groves of tall trees. Other groves of firs and oaks relieve the level monotony of the landscape for a couple of miles away to the north and east; while the hills across Mill Creek are wooded like parks, with a variety of trees. Across the Wallamet, and fronting the town, is a range of high land called the "Polk County Hills," which makes the greatest charm of the whole view of Salem. In outline and coloring, these hills are poetically beautiful. The town is placed in a setting of the Polk County Hills to the west, the "Waldo Hills" (another arable range) to the southeast, the Blue Cascade Range with its overtopping snow-peaks to the northeast, groves of fine, large oaks and firs breaking the middle distance; while immediately about us are level farms and fields of waving grain, with a substantial farm-house, here and there, in their midst.
The residence part of Salem is comfortably built, with an air of stability and propriety about it. The streets are wide, the lots large, and the dwellings neat, often handsome, with well-kept gardens attached. Shade-trees—locust and maple—line the broad avenues, and the public square is of liberal proportions, promising "lungs" to the city, should it grow large enough to need this breathing-space in its midst. The business-houses are handsome and commodious, and the public edifices are numerous and costly. The city has about twelve thousand inhabitants.
Salem is the county-seat of Marion County, as well as the capital of the State. By the constitution of Oregon the State buildings are all located at the capital. The county court-house, which occupies a square, was erected at a cost of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The State-house, not yet entirely finished, has cost so far seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The State insane asylum is a magnificent structure, with accommodations for one thousand patients. The State penitentiary, school for deaf and mute children, school for the blind, and State Reform School are all worthy of this commonwealth.
The Willamette University, the outgrowth of the Oregon Institute, is a prosperous sectarian school, with an average attendance of three hundred of both sexes. The Catholics also have a school for young ladies at this place. The public high-school is a fine building, and the thirteen churches of dif-
