Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/343

Rh made nearer the Columbia River, in Oregon, and similar ones on the northern side of the Columbia, in Washington. Lead has recently been discovered in Linn County, near the Santiam gold-mines; and it must be regarded as inevitable that the base of the Cascade Kange shall furnish in the future very considerable mineral interests.

The coal and iron of the Wallamet Valley, so far as yet discovered, is found at its northern end, either upon or within a few miles of the Columbia River. Limestone, which is very rare in Oregon, is found in Clackamas County, not many miles from Oregon City. Salt is found in Multnomah and Columbia counties, as also iron and coal. Black marble has been discovered in the mountains on the Washington side near the Lewis River, but has never been quarried. Some very good building-stone is also found in this locality.

Coal crops out frequently on both sides of the Columbia River, from the mouth of the Lower Wallamet to the sea. In the Valley of the Cowlitz there is an extensive deposit, of a good quality for fuel. Its steaming or gas-making qualities have never been tested. In appearance it resembles the Scotch cannel coal, burning freely when lighted at a candle, or in the open air. It has, notwithstanding, a woody structure, which places it among the lignites; and checks badly on exposure to the air. It has not, however, been worked sufficiently to afford a determinate judgment upon its commercial value.

Near the mouth of the Columbia, on the Washington side, at Knappton, is a cement factory. The scarcity of limestone on the north-west coast, and the cost of importing lime and cement from California, caused an enterprising firm of Portland to attempt the