surveying district in 1861 up to June 30, 1867, the lines have been extended over seven hundred and sixty-three thousand nine hundred and sixty-nine acres. As it is expected that the Pacific railroad will be extended from San Francisco to the eastern boundary of California by the 1st of December, 1867, as hereinbefore indicated; and as the grading of the road in the Humboldt valley will be easy and expeditious, insuring its completion to the western boundary of Utah by the 30th June, 1869, the surveyor general submits an estimate of fifty thousand dollars, which is recommended, for the survey of the public lands in Nevada, looking to the necessity of the surveys along the line of the route, in order that the land grant may be made effective. For further details of the surveying operations, and other matters connected with the rapid development of various resources of the State, reference is suggested to the very interesting report of the surveyor general.

OREGON has California on the south and Washington Territory on the north, extending from the Pacific ocean to Snake river, the latter constituting a part of its eastern boundary. It is 350 miles long from east to west, and 275 wide from north to south, containing 95.274 square miles, or 60,975,360 acres, being about half as large as the State of California.

The Coast mountains and the Sierra Nevada, traversing California, continue northward through Oregon; the latter, after leaving California, are named the Cascades. Near the southern boundary the chain throws off a branch called the Blue mountains, which extends northeastwardly through the State, passing into Washington and Idaho.

The course of the Cascades through the State is generally parallel with the shore of the Pacific, and distant therefrom an average of 110 miles. In California the direction of the Coast mountains and coast valleys is that of general parallelism with the sea-shore; the mountains sometimes approaching close to the shore and then receding miles from it, leaving belts of arable land between them and the ocean. In Oregon the Coast Range consists of a series of high lands running at right angles with the shore, with valleys and rivers between the numerous spurs having the same general direction as the highlands.

In reference to climate and agricultural capacities, Oregon may be divided into two distinct parts, the eastern and western, lying respectively on the east and west sides of the Cascades.

Western Oregon, the portion of the State first settled, and containing the great preponderance of its present population, is 275 miles in length, with an average width of 110, being nearly one-third of the whole State, and contains about 31,000 square miles, or nearly 20,000,000 acres, all of which is valuable for agriculture, for grazing, or for timber growing, excepting the crests of some of the highest mountains. It is more than four times as large as Massachusetts, nearly three times as large as Maryland, and is greater in extent than the united areas of Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

The valleys of the Willamette, the Umpqua, and Rogue rivers are embraced within this portion of the State. The soil of these valleys is very rich and deep, resting upon a foundation of clay retentive of the elements of fertility. Larger portions of the valleys are open prairie, just rolling enough for the purposes of agriculture. All the productions common to temperate regions, whether of the field, orchard, or garden, can be cultivated here with the highest degree of success. The chief products of the field are wheat, oats, barley, rye, hay, maize, buckwheat, flax, hemp, sorghum, peas, beans, millet, broom corn, pumpkins, and potatoes; of the garden, turnips, squashes, cabbages, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, gourds, beets, carrots, and parsnips; and of the orchard, apples, pears, plums, cherries, apricots, quinces, peaches, and grapes. Many of these productions are of mammoth growth, and superior quality and flavor.

The yield of wheat is frequently forty and fifty bushels per acre, and when the land is properly cultivated the crop never fails, and in no State or Terri

tory can an equally remunerative crop, year after year, be cultivated with less labor or trouble. As to fruits, no country could produce finer apples, pears, plums, or cherries. The trees come into bearing several years earlier than usual in the Atlantic States, and a failure in the crop is rarely known.

The Willamette valley is more exposed to the sea breezes than the more sheltered ones of the Umpqua and Rogue rivers, and the nights are too cool for corn and the peach to succeed well. Rogue River valley, being more sheltered than the valleys to the north of it, appears admirably adapted to the grape, and its culture is becoming a more prominent interest every year, while the peach, Indian corn, and sorghum, it is reported, succeed better here than in other portions of western Oregon.

