Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/44

26 Friend, Nov. 2, 1846; ''Id.id. [sic], March 15, June 1, 1847; Album Mexicana, i. 573–4; S. F. Polynesian'', iv. 110; S. F. Ccdifornian, Sept. 2, 1848; ''Thornton's Or. and Cal., i. 305; Niles' Reg.'', lxix. 381. Senator Benton was the first to take up the championship of the river, which he did in a speech delivered May 28, 1846. He showed that while Wilkes' narrative fostered a poor opinion of the entrance to the Columbia, the chart accompanying the narrative showed it to be good; and the questions he put in writing to James Blair, son of Francis P. Blair, one of the midshipmen who surveyed it (the others were Reynolds and Knox), proved the same. Further, he had consulted John Maginn, for 18 years pilot at New York, and then president of the New York association of pilots, who had a bill on pilotage before congress, and had asked him to compare the entrance of New York harbor with that of the Columbia, to which Maginn had distinctly returned answer that the Columbia had far the better entrance in everything that constituted a good harbor. ''Cong. Globe, 1845–6, 915; Id.id. [sic]'', 921–2. When Vancouver surveyed the river in 1792 there existed but one channel. In 1839 when Belcher surveyed it 2 channels existed, and Sand Island was a mile and a half long, covering an area of 4 square miles, where in Vancouver's time there were 5 fathoms of water. In 1841 Wiikes found the south channel closed with accretions from Clatsop Spit, and the middle sands had changed their shape. In 1844, as we have seen, it was open, and in 1846 almost closed again, but once more open in 1847. Subsequent government surveys have noted many changes. In 1850 the south channel was in a new place, and ran in a different direction from the old one; in 1852 the new channel was fully cut out, and the bar had moved three fourths of a mile eastward with a wider entrance, and 3 feet more water. The north channel had contracted to half its width at the bar, with its northern line on the line of 1850. The depth was reduced, but there was still one fathom more of water than on the south bar; and other changes had taken place. In 1859 the south channel was again closed, and again in 1868 discovered to be open, with a fathom more water than in the north channel, which held pretty nearly its former position. From these observations it is manifest that the north channel maintains itself with but slight changes, while the south channel is subject to variations, and the middle sands and Clatsop and Chinook spits are constantly shifting. Report of Bvt. Major Gillespie, Engineer Corps, U. S. A., Dec. 18, 1878, in Daily Astorian. colonists objected to having them magnified by rumor rather than alleviated by the means usual in such cases, and while they discharged Reeves, they used the Spectator freely to correct unfavorable impressions abroad. There were others who had been employed as branch pilots, and who still exercised their vocation, and certain captains who became pilots for their own or the vessels of others; but there was a time following Reeves' dismissal, when the shipping which soon after formed a considerable fleet in the Columbia, ran risks enough to vindicate the character of the harbor, even though as sometimes happened a vessel was lost at the mouth of the river.