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178 



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THE ILLIISTOIS FA: 



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his profession when holding the plow. 

 He was a thinking man, and no better 

 conductor could be found from the earth 

 to the space above them, this most an- 

 cient and useful of all implements, — the 

 composure of the fields, and his own con- 

 templative mind. 



We saw a representation of the comet, 

 its relations to the earth and the sun pro- 

 jected by an unlettered farmer, who had 

 mused over tlie beautiful science of as- 

 tronomy until he had mastered the way- 

 ward progress of this celestial visitant, 

 and with animated features, would ex- 

 plain with mathematical precision its 

 probable course and destiny through the 

 spaces. The kind of thought and inves- 

 tigation here cited, lift us out of our more 

 prosy money making life and make us 

 better men. That the present civiliza- 

 tion and knowledge are adding new poAv- 

 ers to gain, new conquests to business, 

 new lands and new territories, precipita- 

 ting us upon luxuries and efieminacics 

 that have hitherto destroyed the greatest 

 nations, should admonish us to cultivate 

 something besides mere worldly interests, 

 sordid selfish purposes that lead by in- 

 evitable necessity to sensual gratification 

 and ultimate decay. That the influence 

 of Christianity on progress has not been 

 what it should be, is a misfortune. 

 Through the middle ages it was a cor- 

 ruption. Since then theology and doc- 

 trine have occupied it- attention, we have 

 had little of its goodness, little of the 

 'sermon on the mount,' the Parables, the 

 Precept, little of the example and spirit 

 of it' founder. These should form the 

 bond of Christian union and belief in the 

 world, and then human progress would 

 be accelerated and succeed beyond all 

 peradventure. 



It is not known how intelligence and 

 knowledge, science and philosophy stand 

 related to moral progress. The intel- 

 lectual men of France at the close of the 

 last century were infidels; but they had 

 adopted the wild theories of Des Cartes 

 on the Universe; their government had 

 abandoned the Supreme Being and ac- 

 cepted unassisted reason and the vaga- 

 ries of chance for their guidance; and it 

 is little to be wondered at if they and the 

 nation Avere affected by such untoward 

 circumstances. Buffon, the naturalist, 

 was one of them, and he hesitated not to 

 advance any thing however improbable, 

 on the subject of natural history that 

 would excite the wonder or tickle the 

 fancy of his volatile reader or listener. 

 Cuvier, greater and better than any of 

 them, that followed the sober induction 

 of Bacon and Newton, who could from 

 the fragment of a bone reconstruct the 

 entire animal, whether of Saurian or later 

 period, was taught by his mother the 

 truths of Kevelation, and never advanced 

 one step beyond what facts could estab- 



lish in his great study of comparative 

 anatomy. 



If we begin right, reason from estab- 

 lished data, we may rest assured that 

 science and philosophy will go hand in 

 hand with revelation in all true progress. 

 Hume and Gibbon, the great historians 

 of England, were skeptics, but the for- 

 mer believed in the divine right of tyrants, 

 was a disciple of the Stuarts, saw his- 

 tory through a false medium. How 

 could he do other than mistrust the mira- 

 cles of the Scriptures and the fabric of 

 revelation? Of Gibbon we know less, 

 but his ponderous volume is said to be a 

 covert attack upon Christianity wherever 

 he supposed it to be vulnerable. His 

 cold nature delighted in the fame which 

 such recreancy, supported by genius and 

 clothed in all the affluence of learning, 

 would bring him. It is but justice to 

 some of this class of men to say tliat their 

 skepticism was often more intellectual 

 than moral; and here a question may arise 

 that will add strength to the view that 

 science and learning are mainly enlisted 

 with true progress. We should say then 

 that the physical agencies, especially in 

 their higher manifestations, education 

 and knowledge, mechanical power, do 

 favor man's improvement: but they do it, 

 in their present great impetus, through 

 much radicalism, throufirh the unsetlino; 

 of old institutions, the uprooting of time 

 honored conservatism, but out of chaos 

 comes light. B. 



