the report. We hasten to the wharf and scrutinize her passengers, while her captain exchanges courtesies with custom-house officers. In half an hour she is off again, leaving us to wonder how long it will be before Astoria gets her railroad, and ocean steamers discharge their cargoes within a dozen miles of the sea.
The situation of Astoria as a commercial entrepot, although, in some respects, a fine one, has its drawbacks, being cut off from the interior by the rugged and densely timbered mountains of the Coast Range; and, while it is true that the engineering science of the present day discovers obstacles only to overcome them, a good practical reason must be given capitalists for incurring enormous expenses. What course the railroad companies, now operating in Oregon, will pursue with regard to this point, can, at present, hardly be conjectured. The country now tributary to Astoria is a narrow strip of coast, which produces, like the Clatsop Plains, excellent vegetables, fruits, and dairy products, but is not usually well adapted to grain-raising. These products are continually increasing, as the numerous small valleys, in the radius of fifty miles, are being settled and improved; yet, it is our impression that the proper exports of this portion of the Columbia Valley are lumber, fish, and minerals, among the principal of which are coal and cement. The stone of which the new custom-house is built is taken from a quarry on the Washington side of the river, but is, by no means, handsome in color, or regular in stratification, being, apparently, formed from a deposit of sand around other bowlders, which are as hard as flint, and, occurring frequently, seriously interfere with the quarrying of regular blocks.
The Columbia, opposite Astoria, is six miles in width,
