Philip Ritz, formerly of Walla Walla, a noted fruit- grower, and an enterprising citizen of East Washington in ante- railroad daj's, There is -a land-office at Ritzville. Lincoln County lies north of Adams, and is out of the sage-brush belt. It only partly belongs to the Big Bend country, and joins Spokane County on the east. Its county-seat is at Sprague, named after General J. W. Sprague, of Tacoma, for a long time an officer of the Northern Pacific. It has a population of two thousand, and is a point of shipment for wheat, cattle, wool, and other productions of the country. It is well built and enjoys a large trade. Cheney, once the countj'-seat of Spokane County, and a seem- ingly prosperous place, has apparently lost its hold upon fortune, and has a look of collapse about it. It is prettily situated on a plain, with a growth of young nines on a gentle slope above it. From Cheney tho Northern Pacific runs a line northwest to Medical Lake, and thence north, northwest, and west, through a farming country, to Davenport in Lincoln County, paralleling the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern, and making, probably, for the Big Bend country. Davenport is a new town of one thou- sand inhabitants, in a region which possesses grazing, agricult- ural, and mineral land. A good deal of fruit is raised and marketed from here ; and there is a large area of good land unimproved. The Palouse country is comprehended within the limits of WHAT ABOUT SPOKANE? 379 Whitman County, named in honor of Dr. Marcus Whitman, superintendent of the Presbyterian missions in Oregon Terri- tory from 1836 to 1847, when he was killed, with his wife and others, by the Cayuse Indians, who had become jealous of and infuriated against Americans, on account of the annual immi- grations arriving in the country for several years previous, and for other reasons. As the first American settler in Washington, Dr. Whitman is entitled to the distinction of having his name given to the finest agricultural county in it. The PalousB country, which really includes a portion of Spokane County, is about one hundred and fifty miles in length by an aveiage width of fifty miles, embracing four million five hundred thousand acres, two-thirds of which, or three million two hundred thousand aci'es, is available for wheat-growing, and yields more grain to the acre than any other portion of the United States. But only about one-third of this three million two hundred thousand acres is under improvement, and only about eight hundred thousand in wheat. At the low average (for this country) of twenty bushels per acr the crop would amount to sixteen million bushels. If only twelve million bushels were marketed at fifty cents peT bushel, the crop would bring six million dollars ; and accordingly, as the fields are looking won- derfully well, bright hopes are entertained of a profitable year. [But let me horo write between the lines that it is not every year that a full crop may be expected, and that the best farmers summer-fallow their fields, taking a crop only once in two years, thus saving the expense, as great for a poor as a good year, of putting in and harvesting on the off 3'oar, while they get a double crop after letting the land lie idle. The year 1890 was a good one all over East Washington, and the amount of wheat raised in the Palouse, Walla Walla, and Big Bend countries did not fall short of thirty million bushels. Farmers looked at their fields and expected to grow rich quickly. But behold how the unexpected happens I Although the trans- portation companies were informed of the prospects of an un- usual demand for their services, they made no preparations to meet it. The market prices opened fairly, but declined when it was found there was an overplus. Wheat-elevators and store- houses were filled, and thousands of tons lay piled upon the i I II if I f: t ■ 880 ATLANTIS ARIBEN. ground exposed to the weather. Freight-cars could not be ob- tained to carry it either to Chicago or Tacoraa, and one general wail went up from the Paloiise country as prices went down. The railroad and elevator companies wore accused of combining against the farmers. The facts when sifted down seemed to show that the ruilroads had been negligent; that the people themselves were negligent in not securing river-transportation to Portland or not making known to European ship-owners the amount of the season's crop; but, even if all the wheat raised had been carried to Portland and the Sound, there was not storage for it while vessels made a four-months' voyage from Liverpool to receive it. The lesson of that year seems to be that railroad and other transportation companies, while they have caused and encour- aged the development of the country, have not themselves been able to keep pace with it. Ii seems to teach also that there should be intelligent organization amongst the agriculturists, and means provided against loss. The Columbia River is the natural and economical outlet for the grain fields of East Wash- ington and Oregon. Yet, since the Oregon Railway and Navi- tion Company have owned the steamboats on this river, naviga- tion has become so far secondary to wheel service that at The Dalles, in November, sacks of wheat were piled ten feet high, and from a quartei t< '-.alf a mile in length of line, besides that which was housed! Ic was thus accumulated at first for lack of transportation, at d, 'Afterwards held for higher prices. Steam- boat service, sucii lit. the Oregon Steam-Navigation Company formerly furnished, would have given the needed relief, the grain have been moved earlier, and prices have remained firm while vessels came to take it away. But, why should vessels come? Why do not American vessels go as the^- are needed? This being a question of political economj'^ to be settled by Con- gress or Legislature, I leave it unanswered, It should here be remarked that this blockade in transporta- tion causes little distress. It is chiefly embarrassing as affect- ing the mercantile class whose collections are impeded by it. The good effect will be to set the farmer.-i thinking what they can do to prevent a recurrence of similar misfortunes. Already the Palouse country agriculturists are agitating the WHAT ABOUT 8P0KANE? 381 pi'oposition lo build an indopondont railroad to Pugot Sound, while others along the Columbia propose a steuinboat company. But the groat railroadrt arc not going to allow independent com- panies to succeed, although the fear of them may compel a better service.] It is not to grain alone that land-ownorrt are now giving their attention, although when wheat-raisers have a good year they make money in one season. Fruit and vegetables arc more profitable per aero, and fruit once in bearing gives very regular returns. To any obsci-ver it is evident that not more tlian half ijuough fruit is raised for the requirements of the population. Indeed, how should it be, when the population doubles every year or two? But fruit is no longer an exi)eriment in the Palouse country, and largo orchards are being planted along the Palouse Eiver, while in the SnaUe Kiver Valley this is the chief interest of the settlers. Spokane depends on the Snake River Fruit Growers' Association for peaches, pears, prunes, and small fruits. Even the Walla Walla crop of bcn-ies and peaches may have to be helped out b^' their abundance. But wliilo fruit is shipped from California, as it now is, to this distant region, it is evident there is room for new orchards. Colfax, at the south fork of the Palouse River, of which I have before spoken, is the county-seat of Whitman, and a thriving place of seven or eight hundred. It was founded about 1876, and is touched by railroads from three directions, — roads that go everywhere but in a straight line, seeking freights from the great grain centres. One of these is over the line in Idaho, at Genesee ; another, also in Idaho, at Moscow ; Garfield, Farmington, Salteese, Oaksdale, Rosalia, all in Whitman County ; and another at Rockford, in Spokane County. Most of these roads were or are being consti'ucted by the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. It will be readily seen how great an area and what vast re- sources Spokane Palls claims as tributary to itself in W-^shing- ton. But there remains to be added the rich mineral regions of Cceur d'Alene and Kootenai. There may and will build up rival cities in the Colville and Big Bend countries, at no very dis- tant day ; but the pan-handle of Idaho does not seem adapted to such designs, at least in its northern end, therefore Spokane JW <|! ! ;i } Hy 382 ATLANTIS ARISEN. seems quite sure of a. share in the wealth being extracted from its mines. But it is not for minerals alone that the Idaho annex to "Wash- ington is valuable. Besides the rich lands about Moscow and Genesee, the large bodies of timber on the Cojur d'Alene and Pend d'Oreilie Elvers, or that can be