grand mountains and quiet, fertile valleys, lying between beautiful slopes; with oak groves looking like old orchards, and open woods of the noble sugar-pine; with abundant wild fruits and flowers, balmy airs, and odors of sweet-scented violets. "It is," a lady said to us, "a paradise of beauty, where, if one had one's friends, life would be as charming as could be desired."
Kirbyville is the shire-town of Josephine County, situated on the Illinois River, and doing the business of a flourishing country town. Several other places of minor importance are located on the different streams. Educational and religious privileges have not kept pace with other improvements in this part of the Rogue River Valley, for the same reason that renders all mining localities inattentive to such matters—the want of a permanent population. They wait for an influx of steady-going settlers with families, a great number of whom could find delightful homes in Josephine County, at Government prices, or under the homestead law.
Curry County differs from Josephine, in being more heavily timbered, as the mountains nearest the coast are always found to be. In among the mountains are some small prairies, and others are found extending along the sea-shore. The soil everywhere is highly productive; but owing to the great preponderance of lumbering and mineral interests, this county will not become notable for agriculture, though it might be esteemed an excellent fruit or dairy country. Its population is small, on account of its inaccessibility. The present population follow gold-mining, chiefly on the ocean-beach, where is an inexhaustible mine, which the winter winds and tides throw up each year for the
