and it never changed its habit of trying at times to stay on top of the ground, or of trying to go to the center of the earth; and it was this habit that made us boys wish it might sometimes wear out; although the prospect was discouraging in view of the renewal of its parts. To cultivate old ground with it, where there were no sod and roots, was bad enough, for it was like dragging an anchor, since the mould board was never known to scour. But although the mould hoard was of such shape that sod rolled up before it like a scroll, it turned up its nose at every root it approached and, unless prevented by the person at the handles, would glide over the top of it, or, if prevented, would try to go under it.
Now we boys knew all the tricks of this veteran implement, and one day in the early summer time of 1849, we were required to break a small tract of sod ground with it. We had two yoke of heavy steers and their gait on a warm day, without urging, was very slow. Several times when the plow had struck a root and was prevented from jumping out of the ground, it had turned its point downward and balked the team. There was only one thing we could do then: dig the plow out and take a new start. After several hours spent in stopping and digging up the plow, we talked the matter over and concluded that the team stopped because the oxen moved so slowly, so the next time we were approaching a root, a large wild sunflower, I urged the team forward till the oxen were almost ready to break into a trot, while my brother put his arms under the plow handles and raised them to his shoulders to prevent the plow from jumping out of the ground. This time when the plow struck the root and turned its nose down, the team did not balk; it walked right along dragging a shattered plowbeam and the old "Cast Plow" was a total wreck. There we left its remains buried in the soil of the valley. If, as the pioneer plow of old Polk, it had anything to do with "Saving Oregon," it builded much better than it plowed.
The hills of the Coast range rose like a continuous wall four thousand feet high along the line of the ocean. Covered over with a dense evergreen forest, vast, dark and as yet unexplored, they marked the western line of our horizon. Being now comfortably fixed, father concluded to go on a hunting and exploring trip into these mountains. Supposing