brought to the mills at Spokane Falls, either by floating from the Coeur 'dAlene, or by railroad when the Greai. Northern is cOiT>p!eted to this city, con- stitute one of its most valuable resources. Lake Cceur d'Alene receives the waters of the Ooeur d'Alene, St. Joseph, and St. Mark's Rivers. Along each of these and on the mountains grow the white and yellow pine, cedar, and tam- ari)'jk. The quality of this timber is equal to that of Puget Sound, and the cost of getting it out is small. The business of "booming" logs to Spokane Falls is alrer.dy begun, one mill there cutting one hundred thousand feet per diem. Clarke's Fork, or Pend d'Oreilie Eiver, runs out of the lake, which is a large one, and, as I have before said, falls into the Columbia, and consequently cannot be used for booming logs to Spokane Falls. But Priest River, which flows out of Kanisku Lake into Pend d'OreilL River, near the lake, has upon its borders one hundred thousand acres of pine, cedar, and tamarack, some of the pines having a diameter of six feet, and trunks that are clear of limbs one hundred feet from the ground. There is on the upper Kootenai, or Flat-Bow Eiver, lying chieflj'' within the United States, and on the eastern prong of the bow which gives the river its name, an almost unknown region, which is only now beginning to be heard of. It is watered b\' many streams falling into the Kootenai, uamel}*, the Mooyie, one hundred and fifty miles in length ; the Yakh, ninety miles long, and Half a dozen creeks of considerable size. The mountains lying south of the Koote.iai are heavily timbered, and those on the north less densely covered, with the bunch- grass growing between. Along both banks the bottom-land is clear and covered with grass. This strip is from six to ten miloe in width, and sixty in length, with a deep soil which will produce any kind of vegetables or fruits of the temperate zone. The grass grows from Marcn to November, and millions of tons of hay might be saved annually. from con- ig io 'Hf'w^jiy; U f 1 WHAT ABOUT SPOKANE? 383 Ranchmen are already driving herds in here, which settlers will in time drive out. The country will not be improved, however, until it is drained, above the boundary line, by a canal from the Kootenai River to the Upper Columbia Lake, a distance of little over a mile, a scheme in which an English syndicate is interested. There is at present an annua' overflow in the bottom-lands below the boundary, which it is believed will be relieved by the canal in British Columbia. Mineral discoveries are being sought for in this region, and to some extent found, in galena and float- coal. The rou<^j to this new wilderness is via the Northern Pacific Railroad to Kootenai Station, on Lake Pend d' Oreille, thence by toll-road to Kootenai River, eighty miles, and by boats of a quaint fashion th • remaining distance, or as fur as the explorer pleases to go, — for there is a good depth of water for over two hundred miles up into British ColumKia, where no doubt it will soon be the fashion to go for a summer's outing. At Hauser Junction on the Northern Pacific, which is just east of the Idaho line, a branch road runs south to Post Falls on the Spokane River, which is the outlet of Coeur d'Alene Lake, and thence to Coeur d'Alene City at the head of the lake. This eeautifully-located place, with Fort Sherman, is much resorted to by travellers and residents. On its southern shore is about to be erected a club-house, where the mining men resi- dent in Coeur d'Alene raining district may spend their Sundays. Is this suggestive of Cape May or Long Branch? It is the same thing with ?. difference. It is nineteenth-century luxury in the midst of the exciting race for wealth in a virgin world. There is a mountain opposite Pop.t Falls which the Indians regard ad having a benign influence upon the lives of those lovers who secK its influence at the time of their marriage. It is haunted by a spirit which answers to the Greek god Hymen. Here are held the wedding festivities of the Coeur d'Alenes who tr'ily desire love and unity. The scenery of these lumbering and mining regions is on a grand scale. It educates the eye of tae most commonplace beholder, as it also broadens his knowledge of natural science by illustration and his views of the authorship of the great book of creation by inference. The men found in wilderness places ^ 384 ATLANTIS ARISEX. il''^ 4rm are often an agreeable surprise, from the number of things they are able to teach the conventionally educated. But it is not uncommon to find among prospoctoi's, surveyors, miners, and bmibermen, college-bred men, as well as specimens of the genus Li -^^ every other variety. The rarest of all is to find one resc .g the type invented for literary effect by writers of AmeruvvA fiction, and badly copied by our cousins over sea. If there is one in all this Northwest, he remains hidden from my observation. CHAPTER XXX. ^. ABOUT OEOLOOY AND MINERALOGY IN WASHINGTON. The history of the formation of the country north of the Columbia is given in about these words by Professor Condori : " Louring the older geological period, when ine Pacific Ocean covei'ed all Washington west of the Blue, Bitter Root, and Coeur d'Alene Mountains, the Cascade Range, one hundred and fifty miles from the then ocean-beach, was being slowly lifted up from the bottom of the sea, until it formed a barrier ex- cluding the ocean from East Washington, and changing the sea- shore to the west slope of the Cascades, where conditions favor- able to coal-depo.sits existed, resulting in the laying down of a vast coal-field extending almost from the northern to the south- ern boundary of the State. " After ages given to the draining and drying up of the inland sea and the deposition of rocks and soils eatt of the Cascades, the Coast Range was elevated in the same gnidual manner, the ocean, however, npt being excluded from the long north-an'- south depression between the two ranges. This is shown by the fresh-water sediment in the later rocks of the interior, while the sediments in the rocks west of the Cascades are mariu€i. As in the former instance of ujjheaval, the conditions again favored the deposit of coal, but of an inferior quality, being lignites. " The glacial period following the tertiary, grinding down the mountains and scooping out the valleys, gave the co":iUtry its GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY IN WASHINGTON. 385 most striking features. As these glaciers moved down the mountains, much higher then than now, ice-floes were formed in which were imbedded blocks of slate and boulders of granite, and as these floes floated on the waters or melted on the earth where they were stranded, they deposited these fragments over the future State of Washington, to be found and utilizcJ in our nineteenth century. When the glacial period was passed the waters distributed their mud, gravel, and sand, forming those deep deposits found on the shores of Puget Sound, Gray's Har- bor, and Shoalwater Bay. Then followed another period during which the waters were drained off and the country assumed its present general appearance." From this history is deduced these facts in regard to minerals in Washington : The coal-bearing belt on the west slope of the Cascades belongs to the early cretaceous period, as do also the gold-bearing slates, limestones, anr marbles of East Washington. But the sandstones, bearing marine shells of a later type, found abundantly in the hills bordering the Sound, the Chehalis and the Cowlitz Rivers, and the lignite coals of West Washington, belong to the tertiary period ; while the high, light-colored bluffs on the Sound and the bays before referred to belong to the quaternary. Of the various minerals belonging to the Northwest coast already enumerated in the mineralogy of Oregon, few have been to any extent developed in Washington, these few being coal, iron, gold, silver, limestone, and sandstone. Coal was known to exist in the Cowlitz Valley as early as 18-48, when a small quantity was sent to San Francisco to be tested, and declared worthless. Two years later it was dis- covered at Skookum Chuck, one of the forks of the Chehalis River. Meanwhile it had been heard of at Bellingham Bay, and on the Stillaguaraish River about the same period. An analysis of croppings was made in 1851 for the Secretary of the Navy; and the Pacific Mail Company, whose coal cost them forty dollars per ton, employed agents to explore for th?s mineral on both sides of the Columbia. The first coal-claim taken up was by William Pattle, an Eng- lish subject, looking for spar timber on the coast of the Fuca 25 i'1 u i]i' If 'f III 1 386 ATLA^'TIS ARISEN. Sea, in October, 1852. He located a tract immediately south of the present town-site of Sehome. His associates, Morrison and Thomas, took each a claim, and a company was formed called the Paget Sound Coal-Mining Association, which worked the Belli ngham Bay mines from 1860 to 1879, with an average annual yield of thirteen thousand tons. A coal discovery was also reported near Clallam Bay, on the Strait of Fuca, in 1867, whicb was never worked. About this same period a vein of coal was partially opened on Black Eiver, ten miles southeast of Seattle, by Dr. E. H. Bigelow, who sold it to a company, which failed to make it remunerative, on account of its remoteness from navigable waters, and other causes. Coul had also been found in Squak Valley, fourteen miles east of Seattle, and a few tons taken out and sold. All these discoverie.