OCR Text |
Show 64 ~Votes By the Way. -- ing the tearns aud taking them through for, and we took passage once more for to their final destination. The time Portland. from the 13th to the 22d, to us, a stran-ger in a strange land, passed wearily; SuNDAY, Oc·r. 26 :-As a boat was to but the change fro1n the dull 1nonotony be to-day despatched to take its place of life on the plains, into the busy vv birl on the line runing to the 1nouth of the of city life and busiuess, had son1cthing Colu1nbia, we were fortunate enough of an enlivening effect. Portland is to engage passage to Monticello ; so growing rapidly, and as we have before our second visit to this place was a said of it, is at present the principal short, not to say a satisfactory one.business place where centers the trade We bid adieu to Portland and started of the new mining regions. It is about down the Willa1nette 1·iver. The day one hundred miles fron1 the ocean, but was beautiful and the river as smooth large vessels and stea1ners gain access as a mirror reflected back every object to it for n1ost of the year, although at floating on its surface. Unlike a quartimes navigation is nnpeded by sand- ter of a century ago this river now bars while the river is at its low stages. hear~ other sounds than those of its own After re1naining in this place several dash1ngs and the dip of the native's days we _took an overland trip to Van- p~ddle: Ten miles. from Portland it couver, in Washington Territory, to in- JOins 1ts waters with the Columbia, tercept at that place the passengers ex- which is here nearly two n1iles wide, pected down the river. 'The two places ~nd except when agitated by the wind are but six miles apart, but to get from Is as placid as the .bosom of a lake, ~.ith one to the other, two rivers and what scarcely a perceptible current, but rising is known as Columbia slough are to be and falling regularly with the tides of crossed. the Pacific. The natural advantages Vancouver To the east the Cascades rear their possesses as a harbor are superior to snow capped summits, and Mt. Hood, as Portland, as without difficulty vessels if to prop the skies towers its craggy of the largest tonnage can land here.- peak upward to the heighth of two and The place is admirably situated on the one half n1iles. To the north Mt. St. river, and aside frorn being advanta- Helens, as regular in form as though geous in that respect is a point of mili- it had been c~iseled out of a bank of itary importance, and a fort bas been snow pierces the clouds, and from its established here by the military author- singular but beautiful proportions we ities. The circumstances which con- turn our gaze still farther north to Mt. troll the founding and building of cities Ranier and other peaks, as they stand sustain us in saying that when, as this in their snowy canopy as silent manucountry beco11D.es 1nore settled and in- ments of earths convultions. The day, habited, and a point is sought contain- the clear blue sky above, the scenery ing all that is requisite and required for around makes the view beautifulsuch an enterprise, Vancouver will not magnificent-aln1ost enchanting. The be underestimated, overlookcrl nor for- farms that are taken up along the river gotten. The weather was delightful, and the settlements that occasionally and we enjoyed a week's sojourn at this appear add to its attractions, and no place u?tll on S~tur~ay evening the doubt to the eye of the older Indians boat arnv~d, beanng Its usual load of contrast strangely with the scenes of human freight and s~ock; . among t~em their infancy. As evening approached were those we had Impatiently wa1ted we reached the mouth of the Cowlitz Not~ By the Way. {)5 river, up which we ascended two miles stumps, and in so1ne places logs lying to Monticello. What the future of this entirely across it. " Night drew her place is to be vve know not; now there ~able cu::tain ~?wn" while we were yet is but little more of it than a name, and 1n the rrndst of 1t. The n1oon struggled is a poor remen1 brancer of the borne to be an aid to us, but the forest w~s and final resting place of the sage vvhose so dense and the trees so tall, that 1t it memory was thought to perpetuate. could not penetrate and was of no ser- . vice, leaving everything fairly black ; OcT. 29 :-At the above 1nent1oned we arouped our way a1on<r in darkness place we fou~1~ it necessary from the kno~ing we were keepingbthe road only reduced condition of the tcmns, to de- by the rnud-holes which could not be lay two days for t4em to recruit. Fr?1n avoided. here we forsake the n1ode of traveling If atten1pting to describe things as on the watery element th~t we have they are is a crime, we will certainly learned to revere, a!1d again resor~ to be considered a very great criminal by the slow coach of anunal transportation. sayin<r that this road seems to have been We push~d along .over the river.bott.oms locat~J and built in the worst possible and alluvial depos1ts of c~nt~ries, 1n a part of the country, with the especial style that would. seein t~ Indicate t~1at design of benefiting no one, but putting speed was no obJect, until on reaching them to the utmost inconvenience.tbe "Twelve nTiles house," the day The little ren1aining strength of the b~jng so far advanced we ~alted for the teams vvas sadly taxed in this place. night. Thus far has .our JOUrney ?een rrhe soil is no doubt good here, at least towards sun-set, w1tbout matenally it is deep, and so one of the anin1als lessening its distance. Now are our found it, as it became n1ired in the mud faces turned toward the polar regions, fro1n vvhich it bad to be assisted. Savwith the north star, the unalterable ing this we were spared accident, and 1nark in the Heavens our guide. drove up at 9 o'clock to the station OcT. 30 :-This morning the sky was known as Drew's. dark and gloomy, and it rained lightly. OcT. 31 :-A heavy frost last night As wo had vvhat is understood as" Cow- n1akes a keen air this morning, and litz mountain" to go over to-day, we leaves its impress visible on all the vegstarted on our way quite early to en- etable kingdom. Left the main road deavor to clear it before it rained suffi- this n1orning and took the old one, said cient to soften the road, as in no event to be the best. First passed through a does water assist in scaling a mountain. belt of woods which could not boast of But a few hours elapsed before the sky good roads either. From this we enbecame clear and the remainder of the tered Cowlitz prairie, a beautiful and day was pleasant. The road was very fertile expanse. It has heretofore been hilly and as rough as primitive chaos.- occupied by the Puget Sound AgricultuThere is no scarcity of tin1ber here, ral Company, an ofi:.shoot of the Hudbeing fir anJ cedar, with a few vine son's Bay Company, who leave a record and soft maple ; the two first grow that appears as though they had a setto an enormous size. All passed off tled purpose to oppose progress in every well until afternoon, when we found form. Their farms are hedged in by ourselves in a situation not at all en- superanuated rail fences-badly afflicted viable nor comfortable. For seven with old age. Their houses are rude oldmiles the road was remarkably well time specimens of log architecture, the 'lpplied with mud-holes axle deep, and 1 barns of the sa.me material, and all roof- |