Columbia. Many had already become well established here, and had left their families for but a temporary absence. As a place for a permanent home they preferred Oregon. This was partly on account of climatic conditions, a land with the regular changes of seasons and abundance of moisture suiting better their customary mode of life; but still more on account of the land system, and the social and educational conditions.... In Oregon each family had secure, under the best title in the world, a square mile of land; usually embracing both prairie and woodland, and often both low lands for grain and pasture, and points of upland well suited for building sites and orchard slopes, while surrounding hills, partly wooded, still afforded range for multiplying flocks and herds....much pains had been taken to build up an orderly and enlightened society. In the centers, such as Oregon City, Salem, and Vancouver, the graces and refinements of life were sedulously cultivated....The conditions in the California mines and towns—where soon adventurers, gamblers, and every species of vagabond pressed quickly in upon the heels of the Argonauts—seemed intolerable to even rough-and-ready, and unlettered, but still law-abiding Oregonians.
It was soon apparent, too, that after the first strikes were made, the profits of the gold-digger, allowing for exhorbitant prices for living and transportation, would not be great. One, like Judge Hudson, of Oregon City, might dig out twenty-one thousand dollars' worth of dust in a few weeks; or another, like Bradbury of the Lower Columbia, might bring out a nugget weighing over six hundred dollarsworth value, and commanding over a thousand dollars price, at one stroke of the pick. But taking into account all the hardships and chances of disease, death, and demands to support vigilance committees against the lawless element, the conditions were not desirable for men who had homes and farms of their own. Great numbers, therefore, and usually with double-thick buckskin pouches well filled with dust hung around their waists under their belts, well girded
