Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/70

64 some make their disadvantages to appear greater than they really are. These different descriptions have not always been given to mislead; but are frequently the offspring of the differing judgment of those who have written. Some will probably farm opinions from our statements, and some may be induced to visit or emigrate to those distant Western shores; and if such should be the case, they may be disappointed in their expectations and find countries widely differing from the pictures they had drawn. It is difficult to form a correct idea of a country from any description that can be given. Men are apt to expect too much—to draw their pictures too fair; they look to those wild and distant regions for something surpassing nature, and they are disappointed. The world contains now no Garden of Eden. There is no particular portion of the habitable globe that possesses advantages greatly superior to the rest. If one has a better climate, the other has a better soil; if one has a better commercial situation, the other has some counterbalancing advantage, sufficient to make them nearly or quite equal.

The route to California, the description of that country, and the return from it to Fort Hall, are from the notes of Wm. H. Winter.