The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-19 00:00:00

entering the main stream, or where there may be springs
of water issuing from the bluffs at a considerable eleva-
tion above the bed of the river, and forming beneath
small beds of loam soil and vegetable deposits brought
down from the mountain sides.
Such, then, is the character of the soil on the large
streams of the interior of Oregon. We come now to
speak of the soil on the tributaries. My remarks will
be confined principally to those emptying into the Co-
lumbia and Snake rivers from the south, and to those
emptying into the Kaskaskia.
The valley of the Wallawalla, and its numerous
branches, is undoubtedly the best portion of the interior
country. This stream empties nine miles below the
mouth of the Snake river. The valley of the Yamatilla,
however, which empties into the Columbia below the
Wallawalla, is said to be equally as good as that of the
Wallawalla. Both these streams have their sources in
the Blue Mountains, and the banks are covered to some
extent with timber, mostly cotton wood and alder, until
we arrive within ten or twenty miles of the Columbia,
where timber ceases, and there is nothing but a stinted
growth of brushwood the remaining distance. The cha-
racter of this whole region occupiad by these two streams
is much the same, and a description of the one may be
taken, as furnishing the general characteristics of the
other.
It has been said that " the upper country" (i.e. the
interior) "has a fertile soil, especially on the tributaries
of the Columbia River." Now, this remark is true, but
to a very limited extent, and this is the qualification
necessary to give the right impression. The only soil
fit for cultivation consists of alluvial bottom, lying in
small tracts of five, ten, fifteen, and twenty acres or more
along the margin of these small streams. At the forks
of two or more of these small streams the largest tracts
are usually found. The Wallawalla, with its numerous
branches, drains a wide region of country, and along
these numerous streams there is a considerable amount
of good soil lying in small detached portions, yet the
whole amount, when compared with the whole region of
country drained by this river and its branches, is an ex-
ceedingly small fraction of the whole. These alluvial
patches form the lowest glade of land along
the streams above high-water mark. Portions that are
overflowed are usually deprived of the alluvial deposit
by the flood. These tracts usually lie at or about the
same elevation above the bed of the streams, and on the
back ground are usually surrounded by a steep elevation
of 3or 4 feet to a higher glade. The soil of these bot-
toms is of fine quality. The surface in its wild state is
covered with a species of fine short grass, interspersed
with thorn bushes.
The higher glade just spoken of lies at an elevation of
perhaps six feet, more or less, above the alluvial beds,
and is entirely barren and useless, covered with sedge
and green wood, with little or no grass. This glade
also is frequently impregnated with noxious salts, which
prevent vegetation. On the Wallawalla there is a much
greater proportion of this barren glade than of the allu-
vial beds, it forming usually the entire back ground of
low land, and frequently running down to the very brink
of the stream, thus forming a circular rim for
these alluvial basins. These alluvial beds, indeed,
have all the appearance of having once been covered
with a sheet of water, which, at length subsided by the
depression of the river channel, leaving their beds of
detritus and vegetable deposit to form the portions of
fertile soil which are now to be found on the banks of
these streams. Between the two glades of land already
mentioned, there seems to be an intermediate one par-
taking somewhat of the characteristics of both. This
intermediate glade always lies between the real alluvial
and the higher glade, and seems to have been originally
an alluvial bed, but has been covered over by a layer of
soil brought down from the higher glade which has de-
teriorated the alluvial soil. This portion is usually
covered with a species of coarse strongly rooted grass,
growing from two to six feet in height according to the
quality of the soil—it is most fertile along the borders of
the real alluvial, and its sterility increases as we
approach the higher glade, near which are fre-
quently spots so impregnated with salts as to
be destitute entirely of vegetation. The best part
of this intermediate kind of soil produces quite as well,
though not equal, to the real alluvial. But if portions
highly impregnated with the salts before mentioned are
ploughed up, the soil is soon covered with a white saline
deposite, and seeds if planted will not vegetate.
The greatest quantity of good soil and the best quality
may be considered about mid- way between the base of
the Blue Mountains and till Columbia River. As we
proceed either way from the middle region, either to-
wards the mountains or the Columbia River, the quan-
tity of the alluvial botton diminishes, and the quality be-
comes poorer. As we proceed towards the mountains
the banks of many of the small streams are low, the
channel changes from time to time, and the soil seems to
be all washed away, All these streams make their
entrance into the plain from dark, deep, and frightful
gorges of the Blue Mountains. The uplands lying
between the Wallawalla and the Yamatilla, and between
the several branches of the Wallawalla are usually quite
low, lower than in any other part of that country, The
bluffs are very low, and present no ragged appearance,
but are usually formed of earth, and rounded at the
summit. These upper plains are covered with a very
moderate growth of grass, though in many places, par-
ticularly as we approach the Columbia, they present a
very sterile appearance, and grass gives way to
the sedge Tee northern branch of the Wal •
lawalla, called the Tasha, which joins the Wallawalla,
twelve miles from its junction with the Colombia, forms
a pleasant valley, though the amount of alluvial bottom
is less than on the Wallawalla, and inferior to that in
quality; yet as a valley for grazing it is one of the finest
in the region.
In passing. along the region in a north-easterly
direction, to strike the Snake river in the region of
Kaskaskia, we find the uplands more and more elevated as
we pass the Tasha. The next stream we come to
is the Takanan' which empties into the Snake River.
As we approach the stream we look into a dark and
frightful chasm, walled-up on either side by rocky bluff's,
and ono is struck by the feeling that he has come to the
jumping-off place, at the end of the world. But by
taking advantage of a small ravine which ereaks through
the wall, he winds his zigzag way down the steep to the
bottom, when he finds himself in a narrow walled-up
channel, in the middle of which it regains an elevation
at an angle of at least 450 to reach the summit on
either side by a straight line. The valley con-
tains a very few tracts of alluvial bottom, and
of very small extent. In proceeding onwards, one makes
his way up the steep on either side to an equal eleva-
tion ; and after a few miles down, he goes into the bed of
a small stream emptying itself into the former, the bluffs
along which are less precipitous than those of the former.
This valley also contains but a small quantity of alluvial
bottom of an inferior quality. After proceeding up this
valley for some miles, we mount up again to a still greater
elevation, and at length descend to the bed of the Snake
River.
The elevated regions are exposed to cold piercing
winds, and are covered with a very thin and stunted
growth of grass.
After passing up the Snake River several miles, we
cross over and pass over the Kaskaskia, a distance of 14
miles, when we come to the valley of a small stream,
called Lapwai. In this valley there is a moderate amount
of good productive alluvial bottom.
In passing on beyond this place up the Kaskasi, we
leave the river entirely, and pass over the elevated
plains, descending into deep and precipitous ravines till
we strike the Kaskaskia again at Kamiah, about 100 miles
above its junction with the Snake River. On the way
we pass through the border of the timbered region con-
nected with the Blue Mountain range. These plains are
covered with a heavier growth of grass than those pre-
viously passed over, particularly in the vicinity of the
woodland. The timber is a species of pine. The soil, I
should judge from the appearance, if cultivated, might,
in places protected from the winds, be made to produce
moderate crops of some of the smaller grains.
At Kamiah and in that region there are a few small
tracts of very good soil, which produces well, but that
is in the vicinity of the mountainous region, where the
streams are shut up in narrow rocky channels, and land
fit for cultivation ceases to be found.
One remark I will make concerning this whole region.
It is more or less exposed to frost, in consequence of it-
lying in the vicinity of the mountains. It is also ex-
posed to drought, and in order to ensure good crops irri-
gation is necessary.
One more track of land of considerable interest I will
speak of. This is the Grande Ronde ; one finds him-
self in the midst of a beautiful circular plain of thirty
miles or more in diameter, with considerable indentas

