The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1892-12-22
WOHrnln0rrN. MINI. December p. 1902.
FROM OREGON
CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK.)

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK.)
EUGENE, Or, Nov. 20, 1892.
EDITOR ADVANCE:
After resting the team for an hour or
%, aud with Que last lingering look At
tho world Of beauty around Us we be-
gan the descent: hundred feet or so
down, brought us to u sort of bench on
the side of the mOurtain, and here We
discovered a solitary imhabitant living
10 all the solituhe Ut Cruso neat,
clean yards and tine garden showed
thrift and industry rs we'll rs a desire
to elevate himself above his neighbours,
who by the way must have been few
aud far between, AS we saw none near
enough to be called such; the descent
WAS longer and more tediuus, if possi.
bic, than the climbing up was, so long
aud tedious that one Of the party re-
marked that this must be what OAR
win meant by the "Descent Of Man"
aud that he didn't agree will, it for it
didn'tagree with hiu, as it jolted his
last meal into his bouts: here again We
were reminded of Tennyson at the Lea
Shore for it was ''break, break, break"
every foot If the way down that long
winding +:uHd. t.a at~%eSuaed-aA aAdirs& l.,ak-
before we reached the foot Of the
moutain for added to all other pleas
ures ~ Of our descent Vas the raspng
groaning noise Of the wagon break tx
cept where the road was So steep that
the wheels had tn be locked, then the
hindemd If the wagon threatened to
tip over Oh t. the horses: however we
reached the foot in safety and soon en-
trreti tue much talked Of Wolf river
valley whose richness we had often
heard expatiated on by u number who
were always talking Of going but never
got there: however W. did find it very
rich, richer than the traditional Croe-
sus of old, for don't believe ne ever
owned such a rich, rank growth of
vine-maple tall cedars and gigantic frs
~ grow there; it is \ fact however that
on any Of these river or creek bottoms,
where the vine-maple grows the soil
10 tho blackest and richest on the coast
and where it has been cleared and
farlned pr,,duc-s phenomenal crops:
skirting this .l,y is where W. found
those giants If tho forest mentioned
farther back in this letter; here then
10 where tho tall cedars grow" that
the captive Indian sung about. here,
was the yOmber solitude of virgin
forest where thousands, aye, millions,
Of these grim sentinels have stood fo,
: hundreds Of years towering into the
the sky hundreds of feet. the veritable
trees presume that the yankee rrfered
to when he told the German they had
trees in America that were so tall that
it took twu mon tO see to the top, tht
actual height of these trees, we WERE
told BY men who had fallen similar
ones, was from $50 to ZOO feet with =
smooth, straight body, without knot
or limb Of 80 to $50 feet. A large pOr
ton of these lands were open to settle
ment under the homestead law, "nt
We encountered here and there settl'
cutting his way towards an indrpr"d
ence, and one who had been here owe
six years and who Informed Us that h
had not been to Eugene for four years
and whose children had never seen
town or city, these settlers make the'
living by making cedar shingles an
''stak~s'' and hauling them distanc
six or seven miles to store located o
the old California road and this st0r
was the only ''town" that these CHI
dren had any memory Of. 'Shakrs
are sort of substitute for shinglr
and are used great deal here even i
the valley aud almost entirely through
out the foot hills and mounta ms, the
sre split out Of blocks of cedar or G
four feet in length, half an inch thic
and from six to ten inches wide. the
don't make u very tight roof, but the
shed rain here for it always come
straight down ward without slant {
bias, but they never would do in
Minnes0tx blizzard or rain storm.
Many quite rOomy houses wei
built here without 4 sawed board I
log being used. except rs frame w"r
- the timber is 80 straight grain'
that boards could be split out in eigh
ten, twelve and even sixteen fe
lengths and of any desired thickness
and answered very good purpose f
:, flooring or siding. though they wou
hardly do for. a city building for one
iastidious taste. ~.-..
Night coming on We pitched can
built firr, cooked supper aud n