to follow the southern bank of the river at about the same distance back; while the opposite bank is only moderately high, and rolling. We pass by Springville, a grain depot, on the right-hand side; and St. John, a stave factory, and small settlement, on the other. Farm-houses grow more frequent; wood-yards and gravel-banks where flat-boats are loading, tug-boats, small steamers plying to and fro, and all the signs of busy life accumulate with every mile.
As we approach Portland we observe its new, yet thrifty, appearance; the evidences of forests sacrificed to the growth of a town; and the increasing good taste and costliness of the buildings going up or recently built in the newest portions of the city. A low, level margin of ground, beautifully ornamented with majestic oaks, intervenes between us and the higher ground on which the town is built. Passing by this and the first few blocks of stores and warehouses, with their ugly rears toward the river, we haul up alongside a handsome, commodious wharf, and begin to look about us.
Portland is, we find, a cheerful-looking town of about 9,000 inhabitants; well paved, with handsome public buildings, and comfortable, home-like dwellings. It is at the head of ocean steam navigation, and owes its prominence as the commercial town of Oregon to that fact. Here the smaller steamers which ply on the Wallamet River have hitherto brought the produce of the valley to exchange for imported goods, or to be shipped on sailing vessels to foreign ports; and hero has centered the commercial wealth and political influence of the State.
One hundred and ten miles from the sea is Portland, and twelve from the Columbia. At the first