tions, where the several streams enter the plain, and also
at the outlet. The Blue Mountains form a high cir-
cular wall around more than half of its circumference,
the remaining distance being shut up by a bluff several
hundred feet in height. Thus it is pent up on all sides,
having no outlet except a deep channel through the
mountains, where the waters flow off into the Snake
giver.

This place is evidently an alluvial formation. It is
covered with a luxuriant growth of grass, and is suscep-
tible of cultivation, though, from its situation among
mountains, crops here might be ruined by frost.
This plain has the appearance of having been once the
bed of a lake, whose waters formerly filled its whole
basin, but by the wearing away of the channel at its out-
let its waters were drained off, leaving its present bed of
alluvial soil. More remotely, however, it may have
been the crater of a great volcano, which might have
been in action at a period immediately subsequent to the
throwing up of that part of the continent from the bed
of the ocean, and this may account for its present form,
and the character of the wells by which it is surrounded.
In proceeding farther into the interior, along the
southern tributaries of the Snake River, the country
becomes more barren and desolate, the plains covered
with sedge, and the verdure along the small streams
diminishes. There are indications also of more recent
volcanic action. Hot springs occur, awl the river-
banks are in some places found teaming with emissions
of scalding and hot water. This may properly be deno-
minated a desert region, in which there are only occa-
sional oases.

