The weekly union record., 1864-05-14
Letter from Portland. Oregon.
PORTLAND. Nav .. 1854

After week spent in sightseeing in San
Francisco. yoor humble correspondent to
use the most popular phrase-embarked on
that stauuch Old steamer. the Pacific, on the
morning OF the 2sth, for the Mecca of bis
hopes-the land Of the Web feet The
Pacific is one of those craft usually deuomina-
ted sl0ir bat sure-slow shs was emphatically
and sure Of going 50 As the Golden Gate
faded away in the distauce. those lines of Bvroa.
-Adieu, adieu, my uaiire shore" etc, were
forcibly recalled to nv mind. although the
night winds that hovied to NE were the morn
= ing breezes, aud the wild sea new nothing
more than that ugly bird, tue ~booby" Once
fairly on our course and clear Of the bar, the
voyage was delightfal The sea was an ocean
Of glass, scarcely stirred by the breeze during
the trip Oh. ye poor Orovillians. how l
wished that all Of you aeue affected sufferers
could. with myself, inhale the air fresh from old
Neptunes briny bed, and feel the warm. exbil-
arating glow, as the ireshened life blood c0ursed
with renewed energy through your debiIta,ed
9NNA-4- AN so NtCN<S - tGdt iAiN d<tsE-
and one almost renews his youth by iuhalng il
in all lis purity. The voyage was Of little
Interest save that created by The sight Of scores
Of whales who seemed, Ike ourselves, to be
enjoying the fCs weather, blowing aud rolling
their huge carcassts around in q manner that
looked dangerous to small frY-men or Ssh.
But at 9 a. NJ Sunday, we bade adieu 10
whales. and entered the Columbia river IN
search of the "EIep8aat" Government has
just commenced the erection of forifcations on
Cape Disappointment. at the mouth Of the river.
but have not done enough to show. ard, save
few soldiers tents. the placed looked deserted.
A few miles from the mouth We come upon
ASTORIA.
John jacob Astors fouadEug. This is tie
Oldest place if Oregon, and still retains the
trifing, shitless sort Of look of mere trading
post. There are two or three very neat resi-
dences back Of The town. but the whole general
appearance is OF decay-in fact, decidedly seedy.
The works aad buildings built by the expedition
that left New York in 1915 Lave entirely dis
appeared and, in my short stay. no one could
be found that could point out the spot Of the
original location.
The COLUMBIA RIrER
Is one Of tie most magnificent rivers that North
America can boast The largest Of ocean
steamers navigate it TO the Lower Cascades,
nearly 10 miles. Il still retains much of It's
pristine widness, lis banks being heavily GOV
cred with timber, save here and there. where
some enterprisng person has erected a saw mill
and cleared a few acres Of It's heavy forests !;
and some few settlers have-undeterred by the
dense forests-settlod and started 10 clear
farm, hut, soon growing sick Of. the job, now
semi barbarous Efe The scenery Is truly
grand; and, as soon after dark rounding
point in the river, we came in sight of one Of
these huge forest fires, where thousands of acres
were blazing, the flames leaping from tree to
tree, ana as now and then one more dry or
pitchy than the rest caught fire. huge spiral
column of flame would spring into the air,
there were none but what were struck with
the maguifceuce of the scene.
PORTLAND.
We reached this place about midnight Sun
day, and were greeted by noisy crowd Of
Abraham lneal descendants, who seemed il
search Of an individual whose cognOmen was
shake Cohn," from the many anxious queries
Of "Ish you dere, Shaker "Shuaip ashore,
Shake = and "Shake Cohn. we're yu is, hay ?"
but at last the vertable shake appeared,
aud, with "Lesh 90 and gets SOON lager, they
left US TO ourselves, most Of the passengers
staying on board the balance of the night.
Portland is quite large city, having about
5000 inhabitants, and reminds one very much
of Sacramento, a few years ago-that Is, the
city i'self-as the surrounding scenery Is truly
"Otegonau "a dense forest. Its situated on
tie willamette river, abont 8 miles from is
i,nc.ioa VIII the Columbia, contains four FIRE
COMPARES and ore hooA ard ladder company.
There are several very fine churches, one new
one Just completed that cost over $4,000.
The State boarding house" is also located
here, and is very well patrouizod at present;
there were some twenty Of its boarlers, each
clothed in tie popular dress of the establishment
pants striped horzontay-at work grading
the public plaza. The Keeper of the Hotel
seemed TO have very strong attachment foT
the most of them. viz an iron bracelet attached
to waist and ankle; and yet, notwithstanding
such strong marks of friendship, one Of them
conideniially told me that, were it not for bis
fear of offending particular friend he would
leave Immediately. l afterwards found cut
that the friend alluded TO was Judge Of one
of the upper counties, who had recommended
three years residence as being likely to cure
him Of 'Keptomania," he having suffered with
an accue attack Of that disease, one day