Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/252

242 a little English and many signs, we viewed them with much curiosity and interest. The natives showed themselves sufficiently shrewd in bargaining for the trinkets, molasses, and bread which we gave them in exchange for their provisions. The practice of compressing the forehead, of perforating the septum of the nose and ears, and inserting shells, bits of copper, beads, or in fact any kind of hardware, gives a stranger a curious idea of the singular habits of these people.

On Monday, the llth, the ship went up the river, and anchored on the side opposite the establishment at Point Ellis, and the following day we were received by Mr. McKenzie, the person then in charge, who informed us they were about to abandon the present place for a more commodious situation ninety miles up the river, on the north side. Also, that the chief factor, John McLoughlin, Esq., was there, but would be down as soon as he received intelligence of the ship's arrival. From Mr. McKenzie we experienced great attention;, and though we did not quit the vessel till the 19th, I was daily on shore. With respect to the appearance of the country, my expectations were fully realized, in its fertility and variety of aspect and of soil. The greater part, as far as the eye could reach, was covered with Pines of various species. The Atlantic side of this great continent much exceeds the western coast in the variety of its kinds of forest trees; there are no Beeches, Magnolias, Gleditschias, or Juglans, and only one kind of Oak and of Ash on the Pacific side.

Cape Disappointment, on the southern [northern] bank of the river at the ocean, is a remarkable promontory of rock, forming a good sea-mark, elevated about 700 feet above the level of the sea, and covered with Pines and brushwood. The country to the northward, near the ocean, is hilly. The opposite point, called Point Round, or Point Adams of Lewis and Clark, is low, and in many places swampy; a ridge of low hills runs for about forty miles southward, skirting the sea, as far as Cape Lookout [Tillamook Head], so named by Vancouver. The breadth of the Columbia is