Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/353

Rh course of the river was such that a practicable communication could be obtained between it and the Umpqua through Smith River, a northern branch of the Siuslaw. The exploration was conducted by N. Schofield. The object of the opening of the proposed route was to make a road from the Willamette Valley to the Umpqua, over which the products of the valley might be brought to Scottsburg, at the same time avoiding the most difficult portion of the mountains. But nature had interposed so many obstacles; the streams were so rapid and rocky; the mountains so rough and heavily timbered; the valleys, though rich, so narrow, and filled with tangled growths of tough vine-maple and other shrubby trees, that any road from the coast to the interior could not but be costly to build and keep in repair. The Siuslaw exploration, therefore, resulted in nothing more beneficial than the acquisition of additional knowledge of the resources of the country in timber, water-power, and soil, all of which were excellent in the valley of the Siuslaw.

Other explorations were at the same time being carried on. A trail was opened across the mountains from Rogue River Valley to Crescent City, which competed with the Scottsburg road for the business of the interior, and became the route used by the government troops in getting from the seaboard to Fort Lane. Gold-hunting was at the same time prosecuted in every part of the territory with varying success, of which I shall speak in another place.