like the Illinois prairia as near as I can learn, without rigdges so you suppose, and large enough for any sized farms you pleas, but up this vally they are nearly all taken up that are good for anything. You speak of prairias east of the mountains, being sandy and destitute of water. If you refer to the country east of the Cascade mountains, you are mistaken about there being sandy, for the soil is a yellow clay coller, and is more like a very fine dust as destitute of grit (illegible text) flour. .....
About coming here. I was talking to a sea Capt. a day or two ago, he said he thought you could get your family landed in Portland for $350, three hundred & fifty, or four hundred dollars, and that it will cost about eighteen dollars ($18.00) pr ton to bring goods here. This is to come around the horn....
We have a half of a bbl of Salmon & Salmon Trout put up for the winter....
The Cohnsey[1] was up here last Sept. and they had a lot of cloths pins so the cook grabed a whole box and gave them to me. This time up he gave Irving two good cloth Coats, one Vest and a pr Pants, and gave Ann a large Chinees wine collored silk Shall worked with silk twist 12 inches deep on all sides, and 36 inches up in each corner, a large silk fringe 9 inches deep and is 66 inches broad exclusive of the fringe. As near as I can find out he must have stole it in San Francisco. It has been worn some, for it is slightly spotted in two or three places. It is however one of the handsomest things that I ever saw of the Shall kind. I saw a lot of Chineese furniture[2] in Portland yesterday that was forty times nicer, neater & handsomer than anything I ever see in the east any where. The pollish and painting is ahead of any thing that can be made in the states. There was also a lot of Chineese Jewelry, a necklace and pin was valued at $450, four hundred & fifty dollars, they were filled with diamonds & pearls, and set in silver. The whole lot was by far the reachest that I ever saw. I believe that the whole lot, furniture and all is to be raffled for the first day of Jan. 1854, Tickets, one dollar....