^ and efforts failed, partly through want o^ knowleilge and greatly through want of capital. At length, in 1863, a coal claim was taken up eleven miles southeast of Seattle by Philip H. Lewis, whose example was followed bj' several others, and a company was formed. A road was opened to Seattle, and one hundred and fifty tons of coal were sold there for ten dollars a ton, and used on steamers. This drevv attention to the mine, which was finally incorporated under the name of the Lake "Washington Company, with a capi- tal stock of five hundred thousand dollars. In 1870 it sold out to a new organization, styling itself the Seattle Coal Company. There was a tramway built from the mine to Lake "Washington, a scow and small steamer, for towing, being placed on the lake. With this beginning the Seattle company was able to make a success of coal-mining. The Eenton Mine, next in importance and point of time to the Seattle Mine, was first worked about 1873, and has proved profitable. A number of locations were made on Cedar and Black Elvers, about Seattle, and on the Stillaguamish, Snoho- mish, and Skagit Elvers, all on the east side of the Sound. The first actual prospecting for coal in the Puyallup Valley was in 1874, when some exploiting was done on Flett Creek, a tributa'-y of South Prairie Creek, a branch of the Puyallup, by an association of three men. About the same time a sui-voyor found coal on the Northern Pacific Eailroad land, half a mile GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY IN WASHINGTON. 387 distant, which led to a thorough examination of the country for twentj'-five square miles, and to the working of the mines at Wilkeson and Caroonado. Quite recently the coal-beds in the Skagit Valley have been opened and to a considerable extent developed. One vein in what is known as the Cumberland Dis- trict is thirty feet in thickness, and another fourteen. The quality of the coal is said to be excellent, and the field very extensive. Its analysis gives fixed carbon 65.70, volatile matter' 30.30, ash .038, sulphur .005. Its freedom from sulphur and low percentage of ash ai-e remarkable, promising a coking coal of great density and purity. A third vein five and a half feet through at the surface and gaining thickness with depth is also being opened. This mine belongs to the Skagit Coal and Trans- portation Compan\-, or Nelson Bennett and associates, who own about three thousand acres of coal-lands near Sedro, twenty-nine miles east of Fairhaven, with which it is connected by railroad. The comparative values of the Seattle and Tacoma, or Green River and Puyallup coals, is given in the following table : J g Seam. 1 1 It ja w f^ d Hi Coke. ^ K i^ ^ > Lignites. Newcastle 4.16 7.27 44.84 36.02 43.86 28.48 7.14 28.23 0.98 0.79 None. It Green River, Seam (?) 33 9.98 40.63 41.07 8.32 1.01 ft ^?) 8.68 35.90 47.07 8.35 1.31 (1 Bituminous Lignites. Green River, Seam 18 2.50 45.71 48.37 3.42 1.06 Poor. 9 4.82 42.02 37.12 16.04 0.88 None. 6 8.34 39.89 41.49 15.78 1.05 " " " 8 3.24 39.52 48.39 9.85 1.22 Worthless. BmJMiNous Coals. Wilkinson Field, WIngate Seam . 1.80 42.27 52.11 8.82 1.23 Very good. " Seam 123 .... 3.98 28.64 54.10 13.28 1.88 None. (?) (b) 18 ... . 1.33 25.88 60.67 12.12 2.34 Excellent. j . . . . 1.16 29.09 60.38 9.37 2.07 II 1 . . . 1.64 28.17 69.70 10.59 2.12 Poor. (?) (b) 58 ... 0.61 29.58 56.18 13.63 1.89 Black and IWable. Extensive deposits are known to exist in the Chehalis Valley, and, although geologists assign this to the tertiary period, I see no reason why these coals should not be as valuable as those on the coast, at Coos Bay or Belli ngham. The ^ost of mining the k * 388 ATLAJTTIS ARISEN. coals of Western Washington is light, averaging one dollar and ten cents per ton. The only coal-miiio on the east slope of the Cascades is at Eoslyn, on the line of the Northern Pacific Railroad, to which company it belongs. This mine furnishes the locomotives of the road with steam fuel, and this coal is shipped to Montana, Dakota, and Minnesota to grade up the inferior coals mined in those States, while the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company and Oregon Short Line are glad to use any surplus which may be had. A vein of anthracite is reported discovered on the We- natchee River, northeast of Roslyn. The output of the various mines for two years is thus tabulated in the report of the governor of Washington for 1889. Comparative Statement or Coal mined in First and Second Districts for Tears ending September 30, 1888 and 1889. Name. Firgt IHitria. Bucoda South Prairie Wilkeson Carbon Hill Tacoma Goal and Coke Company Total SeeondDUMeL Franklin . . . Black Diamond Cedar Mountain Gilman .... Roslyn .... Newcastle . . . Durham . . . Total Output Ant district . . Output second district Total output 1,188,801 1888. Tons. 49,160 86,149 2,800 208,702 14,871 305,682 182,921 186,522 52,813 13,528 234,201 168,184 828,119 805,682 828,119 1889. Tons. 26,600 45,107 6,738 195,887 8,081 281,918 186,844 105,255 23,120 41,482 280,648 76,122 22,819 685,690 281,918 685,690 917,608 GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY IN WASHINGTON. 389 The decrease in shipments in 1889 is accounted for by com- petition with British Columbia mines, and the decline of prices in the California markets. That this "was not the true cause seems evident when it is known that during the autumn and winter of 1889-90 there was almost a coal famine In Sun Fran- cisco, and that prices ruled high. It looks more like a combi- nation among coal-miners to force prices up. The market in San Francisco ' '. variable, owing to the fact that English vessels coming out in ballast to load with wheat and salmon carry coal instead of rock in the hold, and sell to dealei's for a moderate price coal of a good quality. This is a kind of competition which cannot always be foreseen or jjrovided for. It is an interesting fact that the great Southern Pacific sys- tem of railroads is compelled to depend upon Washington for steam-making fuel. That corporation owns the Carbon H'ill mines in the Wilkeson district, four in number, which furnish about eight hundred tons daily. A raih'oad has been constructed through the eafSon of Carbon River, with a descending grade, which carries the product of the mines to the bunkers at Tacoma, where it is loaded on a steamer carrying four thousand tons which makes thirty-five trips a year. Sailing-vessels carry the remainder of the output.' When this coal was used in its natural state it carried with it so mucii dirt and grit that the lives of the engineers on the Southern Pacific were rendered burdensome by the effort to keep up steam. A remedy was found in washing the coal, which is now being shipped perfectly clean, the saving in trans- portation more than paying the expense of washing, while the danger from sparks is very much lessened. The other Wilkeson mines being worked belong to the Ta- coma Coal and Coke Company, of which A. C. Smith is presi- dent ; and the Wilkeson Coal and Coke Company, Hugh White, president. The Bucoda mines are on the head-waters of the Chehalis River, in Thurston County. They once formed the main supply of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and belong now to the Northwestern Coal ana Transportation Company, of which Samuel Coulter is president. The superintendent says of them that the seam being worked is seven feet in thickness, with dark-blue sandstone roof, with the same rock one hundred 390 ATLANTIS A11I8EN. feet thick for a floor. Beneath this is another vein ten feet thick, resting on a floor of fire-clay six feet thick and of good quality. Under the fiiHi-clay is a light-colored sandstone one hundred and sixty feet in thickness, overlying an eighteen- feet seam of very good coal. The Bucoda coal is a black lignite, preferred for domestic purj)oses. The throe seams all pitch five degrees to the east, which makes it convenient to work. The North western Coal and Transportation Company shipped forty-two thousand six hundred and seventy-five tons during the year ending December 1, 1881), which is a third more than mentioned in the report of the governor quoted above. The coal-mines of West Washington employ over two thousand miners and other laborers, and no miners receive less than three dollars a day. This, too, is but the beginning of