Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/214

160 eral leagues above its mouth. Its bed, navigable only for barges, is extremely winding; the fallen trees, rocks and rapids which obstruct it make its navigation dangerous. In several places its shores are of perpendicular rock, and these great masses of granite, encumbered with thick forests, give a wild and sombre character to the country; however, as soon as the ground becomes lower, you see fields covered with excellent pasturage. The number of hectares put in cultivation by the direction of the Company is about 100.

The Hudson's Bay Company has no establishment on the Willamette except a little wooden house, kept by one man, and situated at the fall of this river which rises to the southeast in the Sierra Nevada, and empties into the Columbia six miles below and opposite Fort Van Couver. Between its two arms is Ouapatoo [Wapatoo,] or Multnomah Island, now unhabited. Up to twelve leagues from its mouth the course of the Willamette is perfectly navigable for ships of two hundred tons. You encounter at this distance a vertical fall of forty feet, formed of layers of basalt which take up the whole river, the width of which is about four hundred meters. Ships can come to anchor under the fall; the depth at the right is from five to six fathoms. During the summer, when the waters are low, you can see three distinct cascades, and the division of the waters is made by an island and some rocks in the middle of the stream; but during the season of rains and melting snows, the three canals are united and the falling sheet of water extends from bank to bank. It is evident that these falls, possession of which is already assured to the Company, will acquire importance later; with the aid of small canals and by dividing the course of the water, it will be able to put in operation a large number of factories, grist mills and sawmills, already in use in the country. When you arrive at the falls of the Willamette, you are obliged to make a portage of about two hundred paces; you can