Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 22.djvu/82



72 C. F. COAN

tract, it is very even and regular along the Coast, but approach- ing the Mountains, it is uneven and hilly. Tillamook Bay affords a fine harbor, with sufficient depth of water on the bar for vessels drawing twelve feet of water; There are no less than five considerable streams putting into the bay ; the valley of one of which extends fifty miles along the stream, making richest of bottom lands. Much of this purchase is open coun- try and as far as known, without settlers. Travellers all concur in representing it as offering equal inducements to set- tlers with any portion of Oregon.

The lands ceded by the Waukikam and Konniack bands of Chinooks is everywhere densely covered with timber, and has many very valuable mill-powers upon it ; that part lying upon, and for two or three miles back from the Columbia, is very hilly with many bluffs and deep ravines. The balance is mod- erately rolling, and susceptible of cultivation. The Cowlitz river near the east side of the tract is sufficiently large for Steamboats to the rapids fifteen miles up from the Columbia, at the rapids it is a series of falls suitable for Milling purposes which extend many miles interior.

The country ceded by the Konniack's upon the South side of the Columbia is composed of flat lands adjacent to this river, with deep, rich soil, then gradually rolling, but good farming land extends to the bounds of the Klatskania's a distance of about twenty miles. These lands were once owned by the Klatskania's above mentioned, and as an instance to show the rapidity with which the Indian upon these shores is pass- ing away, I will relate, that this tribe was, at the first settlement of the Hudson's Bay Company in Oregon, so warlike and formidable that the Company's men dare not pass their pos- sessions along the river, in less numbers than sixty armed men ; and then often at considerable loss of life and always at great hazard. The Indians were in the habit of enforcing tribute upon all the neighboring tribes who passed in the river, and disputed the right of any persons to pass them except upon