a ver}-- great industry, and the time will soon arrive when Washington will rival Pennsylvania in coal and iron production. Iron follows naturally after coal, one being necessary to the other in manufactures. This northwest corner of the United States is fortimate in possessing them in conjunction. The iron- ores of Washington comprise bog-iron orlimonite, hematite, and magnetic ore. Bog-oro is found underlying the flats bordering Puget Sound. Large beds of magnetic ore occur in the Cas- cade Mountains, at a height above the water-courses of from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred feet. The largest discovered deposit is on the Cle-elum River, in Kittitas Count}- on the east side of the range, and about twenty-five miles north of the Northern Pacific Eailroad. It is owned by the Moss Bay Com- pany, an English corporation which designs manufacturing iron and steel on a large scale. Extensive deposits are also found on the Snoqualmie River which are reached fi'ora Seattle by the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway. The ores from this section are what are termed typical steel ores, of a superior quality-. Analysis gives a greater per cent, of metallic iron than the average of Lake Superior or Iron Mountain, Missouri, ores, with more sulphur and less phosphorus than those, and with very little more silica than the former, and much less than the latter. The present ditficulty in working the Pfl GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY IN WASHINGTON. 391 Snoqualiuie ore is the gangue-rock, and oxperiinents are being made at eastern iron- works with good results. In the Skagit Valley, near Cedro, is Iron Mountain, separated from Connor Mountain, in which are found coal deposits,'only by a deep gorge. In this mountain arc ten distinct veins vary- ing in thickness from twelve to seventy-five feet, and in a favor- able position for tunnelling. The ore occurs in precrctaceous crystalline rocks, in which limestone also occurs, and proof of its true bearing and great magnitude is found in the drift and an- cient volcanic rock associated with it. The iron is of a rich black color, of strong polarity and even fracture, surpassing in purity and merit the Lake Superior ores occurring in the samo geological formation. Some of the ledges contain a high per- centage of manganese, which it is believed with [)roper treat- ment will make it valuable for the manufacture of steel. A practical working test of the oi-e in the Irondale smelting works resulted in obtaining sixty per cent, of pure iron. The only iron-mine in Washington actually developed is in Chimacum Valley, two and a half miles from the Irondale furnace on Port Townsend Bay. The ore in this case lies in a blanket from ten to twenty inches in thickness immediately under the sod of the valley, is porous, but sufficiently solid to be dug in lumps. The analysis gives : Metallic iron 41.83 percent. Phof^phorus • • • . • •■ • ^"^^^ " Phosphorus in 100 pai-ts iron . . . .*. .' 1.795 '» In 1880 the Puget Sound Iron Company, Cyi-us Walker, presi- dent, erected a furnace for smelting iron near Poi't Townsend, calling the place Irondale, and commenced work in January, 1881, the first iron made in Washington being turned out on the 23d of that month. The ore used was obtained from tlie dairy farm of William Bishop, at Chimacum, and from Texeda Island in the Fuca Sea. There is ore enough in the Chimacum Mine to keep a fortj'-ton furnace running for twenty years, but it I'equires mixing with another quality of ore. The Texeda Mine is a fissure vein, eighty feet wide, bearing sixty-two per cent, of metal of excellent quality and inexhaustible in quantity, although the ore requires to be desulphurized by roasting. It 392 ATLANTIS ARISEN. coBts about two dollars a ton deliveied at the furnace. The Chimueum iron is soft, while the Texetia is hard, and by mixing the proper density is obtained. The charcoal used in'smelting is made from the timber at hand, and the lime comes from San Juan and Orcas Islands at a dollar and a half a ton, the cheap- ness of all these materials adding greatly to the success of the manufacture. The pig-iron pi'oduced here is equal to the best in the United States. The Union Iron Works of San Francisco have their smelting works at Irondale, and it was here that the material was manu- factured from which the United States cruiser " Charleston" was constructed. Thus Washington furnishes both coal ar on to the Golden State. Magneiic iron-ore is found on San Juan Island, but it contains so large a percentage of phosphorus as to be of little worth. There are also large beds of magnetic and red hematite ores of a high grade about twenty miles northeast of Vancouver, Clarke County. m: In connection with iron, limestone may be named as of im- portance. The deposits which have been worked are found on Sun Juan Island and in other parts of the archipelago, where the supply is practicall}' unlimited. It was first made in 1860 by Augustus Hibbard and his partner N. C. Bailey, by whom he ■was killed in a quarrel eight yeai-s afterwards. The works were then closed until 1871, when Hibbard's heir appeared and claimed them, but died in 1873. In the mean time Bailey returned and took possession of his interest, but he also died, and James Mc- Curdy, who hold a mortgage on the property, came into pos- session. The capacity of the kilns previous to 1879 was twenty- six thousand four hundred barrels per annum. In 1879 new works were opened in two places on the island by other parties. The lime-works on Orcas Island, opened in 1862, turned out forty barrels per diem. For many yeai's these quarries supplied the Pacific Northwest with lime for building and other purposes. But it is now known that limestone and marble are to be found in the Skagit Valley and in different parts of the Cascade Range in quantities sufficient not only for smelting the metals existing in these localities, but for commercial purposes. In 1878 the GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY IN WASHINGTON. 393 Northern Pacific Railroad Company opened a quari*y in the Puyullup Valley, their works having a capacity of two hundred and seventy -five barrels. The production of lime in Washing- ton in 1880 was sixty-five thousand barrels, worth eighty-four thousand five hundred dollars. Limestone is also abundant in the region of Fort Colville. Copper is found in connection with gold and silver on both sides of the Cascade Mountains and in the mineral rosrions of Northeastern Washington. Recent discoveries have been re- ported as having been made in the Cascades of high-grade cop- per-ore, and late exploration in the Olympic Mountains reveal the existence of copper in this range. Valuable copper ledges ai'e said to exist eight mil^s from Hood's Canal in Kitsap County. The Humptulips River, which flows into Gray's Har- bor, is said also to lead to a copper belt of great proportions, the deposit being found in a formation of slate and limestone quite accessible by railroad from the Chehalis Valley. For the l)re8ent a movement is on foot to cut a trail from the head of navigation on the Wishkah River to the vicinity of the indicated mines. Among the specimens of minerals to be seen in the Skagit Valley is a fine quality of asbestos from a mine ojiened at an altitude of two thousand feet. The same mineral has been found at Ellensburg, produced in the Sebastian mining district, thirty-eight miles north of that place. It is long-fibred and of superior quality, but has never been mined. In the Yakima Valley, lower down, is a mountain of pumice of a fine grain, which, as this volcanic product has also a com- mercial value, is of importance to the countrj-. Clays of several qualities, from that used in bnck-making to ti'ipoli and kaolin, are abundant in West Washington, although not of equally good quality. While there exist deposits of pottery-clay so uniform in texture as to be immediately con- vertible into dry-pressed bricks, or with a small hand press moulded into tiles, which on being burned become vitrified and of a deep red, the greater number require thorough tror,tmont by the best proces.ses known to ceramics in oi'do'' to produce a ware equal to that manufactured in the East. There are good brick-making and tire clays at no great distance from Tacoma, L 394 ATLANTIS ABI8EN. m^. I and also at Gray's Harbor, and porcelain clays in the Cowlitz Valley, never j-et thoroughly tested, but abundant. The lesson taught by the great fire of Chicago was that iron expands, cracks, twists, and gives way under heat and pressure ; that granite will split and crumble if subjected to a great d>^gree of heat ana weight ; that limestone will be burned into q lick- lime and slacked by water, or will blow out in masses, destroy- ing a building ; and that sandstone will become flaky and split off under the action of n general conflagration ; but that brick made