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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1879)
'94 THE WEST SHORE. July, 1879 to Irani how thing! alt there managed. Thr txilirr hrndoimrtM tire n model of neatnoai -every thing bat its plan-; each man knows his duly, and attends to it. At the head of the force stands Charles Todd, the Supt. of Police, lie has one sargcant, six patrolmen and four night-watchmen to aid him. Vk toria and suliurhs stretch over more ground than Portland, and yet a rob bcry or garroting case is something un heard of thru-. Ever) itranger, if in the least suspicions looking, is under xliir Mirveiiance without his even sus peeling it dining his entire stay in the city j anil should he give even t he slightest e.iuse, he is given just so many hours to leave town. Those envelope swindlers who robbed our verdant ones out of hun dreda of dollars, with the apparent sanction of oar police force, w ere not ien allowed to open out in Victoria, and were COBBpelled to leave on the re turn itaamer. The Victoria police force evidently make it their husiness to prevent crime, instead of putting tax payers to the expense of convicting and alter w. o.l feeding criminals. A trainable discovery of iron ore has jusl been made on Tcxada Island, one hundred miles north of Victoria. The ore contains from eighty-live to ninety per cent, of pure iron, equal to the best m the world. Mr. J. Spralt, the enter, prising foundry proprietor, of Victoria, is now preparing, to erect extensive smelting works on (be island. One of the finest graii.g regions on the coast is the sttelch of cnunli from Quetnclle to the Fork of Skccna, a diatajMa of ;s miles. The countrj is coverefl with hunch grass and wild vetch, whilst wstei and timlier are plentiful. This sect. ih is tpacieJ induiimrnts to stock raisers. The toad from Vale, the head f steamboat navigation OH the 1'i.isei river, to Cariboo, a distance of shout 400 miles, cost the Provincial Govern ment of British Columbis $1,00,000 to construct. To krrp it in irpnii $50,. 000 arc expended annually, and et onl. one cent jicr mile is chained as a loll foi import, passing over the road, whilst the country's pr.Im is are passed lire of charge. The first cargo of lisitish Columbia coal ever taken to Souib America, let) Victoria on the 1st of ulv in the ship 7trtm,k 7ioaw, Captain N. Ku by. It consisted of l,tv tons, and w as taken on ship-owners account as a spec- seems any practical necessity of. The illation, to Peru. TrV eon! rune from the Nanaimo mine, which Captain Kirby informs us furnishes the host steam dial in the world. EASTWARD, 110! IV V. II. I.Y.VMK. The human tides have touched their Western limit and have turned hack The forests of Western Oregon and Washington are beginning to look in the river, as toward a future home, wheie they are to appear in the forms of dwellings, school-houses and churches Panning implements also catch the lm migration fever and deposit their bulk. forms inside the steamers, and on deck, demanding every inch of available space, with a view, doubtless, of re turning a future tribute of golden gram. So, altogether, passengers, merchan disc and machinery, we slide past the foggy wharves of Portland, past the half-submerged shores of the Colum bia, until we reach the Cascades, with their tumbling masses of water, with their clilfs just tipped with clouds and streaked by little waterfalls. There is a combination here of beauty and irran- deur which makes it one of the most satisfying spots on earth. Though so many times described, it cannot be spoiled. Neither can its sublimity be enhanced, Indeed, the description of it should very seldom lie attempted. The fabric of words needed to clothe these basaltic giants is beyond the ca pacity of most word-mills. It is wisest to let them stand in their majestic nakedness, doing defiance to the el ements, lint we propose to make this letter thoroughly practical, not poetical, Therefore we will not linger among the pcach-liecs of Hood liver, nor shed leais of condolence w ith the incinerated rople of The Dalles, nor even stare down into the w itches' cauldron which chafes the adamantine banks of the "Chute." When we roach Cclilo we find the number of passengers so great as to ex ceed the capacity of the state-rooms. Our fellow-passengers are of the usual fliirlv. The bulk is composed of land and home-seekers from the interior Statea, 01 me hind ir I ' ' M v. . jrv, is the universal cry. There is eert.i.,1.. plenty of lsnd in sight from the deck of ... i.. .. 1 1 . icw minis acaucTcu along Ule Snake river seem to indicate a fertile soil and an abundance of sunshine. Here is the fruit-region of Eastern Washing, ton. The young peaches re puffed out almost to bursting with the rich materials from beneath, fertilized by the sunshine from above. Wallula is still the point at which the majority of the passengers stop. Of the various incipient towns scattered along the Lower Snake, Almota looks most like a place. But what a site for a town ! A canyon about one thou sand feet deep, with a narrow strip of aluvium along the northern side. Al mota is the business depot for a large region of country extending north and northeast. A majority of the Colfax and Palouse City business seeks the river at this point. The hill which must be climbed to bring the explorer on a level with the surrounding coun try is somewhat discouraging to immi grants from the Mississippi valley, and some have actually turned back at this point and not examined the interior at all. From the rim of the canyon a vast rolling prairie extends in all directions, broken in front by the muddy flow of the river. The Blue mountains can he dimly seen to the south. Northward Steptoe Butte forms a conspicuous land mark. As we proceed toward Colfax, the rich, grass-grown hills become more level and the farms more ftequent. After a sixteen-mile ride, we descend another canyon to the Palouse river. Colfax, the largest and much the most citified of the new towns of this coun try, containing the land-office and sev eral stores which do quite a trade with the surrounding settlements, a tasty and commodious church, two very neat hotels and a number of cosy little dwell ings, is strung along on both sides of the Little Palouse. This unites with the main stream a short distance below. Like most of the towns of Eastern Oregon and Washington. Colfax is situated in a hole in the crround. It certainly seems as though these hills would give the people of Eastern Washington more idea of heaven than most of them seem to have. An ascent of four hundred feet carries us above Colfax to the ordinary level of the prairie. The best land in this immedi- r steamer, more in fsrt than there ,te vicinity has been already taken.