The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-09-10
EAST OF THE CASCADES.

skirt of country where Gen. Howard
fought the red men, and defeated
them, insomach that they took many
of their horses and the major part Of
their provisions. Here one turning
to the left gazes on the vast Yakima
waste of sand and sagebrash, while
TO his right, on the Oregon side, lie
the beautiful Yatered valleys which
are very fertile; fairly cultivated and
well stocked. Occasionally a stray
bullet half-burried in the earth or a
broken arrow head reverts us to
wrongs revenged and dyed in blood
of bitterness or else to aid the mind
in retaining in some silent chamber
the sacred memories of our revercd
dead.
On oIides our boat further from
the land of feas to the bunch-grass
land. On the Oregon side the Chi
nese are carrying on some mining ;
also squads Of working men are en-
gagged on the 0. & G. r. r. This
railroad is an enterprise which will
make a communication between this
country and the ocean accessible at
all seasons of the year. The q. S.
mail will then reach its destiny earlier
than it now does; that is to say,
should the GAZETTE reach Portland
in the morning, it would arrive in
Walla Walla the following evening,
which is about one-fifih OF the time
required to make the trip.
On to Umatilla; here are flourish.
ing business peusgs half;burried i'll
the sand. Vegetable lite is non est
with the exception of sage brush and
greasewood which are we'll laden
with grasshoppers, sort of
BUNCH GRASS LOCUST,
which diets principally upon every
thing of vegetable character that
it finds. Besides these there are
many crickets p but there are no feas
here. My friend counted the num-
Der of these two classes of vegetable
parasites on seven lunches of brush
and often taking an average made
crude estimate of 232 to the bush
there being about three square feet to
each bush. If this country should
amount to 10000 acres there would
be 33, $50, 400, 900 of these living be.
ings, or SO t.mes the world,'s human
population, to poster this small tract
Of country. Eden is not here. 1t is
beyond this alps OF locusts where
this garden .lies California has its
Cinnamon; Western Oregon its feas.
and this country has its hoppers. II
Kearney should come here and suffer
his conscience to ooze in some of its
dictations he would probably succeed
in raising a grasshopper rebellion o,
discover first class exterminator
Some one has suggested that coal oil
if taken inwardly, will destroy them
but there is only one way TO get coal
oil into them, and that is to shoot il
into them. But this kind Of country
is only ten or twelve miles square.
We cross it and are again on fertile
land where every ambitious farmer
under favorable circumstances, is ac
quiring riches. Pendleton is the
county seat of Umatilla county, the
largest county in Oregon. The town
is not very large, but it is worth
every cent of its obligations, and
probably does as fine bneiness as
any town of its size on the coast
There are many cattle and sheep
herders here, which indicates tha,
the mountains as well % the vacant
low-lands are populated with grazers.
While writing, some one llIiuates
that we are in this locality bordering
on the Western Eden.
J. B. HonsER.
Pepdlston, Aug. 6, 1880.