the distance of sixty miles. St. Helen, also, may be seen from the upper part of the city; and, from some points. Mount Jefferson.
Portland has not a "back country"—that is, it is divided from the agricultural portion of the valley on the west by the mountain ridge, which, commencing some miles south of this place, follows the west bank of the Wallamet to its lower mouth. The road which leads to the plains leaves Portland by a narrow ravine, and, following the pass of a stream, crosses the mountains through a dense forest of firs and pines. It is a pleasant-enough drive in summer, but quite the reverse during the rainy season. By the beginning of 1872, however, the Oregon Central Railroad will have been completed from this city to the town of Hillsboro, a distance of twenty miles—four or five miles beyond the timbered ridge. There is a beautiful, short drive of macadamized road, extending about six miles south of town, along the bank of the river, and terminating at the Milwaukee Ferry, or the "White House." The road down the river is not a good one, though a very little expense would make it so, and it might be continued all the way to St. Helen, making a pleasant and useful highway; but the small steamers that run on all the rivers have made roads of secondary importance near the margins of these streams.
The river in front of Portland is about one-quarter of a mile wide, with water enough for large vessels to lie in; and the rise and fall of the tide amounts to a couple of feet. During the winter flood in the Wallamet, which is occasioned by heavy rains, the water rises about eight feet. For this reason the wharves are all built in two stories—one for low, and one for high-water. The great flood of 1862, and that of 1870,
