Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 29).djvu/77

 the stately ship through the heavy seas and swells most merrily.

The lead is dipping, and the sailors are chanting each measure as they take it; we approach the bar; the soundings decrease; every shout grows more and more awful! the keel of the Vancouver is within fifteen inches of the bar! Every breath is suspended, and every eye fixed on the leads, as they are quickly thrown again! They sink; and the chant for five fathoms enables us to breathe freely. We have passed the bar; Captain Duncan grasps his passengers by the hand warmly, and congratulates them at having escaped being lost in those wild waters, where many a noble ship and brave heart have sunk together and for ever.

Off the mouth of the Columbia—on the deep, long swells of the Pacific seas. The rolling surges boom along the mountainous shores. Up the vale one hundred miles the white pyramid of Mount Washington towers above the clouds, and the green {275} forest of Lower Oregon. That scene I shall never forget. It was too wild, too unearthly to be described. It was seen at sunset; and a night of horrid tempest shut in upon this, the author's last view of Oregon.

The following abstract of Commander Wilkes' Report on Oregon came to hand while this work was in the press, and the author takes great pleasure in appending it to his work. Mr. Wilkes' statistics of the Territory, it will be seen, agree in all essential particulars with those given in previous pages. There is one point only of any importance that needs to be named, in regard to which truth requires a protest; and that is contained in the commander's concluding remarks. It will be seen on reference to them, that the agricultural capabilities of Oregon are placed above those of any part of the world beyond the tropics.