of a high-grade refractory clay, properly manufacturiid, will withstand the fiercest heat. Hence the value of building- brick produced from the refractory clays., which, mixed with thobe of a lower grade and burned until vitrified, caa be made to witLisLand a beat that will melt and boil glass or steel. The Puget Sound fire-clays vary in appearance, some of the best resembling slate and being of a blue-black color. When these are broken up and exposed to the rains of winter, they are resolved into a pasty mud, which on treatment becomes re- fractory. Other of the fire-clays are a bluish-gray in color, and look like stone when dry, but dissolve into pasto when wet ; and still others contain an excess of silica, and resemble iaminv 3d sandstone ; while some are soft and oily to the touch, acd of different degrees of color, from very light to very dark. As a foundation for future industries in Wa^'hington, this class of mineral substances is likely to prove of importance to the new State. An industry kindred to that of brick or j)ottery was carried on in 1868 by the firm of Knapp & Burrell, of Port- land, on the north bank of the Columbia, at Knappton, — namely, the manufacture of cement froin nodules of a yellowish lime- stone, found near the mouth of tiie river. The yield was thirty- five barrels daily. in~ The precious metals are not yet at all developed in West Washington, although gold has been found in some of the streams, and alleged discoveries have been made in the Cascade and Olympic Ranges of quartz veius iiearing gold and silver, both ffparately and in conjunction. Gold-mining in East Washington was begun in the spring of 1855, when gold in placers was discovered near Fort Colville, GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY IN WASHINGTON. 395 I being followed by the usual migration of thousands to that locality, and the subsequent discovery of other placer diggings in the upper Columbia region, followed by the organization of the TexTitory of Idaho, which took away from Washington some of its most valuable mining-lands. The yield of the placer mines in the Colville and Okanogan districts was very considerable, but could not be aecuratelv stated on account of the many routes by which gold was carried out of the oountry, and also because the express companies, who were the common carriers of treasure, haelt is confined to this zone — the silver-bearing lodes conformin j, .substantially to the generally southeast-and-northwest 'onr^i' of the scbistose rocks, with a dip varying from fifty "es to the nearly vertical position, with frequent local variations. One of the latter is the Arlingt^ , which has a nurth-and- south direction, and is situated in thi southerly end of Ruby Mountain, about three hundred feet from the tup, with a dip into the mountain of from sixty to eighty degrees h ow the horizontal. The lode is from three to nine feet wide, and has been traced for a distance of seven hundr< feet. The ore assays one hundred and eighty-seven dollars in silver to the ton, t)r, taking all classes of ore together, eighty-six 'ollars and sixty-four cents, with merelj^ a trace of gold. Pro'' sor Clayton, in a report on the Euby district, to which I uiu indebted for figures, estimated that a block of ground three hundred feet long, sixty feet deep, and five in width, making ninety thousand cubic feet of quartz in the lode, would give about six thousand tons gross, and, assuming that half of that would assay eighty dollars per ton, the gross value would be t 'o } undred and forty thousand dollars. Deducting ten per loss in milling (twenty -four thousand dollars) and twen a per ton for the cost of milling, mining, and transportation ^ ty thousand dollars), there would remain one hundred and fiUy thousand dollars net from this block of ground, which he considered a safe estimate. What the actual yield is has not been made 898 ATLA^TI8 ARISEN. |.:il known, but it is the leading mine in the di8trict, and reduction works have been erected, at a cost of three hundred thousand dollars, at Ruby City, for the extraction of silver from this and other ores in this locality, with other improvements involving a large amount of capital, A conceiitrator has also been erected at Conconnully, but these helps have only partially relieved the embarrassments of the miners. The cost of transporting ore to Ellensburg, the nearest railroad point by steamboat and wagon-road, is two and a half cents per pound, a prohibitory price for the carrying of any but the highest grade, of ores. Nothing like a general development can take place until the excessive cost of transportation is removed. The other mines in the Okanogan country of the same gen- eral character of the Arlington are the Fourth of Julj^ Ruby, and First Thought, in the Ruby di.strict. The Tuff Nut, Mam- moth, Lone Star, Home Stako, and Minnehaha, in Salmon River (Conconnully) district, are not so purely silver-bearing, and several in tho Galena district carry enough lead for smelting. The greatest advancement yet made in mining in Washington has been in Stevens County. About fifty miles by rail north of Spokane Falls, in the vicinity of Chewelah, is a mining district producing silver and lead ore which is reducible by smelting. The general character of the country is lime, the walls encasing the minerals being porphyry. These mines wore discovered in 1883-84, but were not worked until about 1887. The Eagle Mine ore assayed three hundred dollars in silver and lorty per cent, in lead. This property, situated about three miles east of Chewelah, is owned by capitalists who are able to defvolop it. In the vicinity are numerous .nincral locations. The Shamrock is a vein forty-one feet wide, ap«aying twenty-four dollars in silver and thirty-five cents in 7<'.(l, and the Pansy is an exten- sion of the same formation, whi' h is in porphyry. The Alpcnd, one mile east of the Eagle, is a good property, and many others promise well. On the west side of the valley, seven miles from Chewelah, is the Finley, a vein of gray copper and chlorides, assaying from thirty dollars to six hundred dollar'- per ton, and there are several well-defined veins of the same quality of ore in the vicinity. GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY IN WASHINGTON. 399 The mineral region extends eighty miles north, but it is in the region of Colviile that the greatest development has taken place in mining. This country' abounds in lime-belts, which pass through it from northwest to southeast at intervals of from five to eight miles apart, ^rarying in width from one thousand j'.irds to three miles. The deposits of ore are extensive, many of them bearing the minerals necessary to their reduction. Granite and porphyry enclose some of the veins, slate and quartz others, and still others are found in limestone. Some of the ores are iron carbonates, carrying silver, gold, and load in paying quantities. The Old Dominion Mines, however, contain ore in the form of a chloride and black sulphate in limestone walls. The Old Dominion Mine is six miles east of the town of Col- viile, and is an eiiiht-foot fissure vein, assaying one hundred and fifty ounces of silver, twenty-five per cent, galena, and seven dollars in gold to the ton. The Old Dominion was dis- covered in 3885. and produced in 1886 eighty thousand dollars' worth of silver. Two years later it was estimated that half a million had been taken out, and ore 'had been found which assayed fifteen thousand dollars to the ton. On the same mountain, and forming a group o** chlorides, are the Ella, Rust- ler, Paris Belle, East Side, West Side, War Eagle, St. Helena, John Harris, and Por land. Until a recent period the ores were shipped to Omaha for reduction, and only the highest grade ores would pay the expenses of mining, transportation, and reduction ; hence, districts less rich than the Old Dominion were left unworkcd. The Young America, owned by the Young America Consoli- dated Company, is situated on the east side of the Columbia, in a lime blutf sixteen miles north of Colviile, and is one of the largest, if not the largest, surface-showing mines in she State. It was discovered in 1885, and within six montlis had been con- siderably developed. The ledge averages five foet in thickness, and runs northeast and southwest, with a pitch to the east. In 1888 it had been lunnolled to a point one hundred and eighty feet from the surface, following a heavj body of ore all the vvay, and finding a solid deposit of eight feet of mineral. A working test made in San Francisco showed ninety ounces of silver and forty per cent, of lead to the t n. The ore is now shipped by I I til 400 ATLANTIS ARISEN. M m ^.. •, . i & the Spokane and Northern Railroad to Spokane, and rofluced iu the Mutual Smelting and Mining Company's works of that city. The mine is valued at over a million dollat 8. The Bonanza, two miles east of the Young America, is in a