Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1858-04-23

Trande Ronde river, from a canyon in
he mountains, we babe farewell to the
slow OK teams, land with but one solitary
lollar in our pocket, and not mouthful
Of provisions, started for the settlements
some three hundred miles distant.
We have now done with the middle
portion of Oregon, and when we say this,
we bid farewell to all of Oregon that is
worth anything. The rest is but will
derness, so barren that it never would
tempt the cupidity or the grasping avarice
of even our American nation, did it be-
long to any of its neighbors. 1t is a
dreary, desolate, sandy, parched region,
with just enough Of vegetation to keep
life in our teams, though not enough for
the rear of large emigration, which is
proved from the fact that thousands of
cattle and horses starved for want Of for
age the year that we travelled over it IN
1852. Nothing we may say grows there
save the shaggy Artemesia, which for
hundreds of miles covers the whole face
of the country. Its hills are white and
barren no vegetation, that is worthy the
name no human, nor animal life, save
here and there a lean, lank, thievish Dig
ger Indian, or a cowardly wolf, the
former of which crawling from holes in
the earth, and from clefts in the rocks,
gain a precarious subsistence by feasting
upon grasshoppers, crickets, and by aP-
propriating to themselves the carcasses
of such cattle as may have fallen by
starvation or by disease. Scarce tree
is seen through this whole extent Of
country of six hundred miles, and for
three hundred miles, we have travelled it,
without our eyes ever being blessed by
the sight of one. A portion of this coun-
try is a volcanic region, as in some places
large masses of volcanic rock are piled
up, and one or two old craters are seen
which furnish unmistakable evidence
that this portion Of the country has been
the scene at some period of the world of
great violence, when the elements had
been in commotion and at war with each
other, and at its subsistence had left moth
ing but the married and charred rem
nants of what was once a beautiful world
It now bears little semblance to our earth
Its hills, instead of being clothed with
beautiful living green, and covered with
p timber, are but excrescences, pustules
: mere warts upon the earth's surface
= 1t is fit for nothing but a breeding
: ground for the ant, the wolf, and the spot
p ted lizard, of which there are myriads
q and also as the abode of such animals ant
2 creeping things as are calculted to maxi
= night hideous and day desolate. Thi
- country constitutes the eastern and tn,
n greater part of Oregon, to within som
- two hundred miles of the Rocky Noun
# tains, when it begins to improve trife
r We know not what scientific Agricultur
a may do in this region, but certain it is ma
ture has done little for it. We thus brin
to close this imperfect sketch of one {
, the most important tracts of land all thing
= considered, in the world, and one whic
- is destined to give sustenance to million
- of freemen yet unborn. 1t is now in ii
- chrysallis state, but the boy of to-da
will live to see it great and exalted anon
its sister states. Her princely pines tn;
now bend to the blast in their mountai
" Businesses, shall bear up the white sal
" Of commerce, and universal brotherhoo
and freedom and equality, all over tt
-. world, and shall scatter the seeds of eli
ilization and common Christianity,
the remotest nations, and to the isles
on
\ the sea. This, we may contemplate,
= to be the future of this important part
our country; not carrying war and ru
=, in its path, but shedding halo of ligl
~ and glory, and peace and good will to MI
on earth-a purpose as pure as its cryst
streams, as broad as its whole domai
. as exalted as its mountains, and as il
'"' movable as their eternal base.