soil. We remember to have hoard, while traveling on the stage from Umatilla, a miner from Powder River declaring, that "if a crow-bar should be left sticking in the ground overnight, it would be found in the morning to have sprouted tenpenny nails!"—after which assertion we never felt at liberty to question any statements which might be given us of the fertility of the Powder River Valley. With its several rivers, its bottom-lands, plains, and mountains, Baker County is one of the best in Eastern Oregon. Its elevation being four hundred feet greater than the Grand Ronde, gives it a climate both colder in winter and hotter in summer; the thermometer in winter sometimes falling to 15 degrees below zero, and in summer rising to 105 degrees. Yet the winters are short, and the spring early; while autumn is long and delightful, being a season of mildness and occasional refreshing showers.
Like Union County, Baker is celebrated for its mineral products. Placer gold has been found in considerable quantities in several districts, known as Rye Valley, Mormon Basin, Clark's Creek, Auburn, and Shasta. Later discoveries of rich gold and silver quartz-leads confirm its reputation as a mining region. Coal, and the base metals, are also known to exist here; the mining of which will be greatly facilitated by the presence of water and wood in abundance.
Baker City, with a population of 312, is the county-seat. The population of the whole county is roughly estimated at three thousand, but is probably less: as may be also that of other counties—since the estimate of the citizens seldom tallies with the general result of the census. It is very difficult to compute the shifting communities of mining counties accurately.
