Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/215

OREGON'S FIRST RAILWAY 191 records of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, the more important of which have been preserved. From them it is found that of the $20 per ton (usually deter- mined by measurement rather than weight, forty cubic feet being reckoned as one ton) which was the freight rate in either direction between Portland and The Dalles at the beginning of the Navigation Company's history, the owners of the portage railroads received $5, or one- fourth, for transporting freight shipments between the middle and upper landings, about two and one-half miles. The Washington portage was carrying all the business at this time, and Bradford & Company were allowed the full sum of $5 per ton out of the through rate in May and June, 1860. Commencing with the month of July, how- ever, the portage share of the receipts was divided, under an agreement 27 between Bradford & Co., and Ruckel and Olmstead, five- twelfths to the latter and seven-twelfths to the interests represented by the former. This arrange- ment was probably a compromise, and its basis is a matter for conjecture. It does not appear how the cost of oper- ating and maintaining the portage was apportioned, but it may be supposed that this was also divided in the pro- portions of five-twelfths and seven-twelfths between the two interests. The tonnage moved over the portage during the first year of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company was re- ported by the Secretary of the Company to the portage owners as follows: May, 1860 843 tons Nov., 1860 361 tons June 480 July 467 August 462 Setpember 486 October 661 December 289 January, 1861....133 February 379 March 133 April 620 27 Letter Geo. W . Murray, secretary, O. S. N. Co., to Bradford &*Co., August 12, 1860 . mn