Skirting the prairie land of these valleys, and intervening between them and the mountain ranges on either side, there is a succession of hills and ridges, frequently of rounded, cone-shaped form, rising sometimes to the height of a thousand feet, and half a mile removed from each other at their bases, covered to their summits with thick grasses, and numerous springs gushing from their sloping sides, with scattered trees of oak, maple, and alder, not so thick as to retard the growth of the native grasses, nor too sparse to shade the grazing flocks and herds. This is called the hill country, and is a region of mixed prairie and woodland, hill and valley, a large portion of it being excellent farming land, and in horticulture and gardening is equal to the plains; but its chief characteristic is grazing, and no country, by its configuration, the quality of its soil, and the temperature of its climate, could be better adapted to sheep, and wool-growing is already a leading interest, and is constantly increasing, from the success that has attended this branch of industry.

The climate of this part of the State is mild and equable. The winters are usually short, with but little fall of snow. The pastures are generally green throughout the year, and a winter so cold as to require dry food for stock is of rare occurrence. The nights are always cool, even in midsummer. From November to April the rainy season prevails. A clear season usually occurs in February or March, continuing several weeks or a month, and followed again by a month more of rainy weather. Between April and November rain falls sufficient to prevent drought, but seldom to injure the harvest or produce freshets. The summer is dry, yet seldom to the destruction of crops. The Oregon farmers realize the necessity of irrigating fields by artificial means much less than those of southern California.

Back of the hill country, on each side of the Willamette valley, are the Coast mountains on the west and the Cascade mountains on the east. Between the head of the Willamette and the Umpqua valleys a mountain spur called the Calapooia mountains runs across from the Coast to the Cascade range. A similar spur, called the Umpqua mountain, separates the Umpqua and Rogue River valleys, and another, having the same transverse direction, called the Siskiyou mountain, on the boundary between Oregon and California, separates the valleys of Rogue and Klamath rivers.

All these mountains, together with the Cascade and Coast ranges, are covered with immense quantities of the sugar pine, the white and yellow pine, the nut pine, the red fir or Douglass spruce, the black fir, yellow fir, western balsam fir, the noble fir, the Oregon cedar, and the fragrant white cedar, all trees of extraordinary size and symmetrical form, standing in dense forests, and some of them rising to the height of two hundred and fifty and even three hundred feet, with trunks from four to fifteen and sometimes twenty feet in diameter. Less striking and important are the western yew, the western juniper, the Oregon oak, the Oregon alder, the Oregon ash, the hemlock, myrtle, and other trees.

The Coast mountains, from San Francisco to the mouth of the Columbia river, are heavily timbered with the red-wood, pines, firs, and cedars. Immediately north of San Francisco the forest is composed almost exclusively of red-wood.

Going northward the trees become more numerous, and with the red-wood are found the sugar and the yellow pine, forming about the Oregon boundary one of the most magnificent forests in the world, the red-wood and sugar pine attaining nearly equal dimensions, trees of both species being not uncommon twelve to fifteen feet in diameter and three hundred feet high.

After crossing the Oregon boundary the red-wood becomes scarcer, and ceases entirely in the vicinity of the Umpqua river. It is succeeded by the arbor vitæ or Oregon cedar, and the red and black firs, and these form the almost impenetrable coating of vegetation which covers the Coast mountains, from Port Orford to the Columbia, the red fir here attaining its greatest dimensions, fully equalling those of the red-wood and sugar pine.

The forests of Oregon, like those of California, contain many of the most valuable timber trees in the world, many of which would furnish straight timber a yard square and a hundred feet long, valuable for furniture, for domestic architecture, for ships' spars, for the powerful framework of heavy machinery, for bridge building, for railroad purposes, and the general purposes of the farmer, the millwright, and the shipwright.

The soil upon which these forests grow is generally good, the undergrowth over the greater extent of it being hazel, often three inches in diameter and twenty feet high, elder, alder, dogwood, myrtle, maple, ash, and willow, together with such other shrubs and grasses as indicate rich, moist, and first-rate soil. Upon the Coos and Coquille rivers, in the Coast range, the land has been cleared and its fertility found extraordinary, producing all kinds of grains and vegetables in abundance.

