A large area of land belongs to this county, probably 1,280,000 acres; of which the greater part is covered with timber. The small valleys we have mentioned, and slopes of many of the timbered ridges, furnish a fair proportion of arable land.
The Nehalem River, which forms the boundary between Tillamook and Clatsop counties, although possessing no harbor at its entrance, has one of the most important valleys on the coast. This river rises in the Coast Mountains, far to the cast, and flows through them, by long meanderings, to the sea, having its mouth only a few miles north of Tillamook Bay. For twenty miles back from the ocean the country along the Nehalem is broken; but at this distance the valley opens out, from half a mile to a mile and a half in width, and continues of this breadth for forty or fifty miles. The soil is a sandy loam, very warm and fertile. On each side of this valley, or bottom-land, the country rises with a gentle slope, far back, and is covered with a fine growth of the best timber; the forest being little obstructed by undergrowth. The soil of the timbered land is also a rich black loam, of great depth, which will make fine farms, when cleared of the timber. The Nehalem country is attracting much attention; and although still unsurveyed, is rapidly being taken up by settlers.
Clatsop County we have already described m an early chapter. To sum up the coast country of Oregon: it is a narrow strip of country along the sea, often intersected by small rivers, some of them with bays of a large size, suitable for harbors; and all of them with some excellent bottom-lands back between the ridges. The bottom-lands are generally covered with a growth of alder, cherry, vine-maple, and kindred
