Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/773

 fact remains that but one quarry is known to produce good building material, and that one is at East Port land, from which was taken the stone used in erecting the lighthouse at Tillamook. The difficulty of obtaining suitable material for the jetty being constructed at the mouth of the Columbia has delayed the work, and occasioned loss to contractors. As much as $20,000 was expended in exploring for good rock for this purpose in vain, a limited supply being found at one place only on the river. Yet there is known to be an abundance of good stone in the mountains of Lewis and Clarke river, near the mouth of the Columbia; but a railroad of fifteen miles is required to bring it to the coast, and $150,000 will have to be expended out of the appropriation for the work of improving the mouth of the Columbia.

The plan of this work is to construct a low-tide jetty from near Fort Stevens, four and a half miles in a slightly convex course to a point three miles south of Cape Disappointment. It is intended both as a protection to Fort Stevens, and as the means of securing deep water in