Beyond the West: containing an account of two years' travel in the other half of our great continent far beyond the old West, on the plains, in the Rocky mountains, and picturesque parks of Colorado. Also, characteristic features of New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho ... Oregon, Utah, Nevada, and ... California, the end of the West ... the great continental railroad, together with the ... most wonderful natural scenery in the world .../ by George W. Pine.

WESTERN OREGON.
the falls, when it quickly comes together, rapidly in.
creases its momentum until in great haste it turns
back upon its self-forming turbulent eddies, until
driven forward it makes a last desperate plunge of
twenty-five feet into a maddened whirlpool. The
spray dashed up, fo)rms a beautiful rainbow, and also
cools the hot air of summer at Oregon City-on the
rocky bluff at this place.
This interrupted navigation of the river has been
mostly overcome by the Boat Company, and the
portage is easily made. The company excavated a
canal and basin along the east side, so that their
boats come so near together that the passengers atid
freight have only to cross the warehouse to be transferred. The whole length of this river is not far
from a hundred and seventy-five miles, and the extent of the valley is in the neighborhood of one hundred and twenty-five miles long, by from sixty to
eighty in width, having many tributary streams.
Wallamet Valley is principally prairie land, waiting only the husbandman's plowshare and scattering
the seed, to reward him liberally in large harvests.
For several miles from the Coltlumbia, the forests of
fir, pine, yew and cedar, are very dense on the higher lands back; while the river bottom lands are covered with a large growth of oak, ash, maple, cottonwood and willow; but farther southward the timber
227