Throughout these extensive mountain forests there are immense tracts lying sufficiently even for cultivation; but lands producing timber of such valuable qualities and in such extraordinary quantities should be preserved as timber lands through all time. As the larger trees are folled the forest should be allowed to reproduce itself again from the younger and smaller trees and the shoots and sprouts that will rapidly spring up. Nor can the land be devoted to any more profitable purpose than the production of these monarchs of the forest, many of which are of rapid growth and attain a great height and size even in the lifetime of a human being. A million feet of lumber at the moderate price of ten dollars per thousand feet are worth ten thousand dollars, which would be equivalent to one hundred dollars per acre for one hundred years; and from all the information received touching the character of these amazing forests, it is believed to be no exaggeration to suppose them capable of producing one million feet of lumber to the acre. Although much of it may be comparatively worthless at present, for want of means of transportation to market, yet the time is approaching when that inconvenience must in a great measure cease to exist. The demand for lumber is annually increasing in all parts of our own and other countries, and upon the extensive plains west of the Mississippi but little timber exists, and the first settlers must of course have supplies. A railroad from the head of navigation on the Columbia or Snake river, to intersect the Union Pacific at Salt Lake City or other point east of that, would open up a market for the lumber of Oregon and Washington Territory that would annually increase for many years to come, and over which it would be sent not only to supply demands east of the Rocky mountains, but in Nevada and down the Colorado to southern Utah and Arizona.

Eastern Oregon, extending from the Cascade to Snake river, is an elevated, rough, broken country of hills and mountains, benches, table lands, deep gorges, almost impenetrable cañons, with numerous fertile and arable valleys. The greater portion is incapable of tillage, but furnishes an extensive scope for grazing. The climate is dryer than on the west of the Cascade range; is subject to greater extremes of heat and cold and to sudden changes of temperature, but generally milder than the same latitude east of the Rocky mountains.

The tillable lands in this portion of the State are along the Columbia river and in the valleys of the Umatilla and Walla-Walla rivers, in the valleys of Klamath lake, Lost river, Goose lake, Harney and other lakes, and Alvord and Jordan Creek valleys, in the southern part of the State, and in the valleys of Grande Ronde, Snake, Powder, Burnt, Malheur, and Owyhee rivers, in the eastern part.

Numerous thriving settlements, with extensive improvements in agriculture and manufactures, exist in the valleys of the Columbia, the Umatilla, and WallaWalla rivers, and grazing is extensively carried on. The soil of the valleys is highly fertile, and its agricultural capacity, so far as tested, is found excellent, producing small grains, fruits, and vegetables in great abundance and of very excellant quality. The locality enjoys advantages in reference to market and business, on account of its contiguity to the navigable waters of the Columbia and the mining districts lying to the east and south.

The country bordering on the Des Chutes and John Day rivers and the declivities of the Blue mountains is fit only for grazing land, and for this purpose much of it is excellent. Much good land exists in the southern part of the State for agriculture and for grazing, but being comparatively unsettled, little of it has been subjected to the test of experience.

In the eastern part of the State, in the valleys of Snake river and its tributaries, many settlements exist; the soil is generally rich and agriculture flourishes. Indian corn, melons, and many varieties of garden vegetables are said to succeed better in some of these valleys than on the Willamette, on account of the higher temperature of the summer. Timber is less abundant in eastern Oregon than west of the Cascades, and the oak is wanting in the eastern, which is found upon the lower hills and in the valleys of western Oregon in small groups or in solitary trees, and with its low and spreading form, imparting such a pictaresque beauty to the landscape; but on the sides and summits of the Blue mountains, and the various spurs and ridges which traverse this part of the State in different directions, are found the fir, cedar, hemlock, pine, and other varieties of forest trees, which will furnish an abundant supply. The Blue mountains are noted for the best quality of timber and natural grasses, which cover their sides from base to summit.

The salmon fisheries of Oregon form an important item, and may be indefinitely increased to meet almost any imaginable demand. These fish make a fall and spring run from the ocean, penetrating most of the Oregon rivers to the smaller branches from which they flow, and stem the powerful current of the Columbia for more than a thousand miles. Vast quantities are annually caught, and the business of putting them up for commerce is prosecuted with great

success.

