Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/393

 DOCUMENTS 385 MEMORIAL OF CITIZENS OF ASTORIA PROTESTING AGAINST A PROPOSED REMOVAL OF DISTRIBUTING POST OFFICE AND PORT OF ENTRY FROM ASTORIA TO PACIFIC CITY, 1850. To the Hon. The Senate House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled : The Memorial of the Undersigned Citizens of Astoria, in the Territory of Oregon, respectfully showeth : That your Memorialists have been informed that a petition has been presented, or forwarded for presentation, to your Honorable body, for the removal of the Distributing Post office and Port of Entry, from Astoria to a place called Pacific City, nominally located on Baker's Bay, under Cape Disap- pointment on the North side of the Columbia River, and about thirteen miles below Astoria. Your Memorialists show that the relation of Cape Disap- pointment to Astoria is precisely similar to that of Sandy Hook to the city of New York ; that Baker's Bay is a place of anchorage, formerly used by vessels before the discovery of what is called the South Channel, while wind bound in passing Cape Disappointment; that vessels passing through the South Channel, whether in or out, owing to the prevalent winds of the country, suffer no other detention than that attending the mouth of any other river, from actual storms ; that, on the other hand, vessels passing through the North Channel, under Cape Disappointment, are exposed to detention on entering, as well as in going out; that they have often been delayed for weeks in Baker's Bay when they might have passed on by the South Channel at once ; that the anchorage within the bar is inferior in Baker's Bay to that under Tansy Point on the south side, and vessels lying there are more exposed to the prevalent winter storms. Your Memorialists further show that since the survey of the mouth of the Columbia by Commander Wilkes, the bar has un- dergone considerable change ; that the old channel has con- tracted, while the South or Clatsop Channel, has straightened