formation similar to the Young America, which, while the ore is not so valuable, is so much larger as to make up for it. It is producing and shipping ore continuously. The Little Dalles, thirty-eight miles north of Colville, is another region rich in minerals. The ores are galer-\ and lead carbonate with silver. It was discovered in 1886, when the Silver Crown and Northern Light claims attracted much atten- tion. Thoy are true fissure veins located side by side, running east and west parallel with each other, and pitching towards each other. Practically, they are one ledge, as they must meet. The ore assays from eighty to three huiidi'ed ounces, and the ledges are eighteen inches in thickness. The Silver Butte is an extension of the Silver Crown and Northern Light properties, with almost as good a showing of mineral; and the Amy, a short distance below Silver Crown, shares in the richness of the district. Bruce Creek is another locality where some large ledges of galena are found ; and on Clugston, five miles east of Bruce Creek and twelve miles north of Colville, tbei*e are some very fine ledges of galena, including the Uncle Sam and Tenderfoot, both of which are rich in lead, while carrying silver enough to defray expenses of transportation and reduction. Iron also abounds in the region of Bruce Creek. The Daisy, in the Summit district, twenty-four miles south of Colville, was discovered in 1886, but not worked for a year or more. It was found to be a seven-foot vein of carbonates, worth one hundred and fifty-one dollars in silver and a few dollars in gold to the ton. In 1888 there were seventy thousand dollars' worth of ore in sight. A smelter of twenty tons capacity was erected at Colville, to which all these mining districts are tributary, by the Mutual Smelting and Mining Company in 1888, which purchased ore or did custom work for the miners, but had not a sufficient capacity even at that time. The completion of railroad connection with Spokane Falls has solved many difficulties. GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY IN ^V ASHINGTON. 401 The Metaline district, on Clarke's Fork of the Columbia, was discovered late in 1886. It is situated on the west bank of the river (recently called Pond d'Oreille River), about one hundred miles from Pend d'Orielle Lake, and near the northern boundary of the State. It belongs to the Kootenai group of mines, which extend into Idaho, and is approached by the river from Sand Point on the lake and on the Northern Pacific Eailroad. The ores of this district are a low-grude galena, and lead the principal production, the average of that metal being from seventy-five to eighty -five per cent., with no roft-actory metal in the district. The ore is generally found in pockets in a lime- stone formation similar to the Frisco silver district of Southern Utah. The Bell O'May Mine and Diamond R. aie of this de- scription. The latter assayed six ounces of silver and eighty per cent, of lead on top, and at a depth of twenty-seven feet assayed seventy ounces of silver and fifty-eight per cent, of lead. ^' " Oreole, owned in Spokane, is a vein mine, in lime rock Cv. ...ning gray copper and galena, the ore averaging one hundred ounces in silver. These mines are on the west side of the river, f\nd within from one to two and a half miles of the town of Metaline. A mile below the town, on the east side of the river, is Grand View Mine, on a bluff eight hundred feet obove +he stream. This ore assayed ten ounces of silver and seventy-five per cent, of lead, and showed a four-hundred foot square of galena on the surface. Near the Grand View is the Friday Mine, running high in lead and low in silver ; and fivo miles above, on the same side, is a six-foot vein containing a twelve-inch streak of gray coppei'-ore running very high in silver. Again, the Waters Mine, discovered in 1888, on Little Muddy Creek, on the west side of Clarke's Fork, is a well-defined vein in lime, containing two feet of galena assaying thirty ounces . silver and seventy-five per cent, lead, and two feet of galena carbonates carrying ten ounces silver and forty-five per cent, lead. Gold is found in placers on Sullivan Cieek on the east side of Clarke's Fork a mile below Metaline. The diggings are from three to six feet deep on gray slate bedrock; the ground is spotted, and the gold is in heavy scalea. 26 402 ATLANTIS ARISEN. ffi'i- It has been remarked by intelligent prospectors that from the international boundary-line Bouth to Spokane Falls there is a peculiar distribution of rocks on the surface, particularly from Calispel Lake in the Colvillo country west to Oso-Yoos Lake in the Okanogan country, between which points there is a stream of granite boulders about a mile in width. This stream is the same, no matter what the country rock may be ; whether lime, slate, porphyry, or granite, these boulders are present on the surface, some weighing many tons, and others smaller, but dis- tributed in a straight line on the mountains and in the valleys. Some years ago some prospectors found a large piece of {ga- lena ore on a mountain near the town of Marcus. Certain that they had made a valuable discovery they sold the ore, and searched for the vein from which it had come until satisfied that there was none in the vicinity. The theory, of course, is that the granite and other boulders so out of place were dropped from icebergs that were breaking up as they floated over this country, then covered with water. Where the bergs were formed is a query still to be answered. IJ J. t The Kootenai country in the Pan-Handle of Idaho is east of the Metaline district, and, although belonging to another Com- monwealth, is tributary to Washington. It has long been known to be a mineral country, and was prospected for gold placers in the early mining furore following the Fraser Eiver and Colville excitements of thirty or thirty -five years ago. The country is mountainous and picturesque, and contains several of the most beautiful lakes in the Northwest, — the Cceur d'Alene, Pend d'Oreille, Kanisku, and a part of the Kootenai. It has five hundred miles of navigable waters, and vast resources in timber and minerals. The firet mining done in the Kootenai country was in the Cceur d'Alene region, which is drained through the Spokane Eiver. The distance from Spokane Falls to the nearest point Oii the lake is twenty-five miles. The Cceur d'Alene River has two branches, on both of which placer gold-mining has been carried on for eight or ten years, but most largely on the South Fork. It was not until about 1883 that deep mining was under- taken, and previous to 1886 not much was accomplished. It is GEOLCXJY AND MINERAUXJY IN WASHINGTON. 403 now, however, a busy and prosperous mining region. The ores are argentiferous galena, with some gold in quartz. The veins arc true fissures, accessible, and very thick, and carry from forty to sixty per cent, of lead, five to fiftj' ounces of silver, and a few dollars in gold to the ton. The strike of the principal lode, which is three miles in length, is parallel to the river, at a distance from it of from two to six miles, and it is frequently cut at right angles by ravines, which afford facilities for mining. There are no fluxes in the Coeur d'Alene country except that contained in the ore, and no great amount of fuel near the mines, which makes it more economical to carry the ores out for smelting than to bring in the fluxes, — a fact in favor of Spokane Falls as a centre for redaction works. Mills and con- centrators on the ground reduce the expense of transporting the ores, which, however, with the supplies required by the camps, furnish a profitable business to the Coeur d'Alene Eail- way and Navigation Company's lines, connecting with the Northern Pacific Railroad. The Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mines, at the head of Milo Creek, were the first discoveries on the lode, and have been good producers. The ore as taken from the mine concenti'ates four tons into one, which has a gross value of one hundred dollars, and with the first concentrator, whose capacity was one hundred and twenty tons daily, returned three thousand dollars per day to the owners. The company employ one hundred and fifty men, and are well equipped for profitable mining. The Stemwiuder, just beyond these mines, on the main lode, is owned in Portland, and is a rich producer. The company has a concentrator at Milo. The Tyler, also owned in Portland, is a similar property, as well as the Emma — Last Chance, owned in Spokane. The Sierra Nevada is a carbonate instead of galena, and yields a large amount of ore, giving returns of one hundred dollars per ton without concentrating. Specimens from this mine of crys- tallized silver and lead, consequent on some disturbance of the formation, are beautiful and wonderful, fantastic in shape and rich in color. Silver King, Crown Point, and Eureka are also