THE IDAHO BOUNDARY.Eastward again of Stein's Mountains you strike the head-waters of the Owyhee, an important tributary of the Snake, and at once recur the common features of fertility and consequent settlement. And thus the Idaho boundary is reached.
CHAPTER XXII.
The towns—Approach to Oregon—The steamers—The Columbia entrance— Astoria—Its situation, industries, development—Salmon—Shipping— Loading and discharging cargo—Up the Columbia and Willamette to Portland—Portland, West and East—Population—Public buildings— United States District Court—The judge—Public Library—The Bishop schools—Hospital—Churches—Stores—Chinese quarter—Banks— Industries—The city's prosperity—Its causes—Its probable future —The Oregon Railway and Navigation Company—Shipping abuses and exactions—Railroad termini—Up the Columbia—The Dalles—Up the Willamette—Oregon City, its history—The falls—Salem—Its position and development—Capitol buildings—Flour-mills—Oil-mills —Buena Vista potteries—Albany—Its water-power—Flour-mills—Values of land—Corvallis—The line of the Oregon Pacific Railroad—Eugene, its university and professors—Roseburg—The West-side Railroad to Portland—Development of the country—Prosperity—Counties of Oregon —Their population—Taxable property—Average possessions—In the Willamette Valley—In Eastern Oregon—In Eastern Oregon tributary to Columbia and Snake Rivers.
Having said so much about the country, something needs to be said about the towns. All persons reaching Oregon, save those few who choose to face the three nights and two days of staging that divide Redding (the northern terminus of the California and Oregon Railroad) from Roseburg (the southern terminus of the Oregon and California Railroad), enter Oregon by ship from San Francisco. And here, in passing, a word of praise for the really beautiful and commodious steamers which have now replaced the Ajax and the other monsters which disgraced the traffic they were furnished for, as well as their owners. No better boats ply on any waters than the State of California, the Columbia, and the Oregon. The first two are new ships, with electric lights, and all other appliances to match. All are safe and speedy. The State of California belongs to the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, the others to the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company.
The approach to Oregon is forbidding and stern. There is nothing attractive in the sandy coast, in the muddy water, in the broken but not romantic scenery, where the water is encroaching on the land, and shifting its position and attack from time to time. Here and there along the edge are strewed, or stand in various attitudes of death, the skeletons of the pine-trees, which look like the relics of battle, the perishing remains of the beaten defenders of the coast; and, once over the bar, that terror to sea-worn travelers, the approach to Astoria can hardly be called beautiful.
ASTORIA.But the city of Astoria itself has claims to beauty of position. It lies within the course of the Columbia; though here the estuary is so wide as to give the idea of a lake. Jutting out into the bay above the town rises a little promontory, crowned with firs; and between the eye rests on the unfamiliar outlines of a large cannery, the buildings of gray wood, based on piles sunk into the mud of the bay, and the long, shingled roofs catching the rays of the departing sun.
The city consists of a mass of wooden structures low down by the water's edge—wharves and docks and repairing-yards in front, and a long line of stores and saloons and business-houses behind, broken by the more imposing custom-house, post-office, and churches. On the slopes of the high hills rising from near the water's edge are the scattered white houses of the inhabitants, while the sky-line of the hills is broken through by the cutting by which many tons of stone and sand are being piled into the bay. The city proper mainly stands on piles, the water gurgling and lapping round the barnacles, which cluster thick; the enterprise of the people is fast filling in underneath from the hills behind.
There are large and substantial docks of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company and others adjoining, where are generally lying two or three large ships or barks, going out or returning from their long and weary voyage.
The atmosphere of the place in the salmon-season is fishy, huge stacks of boxed salmon filling the wharves. The principal street is fringed with saloons, mainly looking for custom to the fishermen and seamen.