CHAPTER I. 
A Reminiscence — A Spectacle—Oregon—Landward and Seaward— The 
Great South Sea—Magic Palace—Taking in Studding-sails—Caverns— 
Storm in Full Blast—Professor of Psalmody—Fur Hunter— A British 
Tar—An Author—A Seaboat—A Corkscrew—A Flagon— A Conversa¬ 
tion about Life in the Northwest—Its Dogs—Logs—Food—Surface— 
Lords of the North—Frozen Mountains—Moss—Flowers—Potatoes, 
Oats and Barley—Indian Wives and Sheep—The Arctic Shore—Suicide 
of a Brave Man—A Solo—Eel Pond—Ghost in the Shrouds—Tumult in 
Upper and Lower Ocean—Minor Key—War-cry—Special Pleading— 
The Sea—Wine and Song—To Bed. 
In a work entitled “Tray elsin the Great Western Prairies,” 
&c., to which the following pages are a sequel, I left my 
readers off the mouth of Columbia river, in sight of the 
green coast of Oregon. Lower Oregon ! A verdant belt of 
wild loveliness !—A great park of flowering shrubs, of forest 
pines, and clear streams ! The old unchanged home of the 
Indian; where he has hunted the moose and deer; drawn 
the trout from the lake, and danced, sung, loved, and war- 
red away a thousand generations. I cannot desire for my¬ 
self any remembrances of the Past which shall bring me more 
genuine wealth of pleasurable emotions than those which 
came to me from that fourth sunset of December, 1840, when 
I was leaning over the bulwarks of the ship Vancouver, 
looking back on Oregon,and seaward over the great Pacific! 
A spectacle of true grandeur ! The cones of eternal snow 
which dot the green heights of the President's range of 
mountains, rose on the dark outline of the distant land, and 