~*—^ 



Wasliingtoii Territory. 



Description of the Countrij — Natives — Af/ricul" 

 iural Advantages — Markets, dx., (t'c. 



Gray's Harbor, Sept. 20, 1858. 



Editor of the Farmer : — I write you 

 from what you might say the ends of the 

 earth. I do not feel it to be so. But 

 this letter is penned near the mouth of 

 of Chehalis River on Gray's Harbor, 

 Washington Territory. I have been 

 here three months on a contract for sur- 

 veying lands for the government. 



This section of Washington Territory 

 was known little of by the whites until 

 our party came here. It is true that 

 Captain Gray, one of the early Ameri- 

 can navigators of the North Pacific visi- 

 ted here in early times, but it was sim- 

 ply a visit, and for commercial purposes, 

 and he has not left upon record any des- 

 cription of the country. 



The harbor extends some twenty 

 miles inland from the Pacific, has a good 

 approachable mouth, but as it has never 

 been surveyed, it is not possible to state 

 the depth of its waters, though to all ap- 

 pearance it is one of the finest harbors 

 on the Pacific. 



The shores of tjje bay are generally 

 covered Avith large and fine timber — a 

 source of wealth and convenience to the 

 population for years to come. 



The waters are alive with fish of many 

 of the best varieties known to fishermen; 

 and oysters and clams are found in large 

 quantities and of excellent flavor in its 

 shoal waters. It is supposed that this is 

 the most northern point where the shell 

 fish are found in great abundance. 



In Shoal Water Bay, — a bay of very 

 large extent, — some thirty miles aouth 

 of this harbor, a great business is done 

 in gathering oysters and clams, bedding 

 them out, and afterwards taking them 

 up and selling them to coasting vessels, 

 who carry them to San Francisco and 

 other places on that bay and the rivers 

 which fall into it, for market. Some 

 $150,000 a year are taken by the fish- 

 ermen of Shoal Water Bay for the oys- 

 ters and clams gathered by them. 



The population of Shoal Water Bay 

 is mainly whites. There are but few 

 Indians left. The small pox a year or 

 two since passed through their villages 

 with desolating effects. Villages were 

 found, after the pestilence had passed 

 over them, without inhabitants, the dead 

 lying in the wigwams, rolled up in their 

 blankets as if they were asleep. 



The Chehalis river falls into the head 

 of Gray's Harbor at its eastern extremi- 

 ty. That river is susceptible of naviga- 

 tion for seventy miles. It is crossed on 

 the way from the Cowlitz river, to Olym- 

 pia, the seat of government for the ter- 

 ritory. You will recollect that the Cow- 

 litz river empties into the Columbia on 

 the north side, about sixty miles below 

 the mouth of the Willamette. The Cow- 

 litz is navigable for boats thirty miles, 

 and within ten miles of the navigable 

 waters of the Chehalis. These facts are 

 important in understanding the geogra- 

 phic and accessibility of this section of 

 the country. 



Years ago this country was full of na- 

 tives. Lewis and Clarke state that there 

 were thousands where there are now 

 scarcely tens; and it is only where they 

 were beyond the reach of the contamina- 

 ting influence of depraved whites, that 

 they have held their own numbers; and 

 even there diseases of civilized origin 

 are exhibiting their fatal influences. 

 Formerly upon this harbor and Shoal 

 Water B:iy, the natives were numerous 

 and had their trails through every part 

 of the country. There were trails from 

 the Willcpah river, (running into Shoal 

 Water Bay, ) through the mountains and 

 over the plains, to all the upper country. 

 These are now grown over and hardly to 

 be found. 



The remaining Indians anticipate 

 their destiny. They feel that they are 

 to bo swept from the earth, and they 

 regard their prospects with a sentiment 

 of stoicism. They are diseased; — they 

 raise no families; — they have no ambi- 

 tion; and glad, indeed, to find employ- 

 ment with whites, and to earn something 



