Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 4.djvu/92

80 a slight idea. The general character of the country is broken and mountainous, but is interspersed with beautiful valleys. The first I shall introduce to you is the place of Clatsop; it is very small, but beautiful; it is bounded on the north by the Columbia, west by the ocean, and south and east by heavy timbered land; it is about twenty miles in length by two in breadth; from the sea beach to the big timber the soil is of the best quality, capable of producing any vegetation grown in any of the northern or western states in the U. S. As the wind is nine tenths of the time from the salt water, I believe it to be one of the most healthy places on the globe. It is now four years since the first whites settled here, and there has not been a case of sickness nor a death as yet, and but ten or fifteen births, for there is not a woman that has a husband, but what well fulfills the Commandment by about every year giving birth to a fine chub, and very often two at a time, and some instances of women, without husbands, lending a hand in populating our valuable country, and all owing to the climate and shellfish (?) which we have in abundance.

The number of families at this place is fourteen, counting in five bachelor halls. The tide flows from 9 to feet perpendicular at the mouth of the Columbia. We will now proceed up the river. Thirteen miles from the bar is old Astoria, now occupied by the H. B. Co. This place is a beautiful situation for a town, and will probably be the New York of Oregon; it has a full view of the whole harbor, and a vessel can lay at any time in perfect safety. Now three miles and we come to Tongue Point; this is a narrow point of land running into the river; a fortification on it could have full command of the river, as the channel runs near the point. On we go; heavy timber and broken land on each side of the river, which is from three to ten miles wide; we now come to the mill which I told you I was erecting. I will tell you more of that by and by, but we will go ahead. The banks of the river heavy timbered and broken, but the soil rich; we now come to Coulitye [Cowlitz] River, which is about 200 yards wide at the mouth, comes in on the north side of the Columbia, about 50 miles from the mouth of the Columbia. We will ascend this river 15 miles, against a strong current. The country now opens out into a large plain, many miles in length and breadth, the soil of the best quality, beautifully watered, and interspersed with timber. At the time I first visited these parts there were but fourteen families of French and half-breeds, but since that time there has been a number of American families settled in this section. The valley is one or more hundred miles, in diameter, and situated on one of the noblest harbors on our coast, that, is the Puget Sound. Now we will return to the Columbia, and ascend 40 miles to the Willemette River, of which you will get an idea by the paper which I send. Six miles above the Willemette River is Vancouvers, the principal depot of the Hudson Bay Co.; all of their ship-