328 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



have a relatively fixvorable influence upon the commerce of 

 California, from which Nevada will obtain all her supplies. 



Oregon has a coast line of two hundred and seventy-five 

 miles, from latitude 42° to 46°, and extends nearly four hun- 

 dred miles from east to west. AD that portion lying east of 

 the Cascade Mountains (which are a continuation of the Sierra 

 Nevada), comprising about two-thirds of the state, is barren, 

 or nearly so. It may contain good pasture-lands and valuable 

 minerals ; but, with the exception of a few fertile valleys and 

 bottom-lands near the Columbia River, these have not as yet 

 been discovered, or at least not occupied by white men. The 

 western part of the state contains some rich placers, fine for- 

 ests, and valuable land for farming, but the country is difficult 

 of access. The only entrance to it from the sea is by the Co- 

 lumbia River, the mouth of which is dangerous to shipping. 

 There is a land entrance to Oreg^on from California on the 

 south, and from Washington territory on the north. Oregon 

 has a population of some fifty thousand, and produces about 

 one million dollars in gold-dust annually. 



Washington territory has a sea-coast of two hundred miles, 

 and extends six hundred miles eastward to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. The fertile strip of the territory is only about one hun- 

 dred and twenty miles wide, along the Pacific ; the eastern 

 portion is for the most part barren, but it contains extensive 

 placers of gold, which yield about three hundred thousand dol- 

 lars annually, and, if reports be true, will soon yield much 

 more. The population numbers about ten thousand. The fer- 

 tile district west of the Cascade Mountains is penetrated to a 

 depth of one hundred miles by Puget Sound and Hood's Canal, 

 the finest bodies of land-locked tide-water, for the purposes of 

 internal navigation, in the world. The timber of the territory 

 is very valuable, abundant, and accessible, and is now shipped 

 to all quarters of the globe. No country can furnish large 

 spars in such great abundance, or at so cheap a rate ; and this 

 resource, if there were no other, would secure wealth to Wash- 

 ington. Yet, in addition to these, she has extensive fisheries, 



