Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/432

422 make their appearance in the vicinity of Vancouver, first in the Klackamus. The best salmon are taken in June. The sturgeon is a very large fish, caught with a hook and line, and is good eating. They are taken in the Wallamette, below the falls, and in the Columbia at all points, and in the Snake River as high up as Fort Boisé.

.—As I have before stated, the navigation of the Columbia is good to The Dalles, with the exception of the cascades. The river near the ocean is very wide, forming bays, and is>subject to high winds, which render the navigation unsafe for small craft. The difficulties at the mouth of the river will rapidly diminish as the business increases, and they have regular pilots and steam towboats. Ships pass up the Wallamette some five miles above Linnton, where there is a bar; but small ships go up higher, and to within seven or eight miles of the falls. Above the falls, the Wallamette is navigable for steamboats about fifty miles. Tom Hill River is navigable for canoes and keelboats up to the forks, the distance I can not say. The navigation of this, the first section, is much better than that of the second section.

.—The water power of this country is unequaled, and is found distributed throughout this section. The water power at the falls of the Wallamette can not be surpassed in the world. Any quantity of machinery can be put in motion; but the good water power is not confined to the Wallamette Falls. Everywhere on the Columbia and Wallamette rivers there are mill sites as good, but not so large as the falls. Most of the mill sites in this country are overshots; but we have not only the finest water power, but we have the finest timber.

.—The timber of this section of Oregon constitutes one main source of its wealth. It is found in inexhaustible quantities on the Columbia and on the Wallamette, just where the water power is at hand to cut it up, and where ships can take it on board. The principal timber of this section is the fir, white cedar, white oak, and black ash. There three kinds of fir, the white, yellow, and red, all of them fine timber for planks, shingles, boards, and rails. The white fir makes the best shingles. The fir is a species of the pine, grows very tall and straight, and stands very thick upon the ground. Thick as they stand upon the ground, when you cut one it never lodges, for the reason this timber never forks, and the limbs are too small to stop a falling tree. You can find them in the vicitity of Linnton, from eight feet in diameter to small saplings; and the tallest of them will measure about two hundred and twenty-five feet. In the Cascade Mountains, and near the mouth of the Columbia River, they rise to the height of three hundred feet. The fir splits exceedingly well, and makes the finest boards of any timber I have ever seen. I cut one tree from which I sawed twenty-four cuts of three-foot boards, and there are plenty of such trees all