full view, whose white summits appear to pierce the very skies. These are ranged along the Cascade Mountains from 50 to 100 miles apart, north and south. The wind prevails from the south in the winter, and from the north in the summer. The nights are cool and pleasant during the summer,

though the days may be hot.

The Umpqua Valley comes next. It lies south of the Willamette Valley, and is separated from it by the Callapooiah Mountain. This mountain is not high it is covered with timber, among which is to be found the Oregon chestnut; the soil is good. The Umpqua, like all other valleys, is entirely surrounded by mountains. This valley consists of a succession of hills and narrow intervening valleys. The whole is covered with a fine coat of excellent grass. The soil is very rich in these small valleys. The Umpqua Valley is about 60 miles long from north to south, and near half that width from east to west. It is watered by two rivers of the same name, which unite in the valley and flow west to the Pacific Ocean. It is watered by many other tributary streams of the Umpqua likewise, and many springs of good water. The timber is fir, pine, white and black oak, &c. The climate is similar to that of the Willamette, perhaps a little warmer in the winter season. This valley is fast settling, mostly by persons who wish to raise stock. But since the discovery of gold in the south part of the territory, the produce of the farms would demand a good price.

The Rogue River Valley lies south from the Umpqua Valley, and is separated from it by the Umpqua Mountain and a succession of mountain ridges and narrow valleys. This mountain is high, precipitous, and rough; it is heaved up into high peaks, with intervening low gaps, through one of which a wagon road has been made, and with a small appropriation from government, judiciously applied, an excellent road might be made. The soil of this mountain is rather poor, and such is the character of all the mountain soil south of it. What is termed the Rogue River Valley lies high up on the river of the same name: it is 30 miles long from north to south, and about 15 miles wide from east to west. It is a beautiful valley to the eye of the beholder, but much of the soil is rather sterile; yet there is some excellent land that produces good crops of native grass, and would produce good crops of grain if cultivated.

This valley is also settling fast: gold mines have lately been discovered in it, and some of the miners are doing very well. It is also near the Shasta mines in California, which will secure a high price for everything raised here. None of the rivers south of the Willamette are navigable, consequently the supplies for the mines are taken from the Willamette Valley. From what I have said of this western region, you will see that there is a succession of valleys separated by mountains, and lying back from the coast reaching from Puget's Sound to the California line. It is necessary that Congress should make an appropriation of money to locate and open a road from Puget's Sound through these valleys to the navigable waters of the Sacramento, or Bay of San Francisco, in California. This is necessary to the government for military purposes, and ere long will be indispensably so as a post route.

I

In addition to those parts that I have attempted to describe to you, must say something about the country lying immediately on the coast. At the mouth of the Columbia River, on the south side, is a country of limited extent. This is called the Clatsop Plains, and is already thickly settled. Higher up the river, on the same side, is the ancient town of Astoria, sur

rounded by hills and high peaks of the coast range; these hills are timbered with fir, hemlock, &c. In this vicinity is found some of the largest and tallest timber in the territory. The country south of this, on the coast, has been but little explored; but sufficient is known to justify me in saying there are many depressions and slopes on the Pacific side of the coast mountains, where good settlements may be formed. The soil is said to be rich on the coast mountains generally. At the harbor near the mouth of the Umpqua is a small settlement, and also at Port Orford, farther south. The vicinity of these settlements is hilly, mountainous, and rough. If you will procure a map of Oregon, and locate places as I have imperfectly described them, you will have a tolerable good knowledge of Oregon.

Many other persons beside yourself have made the inquiry of me, by letter, respecting the society of this country. In answer, I will say that the inhabitants of the country are mostly immigrants from the United States, consequently the society may, with fairness, be presumed to be just such as those who make the inquiry would form, if situated so themselves. I will further remark, that each and every State in the Union, from Maine to Georgia, has its representatives here, and I am happy that I am not the only representative of the good old Hickory State, Tennessee.

The same denominations of Christian worshipers that you have in the States are found here. Schools are as numerous throughout the country as the sparse population will justify, though as yet we have no permanent school fund, but Congress has appropriated the eighteenth part of all public lands here for that purpose.

From what I have said, you can form a correct idea as to where the agricultural lands are situated, as well as the grazing lands. Like all other countries, the soil of Oregon varies not only in color, but in productive qualities. The prairie lands-which, by the by, are used almost entirely for farming purposess-are mostly of a dark gray color, and the soil is what is generally called a clay soil, from one to two feet bedded, with some exceptions, on a porous clay, which becomes of lighter color the deeper you go, till you reach the sand, which you will do in fifteen or twenty feet in most places. This quality of soil is much darker when wet than when dry. It pulverizes quite easy when plowed in proper order, but if plowed or tramped by stock when it is wet, it will bake very hard when it becomes dry; and this is the case with all soils in this country, except some very limited spots that are very sandy. We also have a pale and a deep darkred soil. These colors of soil are found on the hills in the Umpqua Valley, and also on the hills in the south part of the Willamette Valley. Near the base of some of the hills, and on the bottoms of some of the streams, the soil is a rich alluvial deposit that produces extremely well.

