EARLY HISTORY OF OREGON. 263 



CHAPTER XX. 



EARLY HISTORY OF OREGON. 



" Take the wings 

 Of morning, and the Barcan desert pierce, 

 Or lose thyself in the continuous woods 

 Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound 

 Save his own dashings." 



Northwestern America is divided from the other por- 

 tions of the Continent, by the Rocky Mountains, which extend 

 throughout its entire length, in a north-westerly direction, in 

 continuation of the Mexican Andes, to the shores of the 

 Arctic Ocean. Between this great chain of mountains and 

 the Pacific Ocean, a most ample territory extends, which may 

 be regarded as divided into three great districts. The most 

 southerly of these, of which the northern boundary line was 

 drawn along the parallel of 42°, by the Treaty of Washing- 

 ton, in 1819, belong to Mexico. The most northerly, com- 

 mencing at Behring's Straits, and of which the extreme 

 southern limit was fixed at the southernmost point of Prince 

 of Wales Island, in the parallel of 54° 40' north, by treaties 

 concluded between Russia and the United States of America, 

 in 1824, and between Russia and Great Britain, in 1825, 

 forms a part of the dominions of Russia ; whilst the interme- 

 diate country is not as yet under the sovereignty of any power. 



To this intermediate territory, different names have been 

 assigned. To the portion of the coast, between the parallel 



