Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1883-04-17
REMINIscENCEs
or the first settlement Of Boise Conn-
ty, idaho Territory, aud more par
ticularly Of Boise Basin.

~, iuss'H iCi'''is dbu inOIc par
ticularly Of Boise Basin.
by FRANK MILLER.
CHAPTER VII.
l"When remember all the friends who
| once together;
I'VE seen around me fall,-like leaves in
! wintry weather:
l feel like one who treads alone,
Some banquet hall deserted;
Whose guests have fled, whose garlands
| dead;
And all but me departed "-ToM MOORE.
From before the middle of Dccem-
Der, 1861, Portland, Oregon, began To
be thronged with an anxiol,s, eager,
restless population Of noinadic stran-
gers, many of whom, like the ever
wandering Bedouin Arab of the Great
Saharan Desert in Africa, were only
on the wing, 'Aylng light, on their way
to the new Mecca of Gold II hunters.
the Grand X aaba, or most precious
stone IF which was, like the chameleon
lhucs Of the Iris, said by some to be at
Gro Fine; 10y others, at Lewiston, and
by still more to be at Elk City or Flor
ence, in the towering aud majestic
Elk and Salmon River ranges Of noun
tains.
All Of the many tremendous noun
tain crcsts. submits and peaks in Ida
no Territory are only more or less d.
versificd off shoots, branches and ram
ilications in forms and shapes multi
lplied almost ad anJfnitunl, of the main
range Of what are Familiarity known
to literary artists and tourists as the
l"High Rockies" Some of the Idaho
peaks, like the justly far.famed War
Eagle Mountain in Owyhee county
Idaho Territory, are far above the per-
petual snow line, said by Humboldt in
his Cosmos, to be at an average ali-
tude of 5000 feet above the average
; sea level in deep sea sonndings," all
over the habitablc earth, and tower
in solitary and almost appalling sub
Unity and grandeur, several thousands
of feet Heavpn-ward, into the unknown
regions Of atmospheric space, like al,
everlasting Sentinel upon the watch
tower of virtue, purity and holiness
i'm the Heavens" of the Lord our God
, in the world beyond the grave
The almost unparalleled severity OF
of this winter, taken in connection
with the unprecedented inundalions,
overhows, and pluvions period direct
y antecedent to it in the previous au-
tumn, all along the Oregon and Cali
tornia sea coast lines. greatly retarded
any active forward movements toward
the then newly discovered gold fields
and mineral regions; and the little VII
lage of Portland Oregon, and every
little inland village and settlement al
most, in the entire Willamette valley
Oregon, was. long before spring broke
filled to overlooking by these nomads
to the staid and sturdy average Ore
gon "burgher," and farmer, the most
anomalous, hungry and rapacious, as
well as almost penni!ess horde Of gold
hunters he had ever heard or read of
The grotesque army hastily mar
: shaled by Sir Walter the Penniess
in the time of the first crusade il
Continental Europe, for the redemp.
A tion of the Holy Sepulchre of our Sa.
2 vor in Palestine, was perhaps as mot
ley, and far more numerous multi.
= tude, and in many respects, the two
crowds resembled each other.
At last spring came, and Portland
Oregon, the Queen city of the William
cite valley, and commercial emporium
Of that State, breathed huge sigh O
relief, and Salem, the capitalof Oregon
another. The motley ,hrong of golt