Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1906-10-16


and board on these boats. On the
river above the portage they get S45.
On the Spencer eight men handled
l1100 sacks of wheat in about 80
minutes, six trucking and two roust-
abouts piling inside. Coming down
was a Salem German, John Muehl,
who owns 4S0 acres of land near
Davenport. He was bringing along
two horses. In the Big Bend coun-
try both hay and grain were very
short this year, shortest crops ever
known. but enough to keep people
and stock from starving. Still there
must have been good crops up there
somewhere by the number of harvest
hands returning.
There is a striking contrast be-
tween the landscape on the north
and south banks of the Columbia
On the south shore the walls of the
canyon are almost a solid mass of
dark green. On the north shore are
many bare rocky mountains. The
lower hills are timbered. Evergreens
dot the great rock slides, forming
The crags and walls are slivery gray.
the slopes are mottled with yellow
and red by clusters of naples and
ash The shaded rock-walls have
dark green lichens, and the willows
on the bottoms are a silvery olive
green. On the south banks are
great spaces of brown, while over all
canyons and on receding mountains
hang delicate wells of azure mist,
deepening into blues most fairylike
and translucent. The river is too
big, the canyon too grand, and the
mountains too high to ever have its
beauty marred by smoke of factories
or burning OIL 1t is the opinion of
the fishermen that / talked with that
oil escaping on the water from
steamers, brick and tile factories and
creosoting works was driving the
fish out of the river. ! saw many
traces of oil on the water. wherever
il comes from. Fishermen on the
Columbia mostly say that traps,
wheels and seining should be for
hidden by law. If gill-netting alone
were allowed under stiff license
the salmon would never be killed off.
Fishermen all say the runs of fish
are steadily declining. 1t is fact
that any other system of taking fish
for commercial purposes Is destruc-
tive to small fish on large scale.
In the traps the big fish thresh
thousands of small salmon to death,
The seines kill thousands. The !
wheels do the same. have heard |
no practical fishermen say this of the
gill-net.
Lyle, Wash, is where the railroad
runs up to Goldendale. The Hill
road has bought this branch and the
townsite and will put on the market
soon. There is a big lot of fruit
land here. Rough land can be
bought for $40 an acre. 1t can be
cleared for $50 an acre, and will
grow strawberries, peaches and
grapes, besides all the fruit that
Hood River will grow. The Holmes
Canning company, Thos. Balfour,
and l.. ID. Oakes are putting. out fruit
orchards. T. r. Coon has 100
acres. Robert Whitcomb is a big
grower This side of the river viii
grow grapes and peaches and highly
colored fruit. Just as its hills and
mountains are more highly colored,
its foliage more brilliant, so there Is
different class OF fruits possible
to be grown. am told that the
finest kind of Tokay grapes, punches
that weigh pounds are grown here.
know that each valley of the CO.
lumbia is different. All know that
at The Dalles tons and tons of the
finest muskmelons are grown. No
other place can produce them. So
l figure that Lyle and other places
on the Columbia will become fam
Gus for some speciality.
Mr.. and Mrs. w. ID. McGee, of
Madras, Crook county. came down
with us and Mrs. McGee. who was
Mrs. Gilmore OF Salem, went TO
Portland to visit her two daughters.
One of them was Mrytle Gilmore, a
Journal ONCE employe, now Mrs.
Lewis and mother OF a four-weeks
old boy. Mr. McGee has beautiful
homestead In sight of many snow
capped peaks, and is handling a
good deal of timberland for invest