1841.] GEOLOGY. 417 



Pass, discovered by Lewis and Clarke, is in latitude 46° 30' 

 N. ; the Middle Pass is in about 44° 30' N. ; and the South 

 Pass, which was made known by Colonel Fremont and is 

 decidedly the best of the three, is in latitude 42° 30' N., 

 where the headwaters of the north fork of the Platte are 

 separated by a narrow watershed from those of the Snake 

 river. On the southern border of the territory is the Kla- 

 met range, running from east to west, near the parallel of 

 42° N. latitude, which separates it from California. 



At the foot of the Cascade Range on the west, the soil is 

 well adapted to raising the cereal grains, peas, apples, pears, 

 and other hardy fruits ; but much the greater portion of the 

 western division south of the Columbia is occupied by low prai- 

 ries and interval lands liable to inundations, yet possessing a 

 fine soil and producing heavy burdens of the richest grass. 

 The valley of the Willamette, or Multnomah river, in this sec- 

 tion, contains some of the finest land in Oregon, and for 

 beauty and fertility is not often surpassed in the older states 

 and territories of the American Union. North of the Colum- 

 bia, and beyond the immediate valley of the river, which is 

 also well calculated for grazing though very liable to inunda- 

 tions, the country is rough and much broken, but thickly 

 covered with gigantic forest trees. 



The soil of the middle section is a sandy loam, very light 

 on the hills and only fitted for grazing, but in the valleys 

 there is a large mixture of alluvial deposit. The eastern 

 section, between the Blue and Rocky Mountains, is high, 

 broken, and barren ; there are but few level tracts, which 

 are sparsely timbered, and, where not rocky, the soil is light 

 and sandy. But the desert character of this interior basin 

 should not be allowed to cast any doubt upon, or detract 

 from, the capacity of the western portions ; for though they 

 contain, here and there, a few barren patches, the produc- 

 tiveness of their extensive tracts of prairie and interval land, 

 and the value of their noble forests, must be sources of con- 

 tinued wealth and prosperity to the hardy pioneers who have 

 located themselves in these remote regions. 



18* 



