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CHAPTER XXVII. 



The manufacturing facilities of Oregon. — Commercial and agricultural advantages 

 reviewed. — Rail Road to the Pacific. — Route, mode of travelling, and requisite 

 equipments for emigrants. — Importance of Oregon to the United States. — Incident 

 in the early history of Fort Hall. — Why the Blackfeet are hostile, and bright 

 spots in their character. — Mild weather, — Leave for the Platte. — Journey to the 

 Yampah, and sketch of the intermediate country. — New Park. — Head of Grand 

 river. — The landscape. — DifTerent routes to Fort Lancaster. — Old Park. 



Perhaps no country is possessed of greater manufacturing facilities 

 than Oregon. Its numberless watercourses, with their frequent falls and 

 rapids, upon every side, point out the sites for mills and factories, while 

 the adjoining forests and hills produce the timber for their construction, 

 and the metal for their machinery ; and the plains and valleys, the food for 

 their operatives, and raw materials for their fabrics. The ships of all na- 

 tions await as their carriers, and render accessible the best markets of the 

 world. 



A large portion of the sterile and otherwise valueless lands of the terri- 

 tory might be turned to good account in the growth of wool, and the valleys 

 and bottoms would easily yield exhaustless supplies of flax and hemp. The 

 southwest displays her cotton fields, and the plains and bids hold out their 

 rich stores of timber and minerals ; the busy operatives and thrice elTec- 

 tive machinery of the flourishing establishments, as yet scarcely hidden 

 from view by the thin veil of futurity, would achieve the transformation of 

 these varied products into broadcloths, linens, calicoes, and other auxiUa- 

 ries of comfort and utility ; while California, wdth the other provinces of 

 Mexico, the western Republics of South America, the islands of the Paci- 

 fic, the Northwestern Coast, and the numerous Indian tribes of the interior, 

 impatient to gaze upon the evidences of creative skill, even now stand their 

 willing purchasers. 



With such advantages before her, who might not augur well for the fu- 

 ture pre-eminence of Oregon. 



But, in other respects, the prospect is still more flattering. Her exten- 

 sive plains, valleys, and bottoms, need no long lapse of time to transform, 

 them into smiling fields ; her prairies and hills will then become thronged 

 with countless herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, and the beef, pork, and 

 wool of the stock-grower, the butter and cheese of the dairyman, with all 

 the surplus of the farmer, will find an inviting market at the populous 

 manufacturing towns and commercial cities that will have sprung up close 

 around him, nor need he look elsewhere for a more lucrative disposal. 



An interchange of commodities with China, Japan, South America, the 

 East Indies, and the Polynesian and Australian islands, will pour the 

 wealth of nations into her lap, and swell the opulence of her citizens. 



A continuous rail-road, from the Mississippi and the great lakes across 



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