size.

[Illustration: PORTLAND, ORE.
On the Union Pacific Ry.]

But while Portland may justly claim to be the peer of any city of its
size in the United States in all that pertains to social life, in the
attractions of beauty of location and surroundings it stands without its
peer. The work of art is but the copy of nature. What the residents of
other cities see but in the copy, or must travel half the world over to
see in the original, the resident of Portland has at his very door.

The city is situate on gently-sloping ground, with, on the one side,
the river, and on the other a range of hills, which, within easy
walking distance, rise to an elevation of a thousand feet above the
river, affording a most picturesque building site. From the very
streets of the thickly settled portion of the city, the Cascade
Mountains, with the snow-capped peaks of Hood, Adams, St. Helens, and
Rainier, are in plain view. As the hills to the west are ascended the
view broadens, until, from the extreme top of some of the higher
points, there is, to the east, the valley stretching away to the
Cascade Mountains, with its rivers, the Columbia and Willamette; in the
foreground Portland, in the middle distance Vancouver, and, bounding
the horizon, the Cascade Mountains, with their snow-clad peaks, and the
gorge of the Columbia in plain sight, whilst away to the north the
course of the Columbia may be followed for miles. To the west, from the
foot of the hills, the valley of the Tualatin stretches away twenty odd
miles to the Coast Range, which alone shuts out the view of the Pacific
Ocean and bounds the horizon on the west. To the glaciers of Mt. Hood
is but little more than a day's travel. The gorge of the Columbia,
which in many respects equals, and in others surpasses the far-famed
Yosemite, may be visited in the compass of a day. The Upper Willamette,
within the limits of a few hours' trip, offers beauties equaling the
Rhine, whilst thirty-six hours gives the Lower Columbia, beside which
the Rhine and Hudson sink into insignificance. In short, within a few
hours' walk of the heart of this busy city are beauties surpassing the
White Mountains or Adirondacks, and the grandeur of the Alps lies
within the limits of a day's picnicking.

There is no better guarantee of the advantageous position of Portland
than the wealth which has accumulated here in the short period which
has elapsed since the city first sprang into existence. Theory is al