The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1875-11-19
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
DEAR READERS OF THE NEW NORTHWEST:

AhS PAOACoolOhoA JA0NCACA W bO |
hurried visit to the shores of the great |
Northwest, and penetrstes the interior
only as far as Portland, or, at most, to |
Salem, has nc more idea of the magnitude |
write up, than the average member of
Congress possesses of the inalienable pre- |
negatives of the taxed and misrepre-
sented women of America.
Last July, when first the fervid heat
of summer came upon the interior
country, your editorial correspondent
packed her basket and proceeded sea-
ward. In the rich, alluvial bottoms
comprising the vast farming and graz
ing region of the lower Columbia, the
principal business topic was vegetables
and the products of the dairy. The
quantities of these commodities annu-
ally prepared for export from Sauvie's
Island, and the whole extensive region
bordering upon the Columbia Slough,
are really surprising. Then, as we went
on yet further down the river, the talk
was of lumber and fisheries and salmon.
And such salmon ! The eyes of the av-
erage Buckeye or Hoosier may well
start from their sockets in wonderment,
as they behold the monster fishes as
they lie in heaps in the warehouses
every summer, awaiting the barreling
and canning process, while they (the
lockers ON mentally contrast them with
the little "pike" and the moro preten-
tious "cat-fish" ofthe Ohio and Wabash.
This salmon fishery business is already
a mine of untold wealth to the people of
the great Northwest. Leaving these,
and going down the beach and across to
Shoalwater Bay, we found ourselves in
an entirely different business element.
Here, they talk of oysters and oyster
beds, of boats and CLAIMS, of crabs and
smelt and sardines; the exports from
this place from oysters alone amount
ing in the last year to S300,000.
Returning to Portland, where steamer
and schooner-building and iron foun-
dries, and other gigantic enterprises too
numerous to mention, are going ahead
continually, we hurried on through the
valley of the Willamette, and over to
Coos county, where the talk was of lum-
Der and ship-bnilding and coal mines
Then back again to the fertile valley
above named, and behold, the mer-
chantable commodities were wheat and
fruit and wool, and the manufactures
principally -four, dried fruit and wooden
goods.
Our next journey was up the Columbia
past The Dalles, and out upon the great
plateau of Eastern Oregon and Wash
ington; and here, the theme is cattle
and horses and grazing lands and gold
mines, mixed with more wheat and
fruit and vegetables and wool. Yet, as
we have said, the great world outside
of the favored few who have been per-
mitted to penetrate the different parts
of the interior (where, from lack of rail-
roads, most sight-seers are yet shut out
have no adequate conception of the
Northwest, its magnitude, possibilities,
or prospects.
When we reached The Dalles, we
found that the moist weather of the land
of "Webfoot" had permeated even into
the sand-eating region of Wasco, bring
, ing a universal mist, which the driving
Chinook winds sent remorselessly
through and through the apparel of the
adventurous traveller, and admonished
US to proceed yet further into the land oi
the sand-eaters, in search of shining
skies. So, after having spent an agree
able day in The Dalles at the well-kept
Umatilla House, where many friend:
gave US kindly greeting, we resumed oul
journey up the Columbia upon one of the
orderly, well-kept steamers of the o. S.
N. Company, through river-course &C
often described in these columns that
repetition is unnecessary.
Arriving at UmatilIa on the 10Th ult.,
expecting to hold a meeting and then
proceed further up the river, our course
was changed by what seemed the meresI
accident.
n SUI VI Jul OlO AalhoSldOOiC
friend, James Vinson, ESQ.,, was in town
with a freight team, and we accepted
his invitation to go out in the wagon tC
the house of an acquaintance of his
fifteen miles distant, where his parents
were to come and spend Saturday and
Sunday. Our load was flour and oul
road was sand. For miles we followed
the Umatilla, busy stream that feeds
the hungry sands and supplies the
thirsty cattle with the sweetest water
where, on its banks, we saw great eagle
fishing for its breakfast, and a sand-hil
crane that stared US out of countenance
with sage brush to the right and left o.
US, through which monster rabbits
darted-the only living thing Wis
ible away from the little river
while in the distance, long rows o
blue-black mountains shook their shiv.
ering heads at US in the scintillatinG
light of the hazy autumn, and nearby
hills Of lesser magnitude loomed up il
bleak unsightliness, the scarcity of tim
Der comporting we'll with the unkreker
solitude of ''desert all desolate' tha
tearlessly gazed at the beclOuded sky
After we had proceeded a mile or two
on our journey, we learned that tn,