Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/49

CHAPTER THREE

DESCRIPTION OF WESTERN OREGON.

Willamette Falls, Mills, &c.—Description of the Willamette Valley–Head of the Willamette River—Calapooiah Mountains—Umpqua Valley–Umpqua Mountains—Valley of Rogue's River—Clamuth or Chesty Valley–Description of Country North of the Columbia–Mount St. Helens, an active Volcano–Numerous low Islands in the Columbia River–Astoria or Fort George—Indians West of the Cascade Mountains—their method of catching Salmon—Government organized–Peopling of America and Pacific Islands–Scenery in Oregon.

Great improvements were made in the little Town, at the Falls of the Willamette, during our stay in the Country. There was, at the Falls, when we left iſ a Saw and Grist Mill on one of the Rock Islands, belonging to an American Company, styled the Orgon Milling Company, and on the main shore, two Saw Mills and a large Merchant Flouring Mill, belonging to Dr. McLaughlin, four Dry ºf Goods Stores, a School House, two Churches, a º Public Library, a flourishing Literary Society, | Law office, Physicians, Shops, and Mechanics, of almost every description, and population of about three hundred persons.

At the Falls, the Willammette precipitates down a perpendicular basaltic rock, thirty-three feet, and spreads out as it approaches the precipice, into a broad sheet, at the verge of which it is nearly a half a mile wide. It is divided by two large Islands of rock, into three different shoots. The whole descent of the water from the level surface above, to that below, is about forty-five feet. The River for some distance above and below the Falls, runs through a channel cut in the solid rock. On the East side, extending down from the Falls several hundred yards, and back from the water five hundred and fifty feet high; further down, the space between the hills and the River, increases in width, until there is sufficient room for a town of considerable size.

The Valley of the Willamette, which has generally been considered the best portion of Oregon, is situated on the South side of the Columbia

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