The productions of the country are wheat, oats, barley, rye, peas, and garden vegetables, such as potatoes, cabbage, onions, beans, parsnips, carrots, tomatoes, turnips, beets, melons, squashes, &c. The apple, pear, and peach tree thrive very well, and produce good fruit. It would be a very hard task for me to give you a satisfactory account of the quantity of wheat, or other grains, produced to the acre; for whilst but little depends on difference in soil, much depends on the time and mode of cultivating. Where land is well broken and completely pulverized by repeated harrowings after the rains are over in the spring, and the seed sown and well covered, so that it may come or vegetate with the first rains in the fall, it will, one year with another, yield from 20 to 30 bushels of wheat per acre, and more than that

of oats; but if sown late in the fall or in the spring, from 10 to 20 bushels per acre will be the most. The garden vegetables that I have named thrive well most anywhere on manured land. This climate does not suit the growth of corn; it is not raised as a crop, but to use while soft. Our lands will doubtless become deteriorated by continued crops of small grain: we shall then have to resort to clover and manure to fertilize them. Tame grasses are not cultivated, as all the open parts of the country produce a native grass equally as good. This native grass is quite short compared with that of the Western States; but when not fed down, it runs up a seed straw from two to three feet high, which produces a heavy crop of seed. On this grass cattle, horses, sheep, &c., subsist both summer and winter without the care of man. Hogs do tolerably well in this country, considering we have no corn to feed them on: they subsist on vegetables, roots, white oak and hazle nuts, &c.

I will now give you the prices of some of the products of the grain and grazing farms:

American horses, $100 to $200; Indian horses, $40 to $100; American cows, $50 to $60; oxen, per yoke, $120 to 150; sheep, per head, $4 to $6; chickens, each, $1; beef, per pound on foot, 8 cents; pork, 10 to 12 cents per pound on foot; stock hogs, 8 cents per pound gross; butter 35 to 40 cents per pound; eggs, 40 to 50 cents per dozen; bacon, 25 cents per pound; wheat, $1 75 to $2 per bushel; oats, $1 per bushel.

These prices are obtained at or in the immediate vicinity of the seller, without the trouble of going far to market. Potatoes and other vegetables are raised in large quantities on the Columbia River and on the plains near its mouth, for the California market; but I am not sufficiently posted up in this market to quote the prices.

The export trade of this country, since the discovery of the gold mines in California, has been. confined to that country, and consists in lumber, stock hogs, beef, butter, eggs, chickens, pork, oats, flour, potatoes, onions, &c., besides large droves of beef cattle, cows, and other stock, driven overland to the mines. There is also much flour, bacon, butter, cheese, &c., packed on animals or hauled in wagons to the mines. In the articles of flour and grain, this country cannot compete with Chili, on account of the high price of labor here, and the very low price of labor in that country. As to the imports, every article, such as our clothing, boots, shoes, hats, &c., come mostly from the United States and Europe; our coffee from Rio, Java, and the Sandwich Islands; our sugar and salt from various parts of the world -a good portion of it from the States and Sandwich Islands. Vessels are arriving and departing all the time.

I am not aware that we have had more than one arrival direct from China; but arrivals of vessels from San Francisco, various ports in the United States, Sandwich Islands, Europe, and other places, are of almost daily occurrence. For the prices of store goods, groceries, and everything in that line, I refer you to the Portland wholesale prices current-you will add to these prices about 50 per cent, and you will then have a good idea of the retail prices in the country. The United States mail arrives twice a month. We have post routes and weekly mails to every inhabited part of the country, besides a river route, by steamboat, from Astoria to Portland, thence to Oregon City, thence to Marysville, high up the Willamette River; also a route to Salt Lake, whence the mail goes and returns every two months.

The representative population of this country is about twenty thousand. The Indians in the vicinity of the settlements are not very numerous-they are fast disappearing by death. They are generally harmless and inoffensive, and subsist mostly on salmon, which are found in great abundance in most of the streams that empty into the Pacific. There are a few bear, a good many deer, and any quantity of wolves in this country: the latter are very destructive to stock in many parts of the territory.

