ORTGON (named from the Oregon, now the Columbia, River. probably an American Indian name). A fAestern State of the United States, lying on the Paeitie Slope, between latitudes 42° and 46 Is' N., and betm.en longitudes 33' and 25' \V. It is bounded on the north by the State of Washington, on the east by Idaho, on the south by Nevada and California, and on the %vest by the Pacific Ocean. Its extreme length from east to west is :396 miles, and from north to south 300 miles. Its arca is 96.030 square miles, of which 94,560 square miles, or 60,515,400 acres. are land surface. Lt ranks seventh in size among the States.
Toe(matAeliv. The salient features of the to pography are the two mountain ranges extending parallel with the coast through the western part of the State, and the great inland plateau in the east. The coast is rocky and abrupt, and ruins in an almost straight line north and south, with no very prominent inlets or headlands. There are, however, besides the wide month of the Columbia River on the north boundary, several small bays or harbors, such as Tillamook, Win chester, and Coos hays, all of are land locked, with narrow entrances. Near the south ern boundary the coast runs out in an obtuse angle ending in Cape illaneo. The land rises immediately from the coast to the crest of the Coast Range, which is about 20 miles inland, and has a height of 1000 to 4000 feet. ft is heavily forested. and though of irregular outline, \Vitt' many transverse valleys, it is unbroken, save in two or three places. throughout the length of the State. The Cascade Mountains run parallel with the Coast Range about 120 miles from the coast. They are the prolongation of the Sierra Nevada, rise to an average height of over Goo feet, and are crowned by a line of extinct volcanic cones, several of which are over 9000 feet high, while Mount flood, the (mlminating point near the northern boundary, has all altitude of 11,225 feet. Like the Coast flange, the Cascades are heavily forested, and their sunnnits are covered with snow. Between the two ranges extends a broad valley, divided by several spurs and cross ranges, and becoming rough and mountainous in the south, while the northern half forms the rolling prairie valley of the 'Willamette. The region
east of the Cascades covers two-thirds of the area of the and consist; of an elevated plateau. The southern half of this belongs to the Clrent American Basin, though its floor has an elevation of 5000 feet, rising to 6000 feet in the southeast. Several of the laiwitudinal Basin Ranges of Nevada extend into this plateau. and large areas are covered with lava flows. The northern half slopes northward toward the valley of the Columbia River. It is more undulating than the southern plateau. and is traversed in the northeast by the Blue Mountains, an irreg ular chain rising to a height of 7000 feet, and sending out side spurs flanked by deep valleys. Some of the rivers in this region have cut deep canons, especially the Snake River on the north. eastern boundary, whose cation almost rivals that of the Colorado.
ItYDROGRAPHY. The Columbia River forms, with an interruption at the Falls of the Dillies, a large. navigable waterway for 300 miles along the northern boundary. its chief tributaries in the State are the Willamette west of the Cas cades, and on the eastern plateau the Deschutes, John Day, and Umatilla, whose branches form a considerable network of minor stn-ams. The Snake River, which joins the Columbia in Wash ington, forms about one-half of the eastern boundary. and its chief tributary, the Owyhee, runs inside the boundary along the remaining half. The streams flowing directly into the ocean are mostly short, but two of them, the Umpqua and the Rogue, rise on the Cascades and break through the Coast Range. On the interior plateau there are a number of streams running into lakes which have no out het. There are a number of lakes of considerable size in the south-central portion, the largest of which are (loose Lake, which lies partly in California Klamath Lake, at the base of the Cascades, 30 miles long; and Malheur Lake, on the eastern plateau, 22 miles long.