Oregon, where people reside ten miles apart, and call a man neighbor who lives half a day's journey away, it is not so easy to make up a fashionable party, for sundry reasons, as in Fifth Avenue, or any other of the "close settlements" in New York. If a hop is to take place, weeks must be given to prepare in; the "store clothes" taken out, aired and brushed, old bonnets furbished up, horses driven in from distant pasture, and saddles made ready. Then the nearest settlement must be applied to for a proper amount of whisky and sugar, raisins and flour. But, on the occasion above alluded to, great efforts were made to have matters go off with éclat. Deacon L- residing on the ocean beach, about twenty miles to the southward of Coos Bay, and known as the most liberal, warm-hearted old gentleman of South Oregon, had appropriated, some time in advance, the right to give the Christmas ball. It was to last two days and two nights. Oceans of whisky, hills of venison and beef, no end of pies and "sech like." The ladies of all Coos county were to be there, and a fiddler from the distant point of Port Orford itself engaged. To this feast did all hands look forward with secret longing and hope. Two days before hand the exodus for Deacon L

's began to take place, and among the invited guests were the two "Frisco chaps," i. e., H- and myself. And on Christmas eve the ball commenced. There were gay roystering blades from Port Orford, gallants from Coos Bay, select men and distinguished individuals from all over the country, and belles from every where. Such a recherché affair had not occurred since the settlement of the territory. For two nights and days the festivities continued; and, after all the dancing, riding, drinking, singing and laughing and all this without sleeping, and with a determination to 66 never give up"- there were buxom forms and brilliant eyes that dared us to another break-down!

I snap my finger at all civilized Miss Nancys, henceforth and forever. Give me, for the essence of fun and the physical ability to carry it out, a corn-fed, rosy-cheeked, bouncing Oregon lass, with eyes bright as the rivers that sparkle merrily on their way to the sea from those snow-clad mountains, and hearts light as the fresh breezes of that northern climate! I may forget the Central American excitement; sooner or later I shall have forgotten the birth of an heir to the French throne; the siege of Sebastopol may fade away, but that Oregon ball will be ever fresh in my memory.

On recovering from this, we had made up our minds to start for California; but one day, while firing at a target the same being a tenpenny nail driven half way to the head in a pine-tree a long, lanky Missourian informed me that a whale had drifted ashore near the Heads, and that the Indians, agreeably to their custom, had commenced devouring him. "That's very extraordinary," said I.

Wall, hoss," replied my informant, "jest you mount and ride thar, and ef you don't see 'em eatin' that thar leetle fish, thar's no snakes; and his nostrils dilated with anger at my look of incredulity.

So we mounted and rode, and after an hour's scamper along a level ocean coast, a vile smell began to demonstrate the truth of at least one part of my friend's information. At a distance, and forming a hillock on

We

the white beach, lay an unwieldy mass of something, around which we could see at least a hundred Indians hasting from place to place. clapped spurs to the horses, and arriving at the spot, found a scene which I almost despair of depicting. The whale, which I believe was a large "Humpback," had, as is often the case on this coast, got into shallow water, and in his struggles and alarm presenting his body broadside on, had been rolled by the mighty surf high up the beach, like a cask or log of wood. He must have laid there some time, as the air was a putrid stench, such as I hope never again to inhale. The huge creature lay on his side, and the sand had already buried a portion of the carcass so as to render it immovable. The surf at high-water had broken entirely over it, but now there remained a considerable space of bare beach outside.

This space, and the ground for twenty yards around, was occupied by the Indians, who seemed to consider this some special dispensation of the Great Spirit in their behalf. A deafening row disputed the possession of the air with the stench. Nearly all were naked, and attacking the whale like ants. Here appeared a little pot-bellied child, whose limbs seemed scarcely capable of sustaining the swelling paunch that overtopped them, staggering up the beach with an armful of putrid blubber, the oily substance trickling down over his little body in a hundred glistening streams; there a lusty fellow with a knife, carving away as for dear life dissecting the huge subject befor him cutting his way into the interior. Farther on are two squaws, fighting for the proprietary right to a square chunk of whale, in shape something like a cake of ice as sold in New York, the said chunk coated with sand half an inch thick, as the delicious morsel has been rolled about in the squabble. Beyond, an old creature has overburdened herself with the treasures of the deep, and in pure exhaustion, decides to rest awhile, seated upon the jealously guarded prize. Still another group represents the Laocoon, the father and sons being three members of a family, and the avenging serpent a long string of unctuous blubber, under and with which they are struggling up the beach. Every body is busy. Even the chiefs have thrown. aside their dignity in the excitement of the moment, and join the general assault.