Having now described the interior country as far as
is necessary for the present purpose, it only now re-
mains to inquire into its capabilities and prospects.
It will be seen at once from the above statements that
the interior of Oregon can never become an agricultural
country, and consequently can never sustain a dense
population. It can be turned to account only by raising
flocks and herds, and in this way it is capable of sup-
porting a sparse population, and a sufficient quantity of
alluvial bottom can be formed in the best portions of it,
to furnish grain and vegetables for such a population
residing there for such purposes. It is necessary, how-
ever, to say in reference to the grazing capabilities of
this region, that they are very far from being superior.
There are consicl arable tracts of waste land, worth al-
most nothing at all, even for this purpose. The amount
of grass, also, which the uplands furnish is very small.
Its medium height I should judge to be twelve or four-
teen inches, diminishing on the highest or more exposed
plains to six or eight inches, and increasing, particu-
larly in the vicinity of the woodlands of the mountains,
where there is more moisture, to eighteen or twenty

inches. The ground is thinly covered, it usually grow-
ing in bunches, so that not more than from one-third to
one-sixth of the area of the surface is covered. It would,
therefore, require some 4 or 5 acres to furnish the same
amount of nutriment which common pasture or meadow
does. Cattle thrive well in this region, particularly when
kept along the banks of the streams ; but it has been
found by experiment that they will not do well on the
high lands, away from the streams, especially in the dry
season. Sheep and goats may do well in these up-lands.
The practice of burning over these plains annually,
which, however, is only partial, is an evil which must
cease, if ever the country becomes extensively stocked
with cattle. Cattle live out during the whole winter,
and the grass, which dries up during the dry
season, and remains in this state through the
winter, is standing hay for the cattle to gather
for themselves as their necessities required. Le -
all this be burned over, and the green grass which
springs up in the autumn will do but very little towards
sustaining a herd through the winter, and starvation
must ensue. Cattle and horses suffer in the winter in
some parts of this region when there is an unusual
quantity of snow, and can find nothing to supply their
wants except on southern declivities, when the snow is
soon removed by the direct rays of the sun.
What then are the prospects of this region in respect
to settlement?

There is one motive, and only one, for immediate
settlement in the interior in preference to the Walhamet,
and this is the salubrity of the climate. .In every
other respect the Walamet is altogether preferable, and
will continue to be so till all its land is taken up, and
all the grazing country in its ♦icinity is occupied. It is
doubtful whether emigrants will be willing to forego all
other advantages for the sake of climate.
The region of country described lies from 300 to 500
miles from the mouth of the Columbia, or about 200
miles above navigable waters. The Columbia is one of
the most dangerous and difficult rivers in the world to
navigate, and this can only be improved at an immense
expense. The time required to make the trip from
Tancouver to Wallawalla, 200 miles, with loaded boats,
to make portages, &c., requires from nine to fifteen
days, according to the direction of the wind, &c. The
expense of transportation this distance is seven shillings
sterling for 90 lbs. The expense of transporting produce
down the river will also be so great, that it will enable
the Wallamet settlers to undersell and take all the pro-
fits. The only remaining method of reaching the lower
country, is by a road over a difficult mountain from the
interior to the Wallamet. I would remark, however,
that the country lying north of the Columbia may find
a more convenient outlet to the ocean direct to Nasqually ;
but my remarks are intended for the region lying south
of the Columbia.

With the drawback upon the upper country the pro-
bability or its immediate settlement appears to be very
small. In time doubtless it will be settled by herdsmen,
but all the circumstances connected with the country
point directly to the Walamet as the first region to be
settled. When this whole valley shall become occupied
by a dense population, and the lands which are now de-
♦oted to pasturage shall be in demand for agricultural
purposes, the more distant regions may be brought
into requisition for grazing purposes, and cattle
may be brought down from the interior
by a road across the mountains, to supply the wants of
an agricultural and manufacturing community. Thus,
in time, the whole interior region, as far as it is capable,
may become settled in this scattered and partial manner,
and become of considerable relative importance in con-
nexion with a rich, flourishing, and densely populated
country, along the sea-coast. But time is necessary, in
order to produce all these changes, and bring into requi •
sition all these resources of the country, which depend
on a great increase of population in one part of the
country, and a consequent demand for products beyond
the producing capabilities of that reigion. Q.

