MAGNIFICENT FOREST TREES. 215 



Besides the above mentioned, there are numerous other valleys, all of 

 v^rhich are well timbered and of unparalleled fertility. 



No country in the world affords a better soil, or a more romantic scenery. 

 The mountains bounding them rise in stately grandeur, oftentimes far above 

 the clouds, to converse with the relentless snows of successive ages, — ■ 

 now presenting their nude sides, paved with dark masses of frowning rocks, 

 or proud forests of evergreen, verdant lawns, flowery dales, and sterile 

 wastes, to overlook the perennial beauty and matchless fecundity at their 

 feet, — while the lesser eminences with their deep ravines, o'erhanging 

 cliffs, and shadowy recesses, tell the place where the storm-winds recruit 

 their forces and tlie zephyrs creep in to die. 



There are also large valleys, of equally fertile soil, upon the head waters 

 of the Tlameth river, near the southern boundary, well worth the attention 

 of emigrants. 



The most interesting portion of the Western Division, however, is that 

 bordering upon the Wallammette and its affluents. The valley of this river 

 is one hundred and fifty miles long by thirty-five broad. The soil is a deep 

 alluvion, of extraordinary fertility. 



It is not only well watered, but well timbered, and produces all the vege- 

 tables, fruits, and grasses indigenous to the country, with astonishing pro- 

 fuseness. No region was ever better adapted to agricultural or grazing 

 purposes. 



The Fualitine Plains, adjoining this beautiful expanse of fertility upon 

 the left, towards the Columbia, embrace an area of forty-five miles in length 

 by fifteen in breadth, well watered and amply timbered, with a soil in all 

 respects equal. 



The Klackamus, Putin, Fualitine, Yamhill, and other rivers, are all of 

 them skirted by beautiful and fertile valleys of greater or less extent, while 

 the adjacent hills and prairies afford not only frequent forests of excellent 

 timber, but generally a very good soil. 



The landscape of this vicinity, though not, strictly speaking, hilly, is 

 highly indulating, but quite productive in grass and herbage. 



The Cawlitz river, which empties into the Columbia a short distance below 

 the Wallammette, has several rich bottoms, and waters a large extent of 

 country, admirably adapted to stock-raising and agriculture. 



At the mouth of the Wallammette river is an island some fifteen miles 

 in length by nearly the same distance in breadth, called Wappato; it is of 

 a deep alluvial soil, formed from sedimentary deposites and decayed vegeta- 

 ble substances, and is very rich and densely timbered. 



The country at the mouth of the Columbia and for some ten or fifteen 

 miles interior, is sandy and sterile, — a fact much to be regretted, as from 

 its peculiar locality this point must necessarily become the site of a vastly 

 important commercial emporium, vieing in population, splendor, and opu- 

 lence, the time- grown cities of more eastern climes. 



The stately forests of pine and fir, in the Western Division of Oregon^ 

 have for a long time challenged the admiration of the world, and it is 

 strongly doubted whether the chosen veterans of foreign woods can produce 

 a rival to some few specimens of the proud giants of its soil. 



These not unfrequently tower to "a height of two hundred feet, and even 



