470 APPENDIX. 
near the mountains, covered with a rich sandy loam along the 
banks of the streams, In the valleys of the Umpqua and Rogue 
Rivers, about forty miles from the ocean, there are tracts of 
similar soil, each about forty miles long by twenty wide, speak- 
ing in general terms. These rivers, when approaching the Pa- 
cific, run through steep mountains covered with timber so dense 
that cultivation is not now thought of. The low land along 
the banks of the Columbia is so narrow that it scarcely de- 
serves to be taken into consideration in an examination of 
the agricultural district of Oregon. Fall River has a large 
basin, but the most of the soil is rocky and desert-like, the 
elevation high above the sea, the climate dry and cold. 
There is some good soil in the valleys of the Umatilla, 
Grande Ronde River, and Burnt River. South of the val- 
ley of Fall River lies part of the great basin, which sends 
no water to the sea, but swallows up all its own streams. 
Several such streams sink into the sands within the limits of 
Oregon. The soil is barren and verdureless—The geological 
character of Oregon is marked by the predominance of 
tertiary sandstone in the west, granate in the Cascade Moun- 
tains, and trap and other eruptive rocks in the east part of 
the State. The valley of the Willamette has a deep diluvium 
strongly resembling that on the shores of Puget Sound and 
in the Sacramento basin, and the resemblance suggests the 
idea that these valleys are of the same origin and were once 
connected together, though now separated by the Siskiyou, 
Umpqua, Calapooya, and Cowlitz Mountains. In the Cascade 
Mountains, besides the granite, are found trap, serpentine, por- 
phyry, slate, quartz, and lava, the latter evidently poured out 
by the great volcanoes which now stand as silent snow-peaks. 
Gold has heen found in quantities sufficient to reward miners 
for their work in the valley of Rogue River and on the ocean 
beach from the south boundary to near the Umpqua River. It 
has also been found in many other places east and west of 
the Cascade Mountains, but not in diggings that would pay. It 
is rumored that valuable silver mines have been discovered in 
