tive species are abundant, and delicious. Game abounds in the mountains; fish in the streams. In this month of October we saw on the apple and pear-trees a new set of blossoms—some of the fruit having grown as large as a gooseberry.
Douglas County has under cultivation only twenty-five thousand acres, with a population of six thousand. From this average it will be seen that grazing is more followed than grain-growing. The reasons are obvious for the preponderance of stock-raisers: the difficulty of getting so heavy a product as grain to market, over mountain roads; and the greater profit of wool, which can be exported; or of beef-cattle and hogs, which can be driven to the mines, in adjacent counties, or California.
Douglas County has a sea-port of its own—Scottsburg—situated at the head of navigation, on the Umpqua River, about thirty miles from the sea. Umpqua Bay is a small, but safe harbor, into which vessels and steamers of light draught can come with ease. It was once projected to build up a city at the mouth of the river, and a company for that purpose was formed in 1849; but the project was finally abandoned as being premature. Scottsburg is at present the main entrepot for the commerce of this valley—from which port goods are wagoned fifty miles to Roseburg. Late surveys of the river between Scottsburg and Roseburg have resulted in an attempt to improve its navigation between these two places, so that boats can come up to Roseburg about six months in the year.
The resources of the Umpqua Valley, besides its agriculture and stock-raising, are gold-mining and lumbering. Really, its mineral wealth is very little known. Coal beds are found on the north fork of the Umpqua.
