large class of persons who dealt only in gold. The high prices they paid, and were willing to pay, for the necessary articles of subsistence, stimulated others to attempt the raising of grain and vegetables. The success which attended their efforts soon led to the taking up and cultivating of all the valley lands in the neighborhood of mines, and finally to experiments with grain-crops on the uplands, where also the farmers met with unexpected success. The nature of the soils on the south side of the Columbia is nearly identical with those already spoken of as characteristic of the north side: light, ashen, and often strongly alkaline, on the plains; sandy and clay loam at the base of the mountains, and richly alluvial in the bottoms, where it is often, too, mixed with alkali. It is discovered that on the highest uplands, and tops of ridges, there is a mixture of clay loam, which accounts for the manner in which wheat crops endure the natural dryness of the climate in the growing season.
Eastern Oregon has a population of about 13,000, and is divided into five counties, which serve for judicial purposes; but is more often spoken of by valleys than by counties. In one case, as in that of Umatilla, they are identical, where the county embraces this one valley. The reservation of the Cayuse, Walla Walla, and Umatilla Indians occupies a considerable portion of this county, which altogether has an area of about six thousand square miles—probably one-third. Of the remaining two-thirds, about half is reckoned as agricultural land, and the balance as grazing land of the very best quality. Water is plenty and excellent; but timber, as already described, is found only on the mountains.
Pendleton, the county-seat, is situated centrally, on
