voice, and seeing yonder the stern mountain barrier mingling its snows with cloud and sky, both separating him from that home and from those cherished scenes.
But to conclude this portion of our subject by summing up, in short, the advantages and disadvantages which the Territory of Oregon possesses, in comparison with other countries, or rather, with portions of the United States. We suppose its principal advantages, for instance, over the Valley of the Mississippi, to be, in climate, in its situation for Commerce, in its water power, in its forest of gigantic trees, in the purity of its waters, and in the vastness and beauty of its scenery. In all of these it is certainly superior. In respect to its climate, the rainy seasons, it is true, are often disagreeable; but its being favorable to grazing, and most especially its great healthfulness, renders it very far superior to that of any portion of the States. Its situation for profitable Commerce with other portions of the world we consider to be superior also to that of the Valley of the Mississippi. The vast extent of Sea-coast, embracing every clime, and the numerous fertile Islands with which the great Pacific Ocean is crowded, to which it has immediate access, render it superior. And the circumstance that almost all the commercial and manufacturing nations of the world are compelled to make great circuits, in order to reach these shores, gives another advantage worthy of consideration. Its water power, we believe, cannot be surpassed on the face of the globe, neither can its forests or the purity of its streams. Its principal disadvantages, (excepting that of the Winter rains,) are the limited extent of the habitable portion, the great amount of waste land included even in that portion, the different parts of it which are suitable for settlements being detached by ranges of mountains, making access from one to another often difficult; the rock-bound character of its coast; the inferiority of its inland navigation,
