THE RIVERS OF OREGON 



to fine advantage against its background of 

 evergreens. 



Of the fertility and beauty of the Willam- 

 ette all the world has heard. It lies between 

 the Cascade and Coast Ranges, and is bounded 

 on the south by the Calapooya Mountains, a 

 cross-spxu- that separates it from the valley of 

 the Umpqua. 



It was here the first settlements for agri- 

 culture were made and a provisional govern- 

 ment organized, while the settlers, isolated 

 in the far wilderness, numbered only a few 

 thousand and were laboring under the oppo- 

 sition of the British Government and the 

 Hudson's Bay Company. Eager desire in the 

 acquisition of territory on the part of these 

 pioneer state-builders was more truly bound- 

 less than the wilderness they were in, and their 

 imconscionable patriotism was equaled only 

 by their belligerence. For here, while nego- 

 tiations were pending for the location of the 

 northern boundary, originated the celebrated 

 "Fifty-fom: forty or fight," about as reasonable 

 a war-cry as the "North Pole or fight." Yet 

 sad was the day that brought the news of the 

 signing of the treaty fixing their boundary 

 along the forty-ninth parallel, thus leaving 

 the little land-hungry settlement only a mere 

 quarter-million of miles! 



343 



