Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/232

226 its shores. Newport, the principal one, is located on the north side of the bay, on the site of an old Indian town—the site being marked by the holes in the ground where stood the ancient wigwams, and by piles of oyster-shells, showing how the tenants of these primitive dwellings lived. At the head of the bay is Elk City, the terminus of the Corvallis wagon-road, which passes through a low gap in the mountains formed by the valleys of two streams, one entering Yaquina Bay and the other the Wallamet River. On the Newport Hills, on the north side of the bay, is a third-class light; and on Cape Foulweather, still farther north, a light of the first class. On the south beach is a strip of sandy plains, covered with a scattering growth of pines, which are singularly dwarfed, bearing cones when not more than two feet high.

The Siletz River is a large and rapid stream, with a valley of considerable extent, in which is an Indian Reservation. It is principally timbered land, with a soil of black muck. The tribes gathered on the reservation are remnants of nearly all the tribes of Western Oregon, from the Columbia to the southern boundary of the State. They are tolerably well taught in agriculture, and seem desirous of attaining to a higher civilization. Tillamook Bay, like Yaquina Bay, is the outlet of a river of the same name. It is a good harbor, with sufficient depth of water on the bar for the passage of light-draught vessels. Tillamook County, in which this bay is situated, extends from Benton County on the south, to Clatsop County on the north; and has five small rivers, flowing from the mountains to the sea. Its population is only about four hundred; and its business is confined principally to lumbering and fishing. It has two saw-mills and two grist-mills.