Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/228

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222
OREGON AND WASHINGTON.

work of the following summer. The gold which is everywhere found on the coast of Oregon, but more particularly this southern portion, conclusively proves that deposits of the precious metal exist in the Cascade or Coast mountains, or both. That which is found at the mouth of the Umpqua and Rogue rivers might have been washed from the Cascade Range, as those rivers rise there. But farther north, on the coast, where the streams all rise in the Coast Range, gold is also found, though it has not been mined, as in these localities it has. In fact, the "color" may be "raised" in almost any stream in Oregon, and we have seen it taken out of the gravel in a well which was being dug in Portland.

Curry County is well supplied with game and fish. Its splendid cedar forests are worth more than a gold-mine to whoever will convert them into lumber. Cedar-trees that have not a limb on them for a hundred feet, and from three to eight feet in diameter, are not uncommon. Port Orford, the only port of the Rogue River Valley, is in this county, and also Cape Blanco, the westernmost point in Oregon. There is good harborage at Port Orford, and water enough for such vessels as are used in the lumber trade. In fair weather, the ocean steamers sometimes call here. A road is built across the mountains from the port into the Umpqua Valley; so that, with some improvements, Curry County might be brought into note for its natural productions, instead of being considered too far out of the world to be habitable. Ellenburg is the county-seat.

Curry County shares, in common with all the coast country, a climate superior in some respects to the valleys. The changes in temperature are less than in