We proceeded up the beach to where some fires were burning, near a a few temporary huts. Here several women were roasting the fish, which they devoured apparently before it was well warmed through. No 'air in England ever produced, in proportion, a greater noise. My companion said they would stick by the wreck until not a plank (nautically peaking) remained, when, gorged with marine matter, they would take o the mountains, and diet on berries and young hornets. I saw the latter cooked and eaten, which is done in the following manner: A hornet or wasp's nest, perforated, as usual, with hundreds of little cells, where the young are deposited, is obtained from the hollow of some decayed tree, where they are easily found. My lady Squaw brings this cake, which is here nearly a foot in diameter, to the fire, and deliberately roasts the juvenile occupants of the cells alive. She concludes by turning the cake upside down, patting it briskly on the back, and eating the

baked tenants like whortleberries as they tumble out! This is consid. ered an excellent corrective after over-indulgence in blubber. Pike, who spoke the jargon, attempted to get into conversation with some of these Indians, but they only replied with gestures. The occasion of a whale. ashore was too rare and momentous for frivolous discussion.

The salmon fisheries of Oregon are yet scarcely known. Even in San Francisco, where the resources of the Pacific coast should be well understood, there seems to be but little attention given to the subject. There are two "runs" of salmon every year in all the rivers and bays of Oregon from the Chetkoe to the Umpqua inclusive. But one attempt has been made in Oregon to use the seine, which was on Rogue River. With imperfect apparatus and every disadvantage to work against, above five thousand of these fish were hauled from the river in two days, with the assistance of the Indians. These were packed with refuse salt, and in so hurried a manner that the fish were not cured, hence the statement, believed by many intelligent persons, that salmon can not be salted on the shores of the Pacific coast, owing to certain atmospheric causes. The English, however, with a better knowledge of affairs, have already sent two full cargoes from Vancouver's Island to China, for the salmon are found as far north as the Russian Possessions. These form the chief article of food for the Indians in Coos Bay as well as on the entire coast, and their method of catching them with hooks and spears is often an interesting spectacle.

I had intimated to my friend, Mr. Rogers, my desire to witness a torchlight salmon excursion, and, with his usual courtesy, he organized an expedition for my special benefit. The Indians collected at a point a mile below Empire City, and were nearly one entire day making their preparations. The canoes were first cleaned out and furnished with a barbed spear of wood tipped with iron or glass. A pile of pitch-pine knots were also placed in each, and other arrangements made, the nature of which I did not understand. Determined to see the whole performance, I embarked in a frail affair-a species of dug-out-having for my crew an old squaw, whose bleared eyes and skinny, wrinkled hideousness, illumined with the glare of the torch she had stuck in the bow of the canoe, reminded me of the gaunt features of some foul witch from regions damned. But I soon found that my female Charon was not to be despised, for she plied her paddle with dexterity of a-for aught I know-century's experience. We soon reached a little bend in the bay where the fleet was congregated, and the sport commenced.

The operation was simple enough. Each canoe contained two persons, a squaw squatting in the stern to take the fish from the spear and replenish the fire; and an Indian, who, from the bows, darted his weapon with absolute certainty at the fish. The light of the fire seemed to possess some attraction for the finny denizens of the bay; for as the glare passed along the surface of the water, they would dart upward toward it and become the sure prey of the spearsman. In a trice, the drumming of captured salmon was heard from a dozen boats, and my crew became so excited thereat that she nearly threw me out of the cockle-shell in gesticulating and screaming to her grandson, who was not displaying any

remarkable dexterity on that night. The cold was severe, my hands and feet were soon benumbed, and yet this apparently bloodless old creature, almost naked, showed no signs of suffering.

The scene was one of the most remarkable I ever witnessed, and but for the cold would have been superb. At my request the squaw paddled me alongside of a canoe, the proprietor of which lent me his spear; but though he pointed out dozens of salmon, some of them glorious fellows, three feet long, my unpracticed hand met with no success.

In an hour the novelty of the thing had passed, and I gave the signal to return. There were about five hundred fish taken in at that time.

