of meadow-larks; and see a few prairie-hens stooping their long necks shyly among the bunch-grass; or see a herd of cattle fattening on the dry but nutritious bunch-grass.
Thirty-one miles above The Dalles we pass the mouth of John Day River, named after luckless John Day of the Astor expedition,—a stream in all respects similar to Des Chutes, with the same narrow valley, and the same depth below the general level of the country. On the head-waters of John Day River placer-mining was successfully carried on from 1862 for several years, and has since been followed by quartz-mining.
The high bluffs intervening between the Columbia and the interior country quite conceal any appearances of settlement, and leave upon the mind the impression of an altogether uninhabited country,—an impression quite erroneous in fact, though there are thousands of square miles still vacant.
Willow Creek is a small stream, coming into the Columbia thirty-three miles above John Day River, with a small, fertile valley well settled up. After an interval of another thirty-three miles, we find ourselves at Umatilla, a small town set in the sands at the mouth of the river of that name. It served formerly as a port to the mines of Powder River and the Boise country. Here the steamers of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company disembarked passengers and freight; and stages, "prairie schooners," and pack-trains took up their burdens.
The Umatilla River, on account of its valley, is one of the most important streams of East Oregon. The Umatilla Talley, together with the bottom-lands of several tributary creeks, furnishes a fine tract of rich, alluvial land, having a high reputation for its agricultural capacity. About seven thousand acres, nearly all bottom-land, are under cultivation in Umatilla County, the whole area of which is over forty-seven thousand square miles.
All the way from the Cascade Mountains to Umatilla—a hundred miles, more or less—we have found the rivers all coming into the Columbia from the south side. Rising in the Blue Mountains, which traverse the eastern half of Oregon from northeast to southwest, they flow in nearly direct courses to the Columbia, showing thereby the greater elevation of the central portion of East Oregon over the valley of the Columbia. Not