good mines in 404 ATLANTIS ARISEN. I ii the vicinity of Wardner; and there are verj' many equally as good in other districts of the Coeur d'Alene couatry. The first mine thoroughly developed in this region was the Tiger, owned in Spokane, and located on Canyon Creek, a feeder of the South Fork. In order to secure this development it was necessary to construct a railroad for several miles through a narrow defile of the mountains, and erect a concentrator of one hundred tons capacity. There is enough ore in sight to keep it running for years. The Cceur d'Alene mines already wield a great influence in the develcpment of the Northwest, which is destined to increase as they are developed. They make necessary railroads and reduction works, and encourage various industries, which with- out them would remain unattempted for many a decade. Lightning Creek district, on the northeast side of Lake Pend d'Oreille, and five miles by a level road north of Clarke's Fork Station on the Northern Pacific, is in the Kootenai country, and was discovered in 1887. The veins have an east-and-west course in a hard black lime and quartzite. The Mayflower is high- grade galena, one foot in thickness, averaging one hundred and thirty-six ounces silver and twenty-five per cent. lead. The Wallace, of the same size, gives one hundred and nine ounces silver and forty per cent. load. Lightning Creek is twenty-eight miles long, and falls into the lake. It affoi-ds good sport to the trout fisher. West of Clarke's Fork Station, and little over a mile from Hope Station, are the Silver Chord and Lake Shore Mines, with a six-foot body of ore assaying at the start thirty ounces silver, with a good per cent, of lead. The formation is quartzite, syenite, and slate. On the south side of the lake, nearly opposite Hope Station, is the Garfield Bay district, by water eighteen miles southeast from Sand Point, and six miles northeast by rail from Cocolalla Station on the Northern Pacific. Two miles back from the bay, on the bide of a mountain, is the Mountain Queen. The vein is in trachyte and lime, and contains a hard whitish quartz spotted with galena, which assays thirty ounces silver and a small per- centage of lead. There are twenty or more locations in the GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY IX AVA8HINGTON. 405 immediate vicinity, and all are owned in the Kootenai country and' Spokane Falls, unless I'ccently transferred. On the south side of Lake Pend d'Oreillo, whore Gold Creek •comes in from the southeast, is a mountain of limestone, which is being burned and shipped by the hundreds of barrels every week. Gold in quartz is also found on Gold Creek. Kanisku Lake, forty miles northwest of Sand Point, is thirty miles long b}* from three to seven miles wide, and has its outlet through Priest Eiver, a crooked and swift stream which empties into Clarke's Fork. North of Kanisku three miles, and con- nected with it by a stream, is Lake Abercrombie, six miles long, north-and-south, and two wide. These lakes have high, steep hills surrounding them and coming close down to the water, except where the numerous streams feeding them find en- trance. These streams have level meadow-land extendinj; back for several miles, and whei'e the meadows cease a fine cedar forest begins, some of the older timber measuring fifteen feet in diameter, with a grain so true that it can be split into boards fifty feet long. White pine, hemlock, and tamarack also are hero in largo growths, and game, large and small, is plentiful. In 1888 a five-foot galena vein was discovered at the head of Abercrombie Lake, running northeast and southwest, in syenite and granite, with one foot of solid galena on the foot-wall, that averaged thirty ounces silver and seventy per cent. lead. The general formation of the country is a cross-grained, hard, white granite. Kootenai or Flat Bow Jjake and Eiver embrace a vast region. Together they form an elongated ox-bow, pointing north, and branching out until the points are six hundred miles apart, the east point being the source of the Upper Kootenai River, and the west point of the Lordoaux River. The lake is on the west arm of the bow, its south end being connected with Sand Point by a level wagon-road. Its length is over one hundred miles, and its width of an average of three miles. It seems to have been formed like the Grand Coulee by some great convul- sion of nature, as glacial action is nowhere apparent on the ad- 2|!; IP!*' s .'I I I Mi ■ I I 'I k 4^ I 406 ATLANTIS AttlSEN. jacent mountains, although living ghvciors of groat size are at the north end of the hike. The depth of this Assure is unknown, — assuming it to he a fissure, — but by currying out the angles of the mai'gituvl mountains, which rise quite abruptly from the water to a height of four thousand feet, a depth of at least throe thousand feet would be obtained. A sounding line of one thou- sand feet does not touch the bottom of its still, durlc waters. The outlet is on the west side, about forty-five miles from the north end, vvhicii is in British Columbia. The waters of t!io outlet are deep and still for twenty-five miles. The mountnns • »ii«ii-i%-n» '-^ '• -"t^^M ^i . Hm H^- P^all'^ M ^,'5^^*-^ i^:'"'-'.,-. »^ ■•♦• .. V'" ".."- ''*-'^, • -"s>C '-■■ %% .""..fe.. ONK day's hunt. wear their snowy helmets the year through at the upper end of the lake. Many streams fall into it, large and small, entering through deep gorges, or tumbling over mossy rocks among green depths of forest. There is no more impressive scenery in the Northwest than in the Kootenai country. The lake is stocked with fish, from immense sturgeon and char weighing up into the hundreds, to thirty-pound silver trout, and other 'V! 11 GEOLOGY AND MINEKALOOY IN WASHINGTON. 407 stnalloi* pan fish ; and tho forest affords game in the caribou, a species of large deer. Kootenai Lake mining district lies on both sides of the lal^e about fifteen miles north of the outlet. The Blue Boll Mine, on the east side, is on Galena Bay, and owned by tho Kootenai Mining and Smelting Company, which has its office at K.6oleuai Station, on the Northern Pacific. It is u ten-loot vein of low- grade galena in lime, extending north and south, assaying eight 01 uces in silver, with eighty per cent, of lead, and opened by a one-hundred-foot incline. The Blue Bell was discovered and to some extent developed previous to 1885, when, owing to a con- test over rights, work was suspended until the present company acquired tho property. The Kootenai Chief, an extension of the Blue Boll, is owned in San Francisco, but not at present worked. On the opposite side of the lake are numerous loca- tions, among which are the Highland, owned in Spokane, a three-foot vein of clear galena, assaying from forty to two hun- dred and eighty ounces silver and sixty per cent, lead, opened by a sixty-foot tunnel at a depth of one hundred and ten feet ; the Jim Blaine, a narrow vein, owned in Butte City, Montana, which shipped to the Wicks Smelter three thousand five hundred pounds of gray carbonate ore that netted over two hundred and eighty- three ounces of silver, the vein being in a basin on top of a mountain, and difficult to reach or work. Out of a large number of claims, a dozen or more show a good grade of galena. There are hot springs among this group of mines, which continually deposit lime. The Bonanza district is situated six miles south of the Kootenai Lake outlet, on Cottonwood Creek, which comes into the outlet from the south at a point twenty-two miles southeast and down from the main Kootenai Lake. The principal loca- tions are at an altitude of five thousand four hundred feet, and two thousand seven hundred feet above the lake, cutting at right angles through a timbered ridge running northeast and southwest, which slopes uniformly down to the outlet. Tho district was discovered in 1886 by parties from Colvillo, and located the following year. There are three parallel veins, about six hundred feet apart, ranging from thirty to eighty feet in width, and running in an east-and-west direction, with a dip 408 ATLANTIS ARISEN. n^l^t m of fbrty-five degrees to the south. The casing of the ore matter is a lime sh' le, the whole extending across tiie eour try formation at right angles, and lying between a contact of granite and slate. The veins carry ores known to mining men as copper-glance, antimonial silver, gray-copper, " black metal," or brittle silver, peacock-copper, and hard brown, gold-bearing quartz. It is claimed that no such conglomerai ^n of ores was ever before found outside of Mexico, where similar deposits exist. The discovery vaa made by a party looking for placer claims at the head of the Little Salmon, which comes into the Columbia from the east a few niiles north of the ^oundary-iine of British Columbia. The whole summer was upent in cuttiug a one-hun- dred-milo pack-trail through the heavy timber of a country