Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/158

 146 REVEREND EZRA FISHER bays and harbors every sixty miles and sometimes more contig- uous, and more than fifteen degrees of longitude, making an area somewhat more than 364,000 square miles. 300 After de- ducting one-third for waste land, we have then a territory large enough for five states as large as New York or 32 as large as Massachusetts. It has formerly been supposed that the Willamette Valley comprised almost all the desirable re- sources of Oregon which were attractive to the immigrant seeking a home for himself and family west of the Rocky Mountains. But instead of this being the fact, it is becoming a matter of doubt by our best informed:, practical men whether this valley will even hold the first place in point of importance with various divisions now being occupied by the enterprise and daring of the hardy, adventurous pioneers of the Pacific Coast. This valley, however, from the extreme south, where the prai- ries begin to open out along the principal streams and their tributaries, to the junction of the main river with the Columbia, is about 170 miles [in length] and varies in breadth from 20 to 65 miles ; and even far beyond this, up the sides of the moun- tains, large bodies of arable lands are found which would be sought with great eagerness, if they lay unoccupied in the Green Mountains, with the mildness of this climate and fertil- ity of its soil. Aside from this, the inexhaustible water power and the unexplored mineral resources of its mountains and its agricultural capabilities equal, if not exceed, that of the same number of square miles of the most productive parts of Illi- nois or Missouri. Leaving this valley, the traveler passes over a transverse ridge of mountains eight miles and enters the Umpqua Valley. It is said that a pass has been discovered, but one or two miles east of the road, sufficiently level to lay a railroad track without grading. 301 The Umpqua Valley is about 75 miles from north to south and from 15 to 40 from east to west and forms a succession of high hills covered with grass and scattering oaks, and valleys, ranging from a few rods 300 The Oregon of this time, of course, consisted of all the territory west of the Rocky Mountains between the parallels of latitude 42 and 49 degrees. The area is overstated. 301 This is the pass now followed by the Southern Pacific R. R.