THE RIVERS OF OREGON 



drain laxge and fertile and beautiful valleys. 

 Rogue River Valley is peculiarly attractive. 

 With a fine climate, and kindly, productive 

 soU, the scenery is delightful. About the main, 

 central open portion of the basin, dotted with 

 picturesque groves of oak, there are many 

 smaller valleys charmingly environed, the 

 whole surrounded in the distance by the Sis- 

 kiyou, Coast, Umpqua, and Cascade Moun- 

 tains. Besides the cereals nearly every sort of 

 fruit floin-ishes here, and large areas are being 

 devoted to peach, apricot, nectarine, and vine 

 cultm-e. To me it seems above all others the 

 garden vaUey of Oregon and the most delight- 

 ful place for a home. On the eastern rim of 

 the valley, in the Cascade Mountains, about 

 sixty miles from Medford ia a direct line, is 

 the remarkable Crater Lake, usually regarded 

 as the one grand wonder of the region. It lies 

 in a deep, sheer-walled basin about seven thou- 

 sand feet above the level of the sea, supposed 

 to be the crater of an extinct volcano. 



Oregon as it is to-day is a very young coim- 

 try, though most of it seems old. Contem- 

 plating the Colimibia sweeping from forest to 

 forest, across plain and desert, one is led to 

 say of it, as did Byron of the ocean, — 



"Such as Creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now." 

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