Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 4.djvu/229

Rh with farmhouses and barns in good keeping with the character of its progress; grist and sawmills erected to supply the wants of its inhabitants, and with inexhaustible forests of timber. Gold mining is here carried on with much success; and it was interesting to see the lines of sluice boxes running through the streets of Jacksonville that turned out as pretty gold as any mine on the coast. Unfortunately for this fine valley, it has no outlet for its produce, and is dependent solely on a home market. Its supplies are brought in by the way of Crescent City, by a good wagon road, at a cost of four to five cents per pound. Oats here are 40 cents a bushel; wheat, 70 to 90 cents; lumber, $15 per thousand; labor from $30 to $40 per month. We observed, in squads, the ubiquitous Chinaman, moving from mining locality to mining locality, fleeing from the kicks of one to the cuffs of the other, with no fixed abiding place to be called his permanent home.

A location for a railroad line from Portland to Jacksonville is eminently practicable, and the citizens of the Willamette will be blind to their own interests if they do not so move in the matter so as to secure to themselves the advantages of the ample provisions made in the Pacific Railroad Bill for a connection between Portland and Sacramento; but south from Jacksonville there will be a severe problem for the engineers to solve, both in the shape of grades and tunnels. The Calapooia range will present an easy problem for solution; but the Scott's [Siskiyou?] and Trinity mountains will not be easily handled. They are high, broad, and broken, and no railroad line can be laid across or through them, except at most enormous cost. But that it is practicable, and will in time be built, I have no doubt. But my views relative to this location as a branch of the Pacific Railroad have been more than confirmed by a detailed view of its geography, and I