LIVERPOOL AND THE LEAGUE.
(From the Liverpool Mercury).
Liverpool has done its duty. We expected much,
and are not disappointed. We demanded much, and
are satisfied. Commerce has worthily responded to
the summons of industry. The seaport of Lancashire
has nobly testified its sympathy with the rights and
interests of that labour on which its own existence is
based, and with whose progress its own is identified.
The factory and the counting-houses, the manufac-
turer and the merchant, production and exchange,
have made common cause, and are now, once for all,
in League against the sordid tyranny that would
trample upon both.
The magnificent meeting of last Friday was a de-
monstration every way worthy of the intelligence,
wealth, energy, and public spirit of the commercial
capital of the first industrial district of England and
the world. The pecuniary result was of a less
startling magnitude than that of the great Manches-
ter meeting of the 23d ult.; but fourteen thousand
pounds subscribed in one hour may be regarded, all
things considered, as a very fair quota even for
Liverpool. From our hearts do we congratulate
those of our townsmen who have ailed in striking
this timely and crushing blow at an enormous public
wrong. '
If, as is not at all impossible, Sir R. Peel be still
weighing pros and emu, and balancing the demands
of statesmanlike wisdom and political justice, against
the suggestions of Ministerial convenience and party
expediency, he is now most abundantly provided with
the materials for a prudent decision. The subscription
of little less than one hundred thousand pounds,
within about a fortnight, is a " great fact," which it
seems scarcely crediable that the Premier should
leave out of his calculations. This instalment of a
fund of a quarter of a million sterling, to be expended
in re-organizing the country constituencies —in esta-
blishing and working, in every district, of every
county in England, a machinery for inviting
and aiding the trading and industrious classes
of our town population, to possess them-
selves of the franchise —is a sufficient
guarantee that the work really will be done
in the course of this year 1846. Should Sir
Robert Peel dare to insult the country with any at-
tempt at compromise or mystification—if he would
like to see a political revolution that will sweep him
and his " Conservatives" clean out of two-thirds or
three-fourths of the English counties, he now knows
on what terms this dangerous curiosity can be gra-
tified. Any more tampering with his own convic-
tions of policy, and the national demand for justice—
any more experiments at " regulating the supply of
food to the people —a word more of pivots, rests,
averages, sliding, fixed, or vanishing scales—a syl-
lable said, or hinted at " compensations"—the
slightest attempt to deny, delay, or sell justice—and
this tremendously powerful engine, for permanently
changing the distribution of political power, will im-
mediately be set to work all over England.
The landlords will now know what they have to
expect, if they venture to postpone, or mar, the satis-
faction of the peoples just demands. If, with these
signs before them of popular energy and determina-
tion—and with the (Vest Riding election to show
them by voie de fait, that the movement has feasi-
bility and reality in it—they choose to provoke a
war of which all the materiel is already prepared, they
cannot complain that they have not had ample
notice. They can now count the cost. They
may have—if they positively will—some six or
twelve months' more enjoyment of a curtailed
and truncated monopoly; but they will have to
pay for it by the permanent and final loss of their po-
litical ascendancy. The political extinction of the
landlord power is now the price of any corn-law that
shall do either less or more than leave the trade in
food as free as nature and Providence have made it. The
Buckinghams and Richmonds, the Tyrrells and
Mileses—the people. of No. 17, Old Bond-street—
are, of course, incorrigible.. They tell us so, and we
are bound to believe them. They will have the re -
revolution, and nobody shall help them. But there
must be a large number of the landlord class who
would vastly prefer "maintaining their position" in
political "society," while the option is still before them.
Whatever may be the decision, or the no-decision, '
of Sir Robert Peel and his landlord supporters, it is
now scarcely open to a doubt, that the ensuing
twelve months will witness the termination of this
struggle ; either by Sir Robert Peel and the present
Parliament, in the spring, or by Lord John Russell
and another Parliament, in the autumn, will the last
shred of protection be torn from our code. It is not
necessary that the actual registration, even of
the votes acquired during the present qualifica-
tion campaign, should precede our triumph ;
votes have a potential as well as an actual sway
over the deliberations of Parliament and the policy of
Cabinets ; and the qualifications will tell, even though
the Registration Courts should not have had time to
give them the last formal sanction. Never has there
been a period—the days of the Reform Bill alone ex-
cepted—when a great public question has so tho-
roughly permeated and possessed all classes of the
people—subdued all minor dissensions, and fused
down all crotchety contradictions, in the ranks
of the popular party. Lancashire manufacturers
and merchants, and Wiltshire peasants ; the wealth-
iest of our capitalists, and the poorest of our labourers;
the proudest of our aristocratic Whigs, and the stur-
diest of our democratic operatives—all are one here.
There is not an instance in our history of such a union
failing to carry its point. Were we " Conservatives,"
we should most fervently pray that the leaders of our
cause and party might not commit the desperate and
irretrievable blunder of daring such a power to
come and do its uttermost.

REPEAL OF THE MALT-TAX.
The protectionists will be compelled to surrender
the sliding scale of food-prices to a fair competition
with the wide world, and hence the noise they are
making about measures to compensate them fur their
loss. Among other devices, they are urging the
repeal of the malt-tax. Of all the measures of re-
lief; either for this or any other class, that could have
been named, this appears to us the most unlikely.
It would rob the revenue of no less a sum than five
millions a year, and not a single individual would
feel the benefit of it. 'faxes upon luxuries, and es-
pecially those luxuries classed under the head of
stimulants, are paid cheerfully • and we do not hear
of either the brewer, the seller, or the drinker of
beer wishing the article to be cheaper. And why
should they ? for, to make up this amount of revenue, I
they would have to contribute the same amount in