tom lands in the vicinity. Partly because it became
a railroad centre, and partly because it is surrounded by rich
valleys, Los Angeles has grown with great rapidity and now stands
next to San Francisco in size among California cities.

San Diego, which has a harbor next in importance to that of San
Francisco, has grown more slowly, because of the greater difficulty
in developing water systems for irrigation, and because access
is not so easy on account of the enclosing mountains. However,
it must in time become the second commercial city of the state.

Mountain barriers make travel from one portion of California to
another somewhat difficult. Mountains separate San Francisco and the
Great Valley of California from all other portions of the continent.
Nature seems to have planned here a little empire all by itself. But
engineering skill in the construction of railroads has overcome the
barrier upon the north which separates California from Oregon. The
Sierra Nevada range upon the east has been crossed at Donner Pass,
and upon the south an outlet has been found through the Tehachapi
Pass.

In the state of Oregon, the city of Portland ranks first in importance.
Why did not Astoria or Fort Vancouver develop into the metropolis
of the Columbia basin?

Astoria, which was founded in the early part of the last century, has
a spacious and well-protected harbor, but it has no large tributary
agricultural valleys. Moreover, the greater number of deep-water
ships pass it by, and go as far up the Columbia as possible to
take on their loads of grain.

Fort Vancouver, on the site of the old Hudson Bay trading post, is
practically at the head of deep-water navigation upon the Columbia,
but there seems to be no particular reason why trade should centre
here, and this town also has been left behind in the march of progress.

The earliest settlements in western Oregon were made upon the Willamette
River, which drains a large and extremely fertile valley. Near the
point at which this river joins the Columbia, the city of Portland
sprang up. This town occupies an ideal position. It is accessible
for deep sea vessels, and has communication by river boats with
the Willamette Valley and the upper Columbia River.

In the eighteenth century, when sailors were looking for a passage
across the northern portion of the continent, an opening was found
extending into the land between Vancouver Island and Cape Flattery.
It was at first though