Leaving the river for the railroad, we journey up to Roseburg, the capital of Douglas County, and the southern terminus of the Oregon and California line. No town can be more prettily placed, really at the head of the great valley country, with the vast mountain-forms behind frowning on the traveler who dares attempt to thread their passes. As I have said, the Douglas County people trust to get a railroad outlet from Roseburg down to Coos. I hope they will succeed, and so open to ocean-transit the productions of a vast and fertile country.
Turning north again as far as Corvallis, we may there take the West-side Railroad and journey along the western side of the Willamette Valley and River.
The towns of Independence, Dallas, Sheridan, Amity, Lafayette, McMinnville, Forest Grove, and Hillsboro' lie in the district between Corvallis and Portland. Each and all are thriving, but I can do no more than mention them, though I fear so short a reference will be considered scant courtesy to the active, pushing people who are laboring with such success at the development of Polk, Yam Hill, and Washington Counties. The land is almost uniformly good; large quantities are being yearly grubbed and put under the plow, and several of my recently arrived English friends prefer the undulating land and gentle slopes of this side of the valley to any other part of Oregon, and have proved their preference by their actions. Land in these counties varies from ten to twenty-five dollars an acre in price.
COUNTIES: POPULATION, ETC.I think I will close this somewhat tedious chapter by setting out the counties of Oregon, their population, and the statement of their taxable property, furnished by the Secretary of State:
| COUNTIES. | Population. |
Taxable property of 1880. |
| Baker | 4,615 | $931,139 |
| Benton | 6,403 | 1,766,282 |
| Clackamas | 9,260 | 1,886,916 |
| Clatsop | 7,222 | 1,136,099 |
| Columbia | 2,042 | 305,283 |
| Coos | 4,834 | 832,335 |
| Curry | 1,208 | 219,333 |
| Douglas | 9,596 | 2,248,985 |
| Grant | 4,303 | 1,088,097 |
| Jackson | 8,154 | 1,449,623 |
| Josephine | 2,485 | 253,594 |
| Lake | 2,804 | 708,517 |
| Lane | 9,411 | 3,078,756 |
| Linn | 12,675 | 4,334,479 |
| Marion | 14,576 | 3,983,170 |
| Multnomah | 25,204 | 11,511,058 |
| Polk | 6,601 | 1,751,211 |
| Tillamook | 970 | 92,912 |
| Umatilla | 9,607 | 2,094,723 |
| Union | 6,650 | 1,265,603 |
| Wasco | 11,120 | 2,870,645 |
| Washington | 7,082 | 2,137,630 |
| Yam Hill | 7,945 | 2,547,833 |
| Total of the State | 174,767 | $48,494,223 |
| Increase over 1879 | —— | 2,071,406 |
The proportion of taxable property held by each man, woman, and child in Oregon is therefore $277.47.
The population of the valley counties, properly so called, is 83,549—this leaves Portland and Multnomah County entirely out. The taxable property of these valley counties is $23,735,262.
The population of the whole of Eastern Oregon east of the Cascades is but 39,099. The value of its taxable property is only $8,958,724.
The population of that part of Eastern and Northeastern Oregon which is in any sense tributary to the Columbia or Snake Rivers is 28,180. The value of their taxable property is $6,256,547.
The average taxable property of the population of the valley counties is $282.68; that of the population of Eastern Oregon, $228.96.