Texas was acquired by annexation in 1845, and New Mexico and Colorado by conquest and treaty with Mexico after the war of 1846-8; and Alaska was acquired by purchase from Russia in 1867.

Oregon, discovered by Captain Gray, of Boston, in 1792, was explored by authority of the United States, by Lewis and Clark, in 1804-5. In 1808, the Missouri Fur Company established a post on the head waters of the Snake or Lewis river; and, in 1811, John Jacob Astor, of New York, founded the Pacific Fur Company, at Astoria, near the mouth of the river Columbia. This was the beginning of settlement in the country. At a more remote period, the Hudson Bay Fur Company, an English incorporation, was established in Oregon. This latter company, by its factors and employés, held almost despotic sway over the native tribes and white settlers until 1850.

As early as 1830, emigrants were making their way over the Rocky mountains and into Oregon. The liberal inducement of six hundred and forty acres of land free to every head of a family and three hundred and twenty acres to each person twenty-one years of age emigrating to the Territory, offered by Congress, had, up to 1849, attracted considerable emigration; so that when the gold-fields of California, in 1849, attracted their thousands of miners, Oregon was prepared to supply flour, lumber, butter, eggs, cheese, and fruit to the gold-hunter who roamed over the then untilled valleys of California.

In 1843, Oregon was organized as a Territory, and on the 12th of February, 1859, was admitted a State into the Union. The State is bounded on the south

by the northern line of California and a part of the

State of Nevada, east by Idaho, north by the River Columbia, and west by the Pacific ocean. The southern line of Oregon, where it joins the State of Califor nia, is in the forty-second parallel of north latitude, and the northern line, at the mouth of the Columbia river, is in 46° 20′ of north latitude.

The area of Oregon is 95,274 square miles-about 61,000,000 acres; and the population, in 1870, was 90,776, of whom 86,929 were white, 346 colored, 3,330 Chinese; and 79,323 were of native American birth and 11,600 of foreign birth.

The physical features of Oregon are rugged hills covered with fir and oak trees; lofty mountains clad in perpetual snow; vast and dense forests of fir and cedar; rolling hills of deep rich soil; extensive valleys of perpetual verdure and unsurpassed productiveness; numerous lakes, springs, and streams; majestic rivers, whose cascades, combined with a rich forest scenery, make Oregon one of the most picturesque quarters of the republic.

The climate of Oregon is mild. Winter, which commences in December, casts its mantle of snow upon the elevated hills, and burnishes anew the high mountain peaks where summer heats are unknown.

Throughout the forest and valley districts snow and ice are rarely seen; and, in the Wallamet and other principal agricultural valleys, it is perpetual summer. Once perhaps during each winter a few inches of snow will fall, but in most of cases it is swept away either by rain or the heat of the sun in one or two days; sometimes it may linger for a week, but this is rare. Ice of a few inches in thickness is formed during each winter in some places, but it remains only for a few days; and,

in the agricultural and grazing districts, sheep, horses, and cattle run at large and forage during the whole season. But there are periods in severe winters when snow and cold rains are disastrous to stock, and when the kindly hand of the farmer is necessary to supply them with food; but generally grass is green throughout the whole year, and all stock live at large in the open air.

At Astoria, and along the whole Coast Range, rain falls in great abundance during the winter and spring; but in the interior, and particularly in the eastern portion of the State, the rainfall is not half so great as upon the Coast Range, and the winters, generally rainy, are warm and pleasant.

Fields of growing grain covering the ground may be seen in the months of January and February, and vegetables grow throughout the whole year. In Oregon, as in California, it is not easy to draw the lines dividing the seasons. Winter is known only by the presence of a greater amount of rain and a little colder weather; summer is mild, with showers of rain, blended well into the late spring season and early summer, and the excessive heats of the Atlantic States are unknown.

The hottest days are not oppressive, owing to the coolness of the nights. Once in a great while the heat of summer will reach one hundred and ten degrees in the shade; but, owing to the cool nights, the heat does not reach its greatest extent until early in the afternoon, lasting only three or four hours during the day.

Oregon is as far north as the northern boundary of the State of Maine, but the degrees of cold in each are very different. In many parts of Oregon winter never reaches the freezing-point; while in Maine for six

months it is perpetual winter, where frost and piercing winds carry terror before them.

The climate of Oregon is milder than the climate of either Virginia, Kentucky, or Tennessee; and at Astoria, the mouth of the Columbia river, the average temperature is little different from that of San Francisco; the annual temperature being in summer fifty-two and in winter forty-two degrees above zero.

The wide agricultural and grazing ranges of Oregon are well supplied with copious streams from the mountain sides; and the water-power of the State, which might easily be employed in turning the wheels of mechanical industry, is not surpassed in the United States. The Falls of the Wallamet, at Oregon City, are of great volume and force; and the majestic Columbia, having its source in the western slope of the Rocky mountains, far in the interior of British Columbia, where it is fed by the eternal snows of that region, coursing through British Columbia, Washington Territory, and for more than three hundred miles forming the northern boundary of Oregon, with its cascades and numerous falls, affords unlimited motive-power. The River Columbia, forming the boundary between Oregon and Washington Territory, may be classed among the most important navigable rivers of the world, and is surpassed in extent only by one river on the whole Pacific coast of America- the majestic Yukon, of Alaska, flowing for more than two thousand miles toward the sea.

At the historic town of Astoria, in Oregon, where the Columbia empties into the Pacific ocean, it is a broad and noble stream; and for one hundred and sixty miles to the Cascades-affords a navigable course for