stages to Red Bluff, in California; and, secondly, a steamer line on the Wallamet River, owned by the Railroad Company, and plying between Portland and all points on the river north of Eugene City, when there is a sufficient stage of water. A stage line starting from Portland on the west side of the valley, carries passengers to Corvallis, where they connect with the railroad. The Oregon Central, or "West Side" road, will soon do away with staging through this portion of the valley also. Travel by land is by no means difficult in any portion of the Wallamet Valley, the roads being excellent and the conveyances good. On some of the smaller streams there are steamers plying, connecting with the main lines of travel; and each year increases these facilities for locomotion.
Portland is well supplied with hotels, which in general answer very well to the awkward guest's description of his dinner, "Good enough, what there was of it; and enough of it unless it were better." The latest built, and very well conducted, is the St. Charles, on Front Street. Another and larger one will soon be finished near the steamer landing; but the town seems to need a commodious hotel farther back from the river, away from the confusion and crowd of business movements.
East Portland, on the opposite side of the river, contains about one thousand inhabitants. It has a fine, level site, and a pleasant country back of it. Considerable importance attaches to it on account of its being the initial point of the Oregon and California Railroad, and the location of its machine-shops and warehouses. A steam-ferry connects it at present with Portland, and it is soon to be united to the latter place by a bridge over the Wallamet, the contract
