CHAPTER XXXIV.
LAND AND LAND LAWS, RAILROADS, ROUTES, ETC.
To such persons as may be thinking of purchasing farming lands in Oregon and Washington, we address this chapter. It is useless to look for Government land in the Wallamet Valley. All that portion of the valley which is open prairie was taken up long ago, including the School land. All the good land in the foot-hills on each side of the valley is covered by railroad and other road-grants. Therefore, to get a farm in the Wallamet Valley, the purchaser must deal with the original claimants of the level prairie, or with the owner of the road-grants. Of the first class, land may be obtained at all prices, ranging from five to fifty dollars. Of the railroad companies, land may be purchased on favorable terms, where surveyed; and settled upon by pre-emption where unsurveyed—the companies standing in the place of Government toward the settler. Only one hundred and sixty acres can be taken by pre-emption, or sold to one person. At the offices of these companies are maps, and descriptions from the surveyor's notes, of every separate parcel of land, with its valuation, which ranges in general from two dollars and a half to twelve dollars per acre.
In the valleys of Umpqua and Rogue rivers, there is more land not yet taken up; still, not a great deal, except over toward the coast. But all along the coast are large tracts of Government land, principally tim-
