Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/178

many a gloomy glen and rocky gorge and dark and tangled wood which have been stained with conflict or storied by some savage ambuscade, still stand to awaken terror in the passer-by; yet, these Valleys, notwithstanding their wildness and dangers, offer inducements, (deadly to the fated native,) for which, ere long, the stronger hand of the White man will beat back the present wild and implacable inhabitants, and make them the homes of civilization. Each of these Valleys is probably of sufficient extent to make several large counties; and, but for their detached position and their being so separated from the sea-board as they are, or appear to be, they would doubtless be the most desirable part of the Oregon Territory. The general fertility of the soil is favorable to the agriculturist; the richness of the grasses, to the stockraiser; the vast beds and piles of stone, and the broad forests of the giant Fir, to the mechanic; while the unfailing abundance of water in the Rivers and creeks, pouring over numerous falls and rapids, present inducements highly favorable to the manufacturer. Occupying a position between where the Winter rains of Oregon and the Summer droughts of California are occasionally severe, they possess a climate which, mingling these two opposite evils, destroys them and thus renders these secluded Valleys, in this respect, the most desirable portion of these most desirable climes. But they are so much as nature made them, and so wild that many portions of them have never been trodden by the foot of the white man, and it may be when time and the bold enterprise of our Western adventurers shall develop more fully the character and resources of these mountain-wrapped solitudes, that there may be found a Pass which nature has provided as a way for commerce through her barriers; and from the sides of the mountains and from the bosom of the plains, may be drawn additional materials to add to the necessaries and comforts of man