something like a dozen dollars worth of work, and that is all, and the goods have not come yet. But you must not think that I am sick of the country, or anything of the kind, for I wish you to understand that I like the country. I believe it to be as good farming country as any you have east of the Rockey Mountains, anywhere. I have seen better garden sauce, of every kind and better wheat, far better than I ever seen in any part of the east. I will just tell you of one man that I heard of to day, and I can hear of such a most any time, and might tell you of lots of such instances if I wished. But I know you will take them to be some big yarns of mine or some ones else. This case was of a man that had tended six acres of land for the last three years, and he has cleared two thousand dollars from the six acres, each year, and then cleared nearly as much more in trading in diferent parts of the country, for it only took him a small part of his time to attend to his place. The country as a general thing is hilly like N. England, but the soil is far better. There is prairias in diferent parts of the country and some of them I am told are as handsom as any in Illinois, and especially upon the Chehales River. But you wish to know how far the Bay is from the sound. I do not know as I can tell correctly, but from Cape Disappointment, on the north side of the mouth of the Columbia, to the mouth of Shoal Water Bay I believe is 28 miles, acrost the mouth of the bay is from 8 to 10 miles, from there around on the beach to Grays Harbor is 15 miles, you then go up this harbor some distance, or to the river, and I believe it is some 30 or 40 miles over to Olympa.
The country that I have spoken of so much, lies betwene the Chehales, and the Sound. But you have probably got my discription of the Bay before this, so you will be able to form a very good idea of it from that. Levi must not think that the Oisters that are caught in these waters are good for nothing, for I doubt whether he or any one can get any better, in the N. England waters. They sell in San Francisco for $10 and $12 per bushel,[1]
- ↑ The first oysters in the San Francisco market were taken there from Astoria in 1851, by Charles J. W. Russell, of Pacific City. In the fall of the same year Captain Fieldsted took from Shoalwater Bay the first load of oysters to San Francisco; Swan, 25.