extremely rough in its configuration. The caRon of the Salmon Hiver has stretches of twenty or more miles where the high bluflfs are perpendicular and faced with rock. The Bonanza Eidg3 lies between tho head- waters of a branch of the Salmon and the Kootenai Lake outlet. When the Colville party were, at the end of summer, making prospect holes ou this ridge, they stumbled on their bonanza ; but it being near ihe season of snow in the mountains, they were forced to relinquish the hope of seen ring any returns for their labors at that time, and concealing their treasure re- traced their steps to wait for anoth/r summer. But the secret wap not so well kept but ihs*i it was guessed, and, when they started in the following ^fay for the land of promise, they w.re watched and pursued so closely as hardly to get to their desti- nation before others were also op ibo ground. This is a part of the romance and excitement of mining. Many a lonely pros- pector while looking for bis bonanza has laid his bones where otaer equally evasive forti ne-hunters could not find them. But tho bonanza f(»und, then comes the struggle i.ir possession, and the race is co the swift. The discoverers of this one, named Winslow Hall and William Oakes, with eleven others, organized the Kootenai Bonanza Mining Company, and made three loca- tions, the Kootenai Bonanza, Silver K'ag, and American Flag. Tlie (rrizzl)!. Silver Queen, and Cariboo are extensions of the above named. Tho richness of the Kootenai Bonanza district is extraordi- ' 'M..' GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY TN WASHINGTON. 409 naiy. In doing the opening work on tho first two locations twelve hundred tons of ore were taken out, which averaged one hundred and tifty dollars to the ton, three hundred tons aver- aging two hundred dollars. Forty-six sacks of ore, from which forty-eight assays were made, averaged five hundred and twelve ounces of silver, no assaj' being made for copper or gold. Several assays were made of " brittle snver," which averaged eight thousand ounces of silver, and a chunk of brown quartz showing wire and leaf gold gave ninety -seven thousand dollars gold and three thousand dollars silver to tho ton. Tho entire vein carries thirty per cent, copper. While thd'e is this Arabian Nights' glamour of incredible wealth about these discoveries, there is always the possibility that nature has exhausted herself in producing this specimen of her handiwork, and cannot repeat this profusion or long con- tinue it in one place. The reputation of this district, however, has been well sustained and has increased the value of the low- grade ores in the Kootenai Lake district, both districts being north of the ooundary, in the British possessions, and low-grade ores being duil.ible. But if the value of silver exceeds that of lead in ore, it can bo shipped into the United States free of duty. By mixing the high and low grades the whole can be taken across the line free, and besides improve the ore for smelting. The only outlet for this district is up the Kootenai Lake and River, one hundred and fifty-five miles, to Bonner's Ferry, thence south thirty miles by wagon-road to Kootenai Station or Sand Point, on the Northern Pacific, and thence sixty miles to Spo- kane Falls. The passage by wpter occupies forty- eight hours. It costs seven dollars per ton to transport the ore from Cotton- wood Creek Landing to Kootenai Station. A railroad will soon be made to penetrate the Kootenai country, and reveal to the world ai region well worth the attention of the business-man and the tourist. It was the intention of the Ainsworth Company, which owned in the Blue Bell lead and had a grant from the colonial govern- ment, to have built a railroad out of the Kootenai country, but tho policy of the Parliament proved so narrow, owing to the jealousy of their constituents towards railway connection with the United States, that the company was compelled to abandon 410 ATLANTIS ARISEN. h the scheme. This ill treatment by the colonial authorities for several years retarded mining in this region. The Spokane and Northern Raiiroad will soon be completed to Little Dalles, ■whence a line of steamboats will carry passengers and freight to this and other districts in British Columbia. It was the design of the Spokane and Northern to have continued its road to Kootenai on the northeast, and through the Colvilie Indian Reservation to the Rock Creek mines of British Columbia on the northwest, and finally to the Pacific coast, but the Dominion Parliament refused to grant charters for either of these branch linos, much desired by the people north and south of the boundary, the Canadian Pacific being opposed. It will not be possible much longer to prevent American enterprise from ac- complishing its designs, even against the will of this govern- mental monopoly, in British Columbia. CHAPTER XXXI. LAST WORDS. A TOURIST, I suppose, may be pardoned for giving a rambling account of the country run over. I desire to feel that my ram- blings are of some value to my readers. It is difficult to con- ceive, if we have not seen it, the rapid jhange being effected in the Northwest. But a study of the census, and the rapid growth of American cities iu all the States, will be found quite as sur- prising. Foreign immigration has filled up the country very rapidly. I have sometimes felt, in a San Francisco street-car, or other public conveyance, that it would bo a pleasure to hear my mother tongue spoken. In the North the foreign element is not so marked, although there are colonies of Norwegians, Swedes, and Germans, with the ever ubiquitous Irishman, and a sprinkling of Canadian English, Scotch, and occasional individ- uals from all nations. But the prevailing and governing class is American ; and it is the American whom you meet, alert, ob- servant, ready, who controls the enterprises of this part of the Pacific coast. Washington is peculiarly Ncw-England-Ameri- can, in the Puget Sound region particularly, because the New- LAST WORDS. 411 Englander is commercial. In the agricultural portions of the country are more people from the middle and western divisions of tho Atlantic States. I will now proceed to give, as I did for Oregon, a tabulated statement of tho assessed valuation of diifercnt sections by- counties, which will help the reader to understand the relative Counties, Adams * . . Assotin * . . Chehalis . , Clallam . . . Clarke . . . Columbia * . Cowlitz . . . Douglas * . , Franklin* . Garfield* . . Island . . . Jefferson . . Klickitat* . Kittitass* . . King .... Kit«(, tan ill ill M 1 '. 412 ATLANTIS ARISEN. I have marked the East Washington counties with an astevisk to point out the comparative wealth of the two groat divisions. The difference in favor of the nineteen western counties is over fifty millions as against the fifteen eastern counties. The sev- eral large towns on Puget Sound should account for a greater difference than that, and the comparison shows that relatively the agricultural sections are as prosperous as, if not more so than, the commercial ones. Dividing the whole assessed value of the State (far below its actual value), it gives three hundred and seventy-three dollars to every individual in it, which is above the oviiinary proportion of the older States. A feature of Puget Sound commerce is that among the groat number of vessels which enter annuallv, — the entrances amount- ing in 1889 to one million five hundred and forty thousand and fifteen tons, — the clearances exceed the entrances by fourteen thousand nine hundred and sixty-four tons, showing the balance of trade to be in favor of this new State as against the whole world. The motto adopted for the territorial seal — Alki — by and by — was well chosen, significant, and prophetic. The younger brother of Oregon, he will not be content with the younger brother's portion, but will strive for the sceptre. Modern writers bring weighty evidence to prove that the tradition handed down to us by the ancient philosophers, of a submerged continent, occupying a portion of the area covered by the Atlantic Ocean, was scientific truth. If one continent sank, another must have arisen to balance it. If America is the Atlantis of Plato, or its substitute, as some believe, its west coast is the oldest, or that portion which was first elevated, as geology proves. It is also, as we know, the latest to be brought under development. It is ihe pioneer's last view out over the oceans that encircle the known world. Henceforward man's effort will be to restore to earth on this favored soil the glories of the buried continent, and to substitute for Atlantis lost, Atlantis Arisen. THE END. Lerisk sions. 3 over e sev- reater ktively ) than, of the id and above e great mount- nd and 3urteen balance a whole and by younger jTOunger ;hat the era, of a covered ontinent ica is the its west vated, as I brought over the rd man's le glories intis lost,