nine hundred, it has five churches, an academy, and other public and private schools. In its early days, for it was founded more than twenty years ago, an attempt was made to have a college located here. The enterprise proceeded as far as the partial erection of a handsome stone building, when it was arrested, and has so remained ever since. Before the completion of the railroad the trade of Eugene could not be very great, owing to the want of means for transporting the products of the country to any other market than its own. Its inhabitants, however, enjoyed peace and plenty in their own homes; and perhaps were more intellectual and more social from their isolation. The literary professions are well represented, and the trades seem to thrive as well as in more bustling places. The office of the Surveyor General of the State is located here.
Three miles above Eugene is the new town of Springfield, already a thriving little place, with flouring and saw-mills, and several manufactories. Following up the Middle Fork of the Wallamet, leads us through a valley, heading in the Cascade Range, to the south-east. This valley, together with several smaller lateral ones, contains a considerable amount of excellent land, both for grain-growing and stock-raising. For dairy purposes, much of it is excellent; also, for wool-growing. Fine water-power may be obtained in numerous places, owing to the rapid fall of the streams coming out of the mountains. It is up this valley that the Military Road leads to the Diamond Peak Pass.
It is claimed that up among these foot-hills every variety of fruit and vegetables can be more successfully cultivated than on the prairie land of the great