The Columbia is the chief river of Oregon, the largest on the Pacific coast, and one of the largest in the United States. For thirty or forty miles from its mouth it expands into a bay from three to seven miles wide. It is navigable to the Cascade mountains, one hundred and forty miles from its mouth, when navigation is interrupted by rapids for a distance of five miles, over which a railroad portage is constructed. On the east side of the Cascades it is again navigable for forty-five miles to the Dalles, and again becoming unnavigable on account of rapids, another railroad fifteen miles long has been built from the Dalles to Cebillo. From the latter point the river is navigable, and daily or tri-weekly steamers are running to Umatilla, eighty-five miles; Wallula, one hundred and ten miles; and to White Bluffs, one hundred and sixty miles further up the stream.

The Oregon Steam Navigation Company had, in 1866, eighteen or twenty first class steamboats on the river and warehouses at all the principal towns, and had transported to the Upper Columbia, in the four years ending in 1865,

60,320 tons of freight, and carried up and down the river.in the same time nearly 100,000 passengers.

By constructing a portage from White Bluffs, one hundred and fifty miles north, and cutting off an impassable angle in the river, the stream is again struck at a navigable point close to the forty-ninth parallel, from which steamers can run from one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles further north to near the fifty-third parallel, in the Cariboo country, the famous gold region of British Columbia. The Oregon Steam Navigation Company expected to have steamers running upon these upper waters in 1867. The Snake. or Lewis river, one of the principal affluents of the Columbia, is navigable from the mouth of Powder river, one hundred and ten miles from Wallula, a distance of one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles into southern Idaho, and within two hundred miles of Salt Lake City, and the placing of several steamboats upon this part of Snake river during the present season was another object of that enterprising corporation. Whether these enterprises have been realized, and the navigation of the Columbia and its tributary thus extended, this office is not informed. If they have been, steam navigation from Salt Lake City to the mouth of the Columbia is practically secured, with the aid of about three hundred miles of wagon road. Oregon enterprise already contemplates the construction of a railroad from Wallula to Salt Lake City, through the gold regions of Idaho, a distance of five hundred and fifty miles, crossing the Blue mountains by a very favorable pass. From Wallula the Pacific ocean is reached by the navigation of the Columbia at the distance of three hundred and twenty miles further, or eight hundred and seventy miles from Salt Lake City to the mouth of the Columbia, making the shortest route from Salt Lake to the Pacific, and avoiding the great labor of surmounting the Sierra Nevadas.

In all parts of this State vast tracts of agricultural, grazing, and timber lands, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are open to settlement under the homestead and pre-emption laws, and in western Oregon large quantities may be obtained by private entry.

Farming and grazing are very profitable in the neighborhood of mining settlements, and not only competence but wealth is within the reach of the industrious and enterprising, who, selecting a farm and a home in a favorable locality, either in eastern or western Oregon, devote themselves faithfully to improving and developing its resources.

The population of the State, which at the present time is estimated at over 100,000, is steadily increasing, and when the means of communication, now in contemplation, are open, the increase will be still further stimulated.

The undisposed of public lands in the State amount to about fifty-two million seven hundred thousand acres.

Contracts during last fiscal year were made for the extension in Oregon of the lines of public surveys on the head-waters of Umatilla river, in the no: theastern portion of the State, to the upper waters of Williamson's and Sprague rivers, emptying into Klamath lake, in the southern part of Oregon, through which the Oregon Central military road passes, on the coast of the Pacific ocean, along the military road from Corvallis to Acquinna bay and other localities, embracing actual settlements. Those lines include over four hundred thousand acres, which added to former surveys in the State, will embrace an aggregate surface of six million one hundred and forty-four thousand six hundred and thirty-six acres, leaving about fifty-five millions unsurveyed, including donations under the act of Congress, approved September 27, 1850, which made grants, to persons who had emigrated to Oregon. The service, when finished under agreements, will absorb the appropriation of $35,000 for last fiscal year.

Contracts have been closed for surveys during the present fiscal year to the