Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/270

 248 Leslie M. Scott about 24 miles S & S. S. W and encamped at the second fork from the Yamhill. The road for the first 16 miles lay through a fine uninterrupted [192] Plain of fine soil, with some swampy places, with better pasturage than we have hitherto met with. There is also a small lake. On each side of us there were ranges of moderately elevated hills, some of them with little wood, the others thinly cov- ered with oak, and here & there a patch of pine. Beyond these hills to the Eastward there are said to be other ranges of Plain country. Here we closed up pretty nearly with the mountains to the Westward, and crossed a small river the first from the Yamhill, when the road lay about 3 miles along a ridge of hills pretty well timbered with oak, & then along a marshy valley about 5 miles to the fork where we are encamped. The Plain which we left beyond the first fork con- tinues along the range of hills which run along East of the road. The river where we are camped is 10 or 12 yds wide. A fringe of woods runs along its banks, be- hind which a narrow plain extends towards the moun- tain on both sides, and also downwards. This river runs over a bottom of a rocky & gravelly nature, of a slatey [193] texture, but has steep clayey banks. The plains in places appear subject to be inundated in the rainy season. The first river which is a branch of this one runs over a gravelly bottom & the soil on its banks is for a short distance gravelly, which is the only place we have seen gravel since we started. June 1. Fine. Continued our route 7 hours, 24 miles. The first half of the way S. E. & then S. W. to the river at Sauvie [Laurie] where we camped. The road for the first 14 miles lay through a plain country for about 7 miles across a point to another fork which falls into the river we left in the morning & thence over low hills & across along plain 7 miles further to another creek. All the way there is fine soil, and the low grounds about the creeks superior pasture land and very extensive to the E.