to yield gold in paying quantities to white men, for about twelve years; since when, the diggings have chiefly been abandoned to Chinamen, who are content with smaller profits. Quartz-leads bearing gold, copper, and silver mines are known to exist in this valley, as well as lead, iron, and coal mines; but the limited capital of the inhabitants, and the greater security of other means of living, have caused them to remain undeveloped.
Like every part of the Pacific Coast, this valley has its mineral springs; and like all the rest of Oregon, its trout-streams, its fine forests, game, and abundance of good, soft water. No local causes for disease seem to exist here; and with care to avoid the miasma always arising from freshly broken ground, we can not conceive of a country more naturally healthful, or in every way pleasant to live in.
The Rogue River Valley is divided into three counties—Jackson, Josephine, and Curry. Jackson County covers an area of 11,556 square miles, and has a population of 4,759; about fifteen thousand acres of cultivated land, and assessable property to the amount of $1,500,000. The price of farming land is from five to ten dollars per acre.
Jacksonville, the county-seat of Jackson County, with a population of one thousand, is located at the head of a valley, forty miles long by about twelve wide, near the foot of the Siskiyou Mountains, in a romantic and beautiful situation. It is a thriving business place, being the point of exchange between the mining and the agricultural population. Ashland, the second town in the county, sixteen miles south-east of Jacksonville, has a fine water-power, and a woolen-mill erected upon it, which manufactures
