68 REVEREND EZRA FISHER
ous climes on earth. No doubt the whole territory is more healthy than any portion of the United States of the same extent of territory. Although we have small districts contig- uous to inundated lands somewhat subject to bilious attacks in the summer, yet no New Englander, or even any person east of the Allegheny Mountains, has anything to lose in point of health in emigrating to Oregon.
I design spending some time next winter in giving you a general description of the country its physical resources, the manners and customs of the people and the improvements of the country in manufactures and commerce. At present, however, I will only repeat substantially what I have more than once written to my friends in the State, that, although the face of the country below the Cascade range of moun- tains is generally broken, except in the valleys of the rivers, yet I think there is less waste land than is found in the same extent of country in New England 1 , and the soil will not suf- fer in comparison with that of New York, and portions of this district probably equal the finest parts of the great West- ern valley. Almost all our hill and mountain lands are rich and almost entirely free from stone and it is generally believed that the timbered land will produce better than the prairies when once it is cleared. The timber, although of an enormous growth, is generally so filled with balsam or pitch than when green it is fallen by fire and, with comparatively little chopping or piling, the fire consumes it, so that land may be cleared fit for the plough as easily in Oregon as in New York.
As far as my observation has extended, the lands bordering upon the coast possess the richest, deepest soil and produce the most abundantly where they are sufficiently level to be cultivated. Few countries can be found in the world which will produce vegetables in greater abundance, or of a more delicious flavor, than the lands on the coast of Oregon so far as they have been tested. Although little is known in the state of Oregon except the far-famed Willamette Valley, yet it is my opinion that the soil on the coast, wherever it is sufficiently level for cultivation, will by far surpass that val-