Another method is to use the common fish-hook. The fleet of canoes start for some favorable locality, where the bight of the land leaves the water free from the action of the current, and the surface is speedily covered with dozens of little reels, on each of which are wound about ten yards of line. There are generally about half a dozen hooks attached to the end, which are allowed to hang from ten to twelve feet below the surface, being suspended at that guage by a float. The salmon bite greedily at the bait, and swim away, unwinding the line as they go. The reel spins around with great velocity, which is the signal for the proprietor to paddle up, haul in the captive, and administer a stunning tap on the head with a small stick provided for that purpose. There are often a dozen canoes engaged at once in this fishery-all gliding swiftly about, and more than busily engaged by the rapidity of the bites. These salmon are, beyond comparison, the most delicious in the world, even surpassing the famous ones taken in the Sacramento river in California.

The coal deposits of Coos Bay would require more space than could be devoted to them within the limits of these pages. A report, recently published by myself in San Francisco, contains the outlines of what will doubtless become hereafter widely discussed. That the importation of coal to California via Cape Horn, from Europe and the Eastern States, must eventually cease, few who are acquainted with the facts will deny. A space of country about the size of Rhode Island is a solid bed of coal, outcropping wherever a ravine or bank occurs. The veins are from six to ten feet thick. The coal has been repeatedly and satisfactorily tested, and proved to be well adapted to steamship purposes. It is in quality not unlike the Scotch cannel, but lighter, and when unmixed with foreign substances, burns to clear red ashes. But these are only a few of the boundless treasures of the unexplored regions of the Pacific, and which, as the country becomes populated, are destined to teach the inhabitants of the extreme West to rely on their own resources. California and Oregon produce nearly every article necessary to the comfort and subsistence of man, and it needs but the construction of the great avenue of population-the national railroad-to bring the country to the pinnacle of greatness and wealth. Shall we live to see it built?"

AMERICAN DESERT

In the summer of 1848, Lieut. Brewerton, of the army, made a trip from California over the mountains and through the Great American Desert. The starting point was Los Angeles, on the Pacific coast, some five hundred miles south of San Francisco. At this point Brewerton was joined by the celebrated Kit Carson, who was to be the guide and leader of the party. We abridge from Brewerton's narrative his description of the country through which he passed, and the incidents of the journey:

"The Pueblo de Los Angeles has a population of several hundred souls; and boasts a church, a padre, and three or four American shops; the streets are narrow, and the houses generally not over one story high, built of adobes, the roofs flat and covered with a composition of gravel mixed with a sort of mineral pitch, which the inhabitants say they find upon the sea-shore. This mode of roofing gives a perfectly water-proof covering, but has the rather unpleasant disadvantage of melting in warm weather, and in running down, fringes the sides of the building with long pitchicles (if we may be allowed to coin a word), thus giving to the houses an exceedingly grotesque appearance; when the heat is extreme, pools of pitch are formed upon the ground. The adobe is a brick, made of clay, and baked in the sun. Walls built of this material, from the great thickness necessary to secure strength, are warmer in the winter, and cooler in the summer, and are therefore better adapted to the climate than either wood or ordinary brick. In most respects, the town differs but little from other Mexican villages.

Just as I was beginning to weary of the comparatively idle life which we were leading, a friend informed me that Carson had arrived, and would shortly join our party at the mess-room. The name of this celebrated mountaineer had become in the ears of Americans residing in California a familiar household word; and I had frequently listened to wild tales of daring feats which he had performed. The narrators being oftentimes men noted for their immense powers of endurance, I had caught, almost insensibly, a portion of their enthusiasm, and loved to dwell upon the theme. It is scarcely wonderful, then, that I should in my mind's eye a quiet little studio of mine own, where I conjure up all sorts of fancies) not only sketch but, by degrees, fill up the details of a character which I thought must resemble the guide and companion of he adventurous Frémont. My astonishment therefore may better be conceived than described, when I turn both sides of the canvas to the reader, by drawing the picture as I had dreamed it out, and then endeav oring to portray the man as he really is.

The Kit Carson of my imagination was over six feet high-a sort of modern Hercules in his build-with an enormous beard, and a voice like a roused lion, whose talk was all of—

"" Stirring incidents by flood and field."

The real Kit Carson I found to be a plain, simple, unostentatious man;