growth of Portland. Pacific coast commodities now came into competition with those brought from St. Louis in many little steamboats; and thus the predictions of Mr. Floyd were in a way fulfilled: a commercial route had been opened across the continent hy steamboat and zvagon. The city of Portland, as the western emporium of this trade with the Inland Empire and Montana, entered upon a period of rapid and substantial growth, which has continued almost unbroken to the present time.
Agriculture in the Walla Walla valley. From the beginning of this migration toward the interior, the most favourable portions of the country were eagerly sought after by those wishing to engage in agriculture or stock raising. The rapid progress of mining stimulated this movement, so that in spite of the long delay in beginning the settlement of the Inland Empire, a farming population finally spread over its fertile valleys and plains much more rapidly than would have been the case if no gold rush had occurred. The first district to be occupied was the Walla Walla valley, where the presence of the United States military post afforded a home market for products, and where the lands were not only fertile but easily tilled, comparatively well watered, and conveniently near to the Columbia River and the lower settlements. It will be remembered that this valley was about to be occupied in 1847, when the Whitman massacre suddenly drove all whites west of the Cascades. A few pioneers held claims there at the outbreak of the later Indian war,
