APPENDIX 463 



hilly, covered with dense timber, and almost uninhabited. This 

 fact, and the fact that nearly all the import and export trade of 

 the State is done at Porthind, whither the ocean steamers run 

 regularly, scarcely stopping at Astoria save to take on or put 

 off a pilot, may account for the small size of Astoria, which 

 was for a time looked upon as one of the most promising 

 towns of the coast. St. Helen's, ten miles below the mouth of 

 the Willamette (population about 400), once aspired to be the 

 chief port of the State, and the agents of the Pacific Mai! Steam- 

 ship Company, provoked at the difficulty of ascending the Willa- 

 mette to Portland in seasons of low water, established their 

 coMling depot and oSice at St. Helen's ; but the mercantile 

 interest of Portland was too strong, and St. Helen's lost her 

 trade and her hope. " The Dalles," or Dalles, so named from 

 some rapids in the Columbia River, to which the Canadians 

 employed by the Hudson's Bay Company gave that name (pop- 

 ulation about 1,500), is a thriving town on the soutii bank of the 

 Columbia, about one Inmdred and seventy-five miles from its 

 mouth. The town owes its importance to the rapids in the 

 river, which at this point has a descent of forty feet, thus in- 

 terrupting the navigation and requiring goods to be trans- 

 ported by land for a distance of six or eight miles. The 

 growth of the place must keep pace with the development of 

 the basin of the Upper Columbia, all tho trade of which must 

 go down the river. In the valley of the Umpqua River are the 

 towns of Winchester, Roseburg, Scottsburg, and Gardner. 

 In the auriferous portion of the valley of Rogue River are 

 Jacksonville (pop. 1,500) and Althouse, the two principal 

 mining towns in the State. On the coast, about lat. 43° 20', is 

 the village of Randolph, whose inhabitants are mainly 

 engaged in the business of beach-mming. The poi»ulation of 

 Oregon, according to the census of 1860, was as follows : 



