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8 longer or shorter, or wider or deeper, than another: it is that each conveys a thought of the country, the people, the history, and the commerce of its own peculiar region.

In comparison with other rivers of equal size and geographical importance, the Columbia is very little known. That generation is yet in its prime which was taught that the whole of the North-west Territory was Oregon—that it had one river, the Columbia, and one town, Portland, situated on the Columbia. It is the object of this volume to correct these effete notions of one of the most genial and beautiful portions of our Republic; and to connect with the name of the some proper ideas of its history, geography, commerce, and scenery, as well as to describe the extensive country which it drains.