valley, and our imagination became busy with the future.
This valley, or Douglas County, covers an area of 4,950 square miles. Unlike the Wallamet, it has no great extent of level prairie-land bordering on the river from which it derives its name, but is a rolling country, a perfect jumble of small valleys and ridges; the valleys prairies, and the hills wooded with fir on top, but generally bare, or dotted with oak, on their long, sloping ridges. It is a sort of country where a man may seem to have a little world all to himself; owning mountains, hills, plains, and streams, or at least a stream; and not either overlooked by, or at any great distance from, a neighbor.
Extending from the Cascade Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, east and west, and bounded on the north and south by transverse ranges, it embraces all the country drained by the Umpqua River; and is in size and resources fit to constitute a State by itself. Its more southern latitude, greater elevation, and climate, with a mingling of sea-breezes and mountain air, gives it many advantages, making it salubrious and productive. Its prairies are adapted to wheat and all cereals; its creek-bottoms to Indian corn, melons, and vegetables; its foot-hills to every variety of fruit; and its uplands to grazing.
The same general variety of timber grows here as in the Wallamet Valley; and a few kinds in addition. The evergreen myrtle is a fine cabinet-wood not known to Northern Oregon; the wild plum and wild grape also are native to this county; and the splendid Rhododendron Maximum, with its immense flowers, of a deep rose color. A great variety of wild flowers adorn the grassy slopes in summer. Strawberries of several na-
