HISTORY OF OREGON.
CHAPTER I.
OREGON IN 1834.
The Northwest Coast and the Oregon Territory—Physical Features—Mountain Ranges and Rivers—The Imperious Columbia—Distribution of Vegetation—Climate—Sunshine and Rain—Post-plantings of Civilization—Fort Vancouver—Its Lord Paramount—The Garden—Hospitality—Money, Morality, and Religion—Fort George—Fort Nisqually—Forts Langley, Umpqua, and Walla Walla—Okanagan and Colville—Forts Hall and Boisé—Fort William and Wapato Island—The French-Canadian Settlement—Missionaries, Traders, Farmers, Horse-dealers, Scientists, and Fur-hunters as Empire-builders—Origin of the Term Oregon.
The Oregon Territory, when first the term came into use, embraced the same somewhat undefined region which in these Pacific States histories I have denominated the Northwest Coast; namely, the lands lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, and extending northward indefinitely from the forty-second parallel of latitude. Later the name Oregon was applied to a narrower area.
In surface and climate it is varied; in resources limitless, though its possibilities are little known. There is grand and beautiful scenery in every portion of it; some wild and rugged, some treeless and lonely; altogether a magnificent stretch of primeval wilderness. It is divided longitudinally by the Cascade Mountains, one with the Snowy Range of California
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