By an act of Congress, approved September 27, 1850, donations of lands were made, (subject to certain conditions and restrictions,) to the then settlers on the public lands in this country. By another section of the same law, provision is made for all who emigrate to this country and settle on the public lands, from about the time last mentioned until December 1, 1853. This latter section grants a donation of 320 acres of land to a married man, and half that quantity to each single man who comes to the country within the time specified. Four consecutive years' residence and cultivation is exacted by the government before you can obtain a patent. It is necessary I should say, that each settler is allowed to select for himself any unoccupied lands, except the 16th and 36th sections in each township, which are reserved and appropriated for common school purposes.

Congress, by another act, appropriated money to extinguish the Indian title to the lands in the western region of Oregon. Agents have been appointed to make treaties with many of the tribes, but whether these treaties will be confirmed or not, I cannot tell.

The health of the first portion of the western region spoken of is not very good, owing to the overflowing of much of the bottom lands by the Columbia. It is somewhat subject to fever and ague, and other bilious diseases. This remark is alike applicable to the bottom lands on the Willamette River. In fact, bilious, typhus, and lung diseases, influenza, rheumatism, &c., are not of uncommon occurrence throughout the entire country. Yet, upon the whole, I believe this country to be as healthy as the State of Ten

nessee.

In speaking of the navigable rivers of Oregon, let me remind you that the Columbia, and the Willamette, that empties into it 90 or 100 miles from its mouth, are the only ones of note of this class. The Columbia is navigable, with the exception of a portage of some four or five miles at the Cascade Falls, from its mouth to the Dalles, a distance of 200 miles.

I have heretofore spoken of the navigation of the Willamette River, with the obstruction of the Falls at Oregon City, where a portage of half a mile is made. But this is not the only obstruction on that river during the summer season; for when the water becomes low, there is a number of bars where the water becomes shallow and forms a barrier against the passage of boats of a profitable size. One of these bars is one mile below the Falls, and some three or four others between the Falls and Marysville. These obstructions will doubtless, at no distant day, be removed. Our present delegate to Congress, when canvassing before the people for an election, advocated, without the solicitation of any person, the propriety of Congress making an appropriation to effect this object; but since he has gone to Washington, he has written back and says he is politically opposed to all such measures. But if there is no deception in the signs of the times, the day is near at hand when the enlightened people of Oregon will lay all such political demogogues on the shelf, and will take in hand to manufac ture and direct public sentiment themselves.

A portion of the citizens of Portland, together with others-(Portland is situated on the west bank of the Willamette River some 12 miles from its mouth)-acting under a legislative charter, are constructing a plank road from that place to the Tualatin Plains, a distance of some 12 to 15 miles, in a northwesterly direction, and when completed it will be of much benefit, not only to that portion of the country, but to nearly all Oregon. You ask whether we have limestone or freestone water. This is a question I am unable to answer, as this is neither a limestone nor a free stone country, but volcanic. I would say the water was rather a nondescript― nevertheless, cold, healthy, and well tasted. The most prevalent rocks of this country are the basaltic and trapp rocks, though granite, slate, quartz, and, in a few places, a coarse sand-stone, are found. The agricultural lands are generally clear of rocks or gravel. And as respects the waters of the country, like the branches of the forest tree, you will find in each valley small streams that have their rise in the mountains, on either side, winding their way through the valley till they reach the main stream; besides these, at the foot of the hills and mountains, we frequently find good cold springs; but then in many of the large prairies and plains, water becomes scarce in the summer time; in such situations the settlers dig wells, where they find good water at a depth of from 20 to 40 feet. The harvest of wheat, oats, &c., comes off in the months of July and August. The quality of the wheat is always good; the berry is full and plump, however small the yield may

be

per acre.

JOHN M. FORREST.

Art. III-COMMERCIAL CITIES AND TOWNS OF THE UNITED STATES.

NUMBER XXXV.

NEWBURYPORT, MASSACHUSETTS.

NEWBURYPORT is situated on the Merrimac River, the center of the city being about two and a half miles from the river's mouth, and is by railroad 34 miles from Boston, 20 miles from Salem, 15 miles from Haverhill, about 20 miles from Portsmouth, N. H., and 71 miles from Portland. According to the State survey of 1845, its latitude is 42° 48' 32" N., and its longitude 70° 52′ 41′′ W. It is in the extreme northeast corner of the State, and of Essex County, which is the densest populated area of the same extent in New England, and of course the densest to be found in the United States, or on the continent of America. The superficial extent of this county is about 400 square miles, and its population in 1850 was 127,170, equal to about 318 inhabitants to the square mile; the density of Massachusetts being 126 to the square mile, of Rhode Island, 108, and of New York, 67. Very few places in Europe indeed, of like extent, are so thickly populated as the County of Essex. But the extent of the population is not more remarkable than the uniformity of its division. The county is covered at almost equal intervals with villages, none of them of overgrown dimensions. There are thirty incorporated towns in the county, the largest of which is Salem,