Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/58



Columbia from the North; on all of which there are Valleys back from the River. The timber is more abundant on the North, and of rather a better quality. Twenty-five miles North from Vancouver, and about opposite the mouth of the Willamette, Mount St. Helens, a lofty snow capped Volcano rises from the plain, and is now burning. Frequently, the huge columns of black smoke may be seen, suddenly bursting from its crater, at the distance of thirty or forty miles.—The crater is on the South side, below the summit. The Cawlitz River has its source in Mount St. Helens. On the Columbia, in most places, the hills, which are generally high, frequently steep and broken, and covered with dense forests, come in on both sides, close to the water; leaving only small bottoms in the bends of the stream. Some of these bottoms, however, are large enough for several good farms. On the North side, for many miles above and below Vancouver, the bottoms are of considerable width. The hills are low, and rise gradually back, for some miles, affording room for large settlements. At the mouth of the Columbia, on the South side, is the Clatsop plain, extending along the coast; and from a mere point, at the Southern extremity, it increases in width, until it reaches the River, where it is about five miles wide. This plain is very sandy, and produces fine garden vegetables; but is fit for little else. It has probably been made by the deposits of the Columbia, thrown back by the waves of the Ocean. It is traversed by several sand ridges, like waves, running exactly parallel with the coast. As the Columbia approaches its mouth, it widens out into broad bays; which, excepting a single channel, are full of shallows and sand bars; many of which are entirely bare at low tide. About twenty miles above Astoria, there is a large cluster of low Islands, called the Catalammet Islands, several miles in extent; which are covered with Cotton Wood and Wilows, and are overflowed by high tide. They are several hundred in number, and are separated by as many shallow channels; some of which are as wide as the main channel: and into which, persons who were not acquainted with the River, have frequently run, and have been lost among the shallows for many hours. A few miles below these Islands, on the North side, there is a singular Rock, standing immediately in the channel, and rising above the high water about twenty feet. It appears, at a distance, like an artificial Pillar, and has been called Pillar Rock. A few miles below this Pillar, the River is fifteen miles wide;