The west shore., August 01, 1884, Page 232, Image 6

232
THE WEST SHORE.
western portion of the county are riiilomath, which pos
pttaao n Hleg of the nme name, nnd Monroe, both of
them thriving communities.
Tlie railroad so often alluded to is the one now being
constructed by the Oregon Pncific Railroad Company.
According to the announced intentions of this company,
it will at (0103 construct a continuous line of railway
from doep water on Yaquinn Hay across the Willamette
Valley, Cascade Mountains and Blue Mountains to a con-
' nection with the Oregon Short Lino, thus rendering
Yaquinn Bay the ocean terminus of a complete transcon
tinental road Work has progressed slowly for several
years, but the presont season, all financial matters having
Imcn satisfactorily arranged, it has beon pushed with
great vigor. There are now 3,000 men at work on the
line, and the rood will lo completed from Yoquina to
Corvallis by the middle of October. Much tunneling
and heavy cut work has boon necessary in the mountains,
nnd thousands of feet of expensive trestlowork have been
required, making the cost of construction great and the
progress slow. The line is standard gauge and is being
laid with steel rails. The distance from Corvallis to
Yaquinn is seventy-two miles, in which eight stations
have Inwn established. The extreme grade is but 100
feet to tho mile, and only four or fivo milos of that, and
the greatest curve does not exceed ton per cent. The
company has six locomotives already on the line and 500
cars under construction at Ynqnina. Tho pnsHongor
coaches wore shipn! in sections from tho East and sot
up hero. In the shopB 1110 men are employed
The managers of tho enterprise state positively that
work will lie promptly commenced on tho lino east of
Corvallis, nnd that it is already located as far as Albany.
It completion will certainly lo of vast bonofit to Oregon.
Tho projected route traverses tho magnificent timber
regions of tho Cascades Mountains, as yet untouched by
the nx, nnd crosses that vast country lying between the
Cascades nnd Bluo mountains, whoso valuo for agricul
tural purjxwo is just loeoming known. Tho soil of that
great basin, so often represented on tho maps as a desert,
in extremely fertile, nnd with irrigation to supply the
lack of suflloient rain can lie rendered highly productive.
Water for irrigating purixwes is abundant and so situ-
ated that practical irrigation enn be had on an extensive
wale. This has lieen, and is now, the great stock region
of Oregon. The imjtortance of opening up this valuable
country by railroad cannot lie overestimated, and there is
no greater enterprise now in progress in the State.
The proved mothod of improving the harbor en
trance nt Yaquinn Hay, to render it a suitable terminus
for such a road and overland route, has loon described
When this is necomplishod it will, i addition to its
advauUge ,xken of, offer the quickest and most agree
able route of travel Wtwoen San Francisco and Portland
aaving several hour over tho present one down the
Columbia River. The company owns n fine steamer, tho
1 ,,,, a craft of 2,100 tens, with a draught of twelve
f , ' m irVT rnM,,l.l,lll,aci,y aocouinnHlutious
for ..ghty first class and sixty woond pag8enger
and is rated Al at Llyod's. Her staterooms are nicely
fitted up and contain only two berths.
The officers of the company under whose energetio
management and personal supervision the work is being
done are: President, T. Edgerton Hogg, of New York;
First Vice-President and General Manager, William M.
Hoag, Corvallis, Or.; Second Vice-President, Wallis
Nash, Corvallis, Or.; Third Vice-President and Secre
tary, Norman S. Beatty, New York; Treasurer, Colonel
O. T. M. Davis, New York. These gentlemen have dem
onstrated by their success the possession of ability to
manage this great enterprise, and their past and presont
achievements are a guarantee that their announced plans
for the future will be carried to completion with all
possible dispatch.
m
THE BANYAN TREE.
ONE of the most remarkable trees belonging to the
genus Ficus the 600 species of which comprise
climbing shrubs and trees of great diversity of charac
teris the famous banyan, whose extraordinary habit of
growth and enormous proportions so much astonish those
whose idea of a large tree has been formed from what we
consider giant forest trees. The banyan, whose spread
ing, bowery roof, beneath which whole villages of huts
find shade and shelter, is supported' by gigantic pillar
like props, formed by descending serial roots, which, on
reaching the ground, assume the appearance and perform
the functions of separate trunks. This tree in many
parts of India is held sacred by the natives. Deep twi
light always prevails under the shade of the spreading
foliage, through which not a ray of bright light can
pierce, and the awe and dread with which the Buddhist
villagers regard this sacred tree is very intelligible. In
the Wood Museum at Kew, England, there is a fine
spocimon of a palm trunk, upon which the strangling
growth of a banyan's roots is well shown. The remark
able way in which the roots become united to each other
at evory point where they touch is observable in the
specimen just named.
A PETRIFIED FOREST.
WHERE is a wonderful petrified forest at Oorrizo, New
J. Mexico. Petrified stumps, limb3 and, in fact, whole
trees, lie about on nil sides. The action of the waters
for hundreds of years has gradually washed away the
high hills round about, and the trees that once covered
the high table lands now lie in the valley beneath. Im
mense trunks, some of which will measure five feet in
diameter, are broken and scattered over a surface of
three hundred acres. Limbs and twigs cover the sand in
every direction. Thore are numerous blocks or trunks of
this petrified wood that have the appearance of having
boon just cut down by the woodman's ax, and the chip
are thrown around on the ground so that pne instinctively
picks them up as he would in the logging camps of Puget
Sound Everv onnr t : j.,.,i:,.nfa,1 in the
crystals, nnd those of an amethyst onlor would pass U
eye of a novice for genuine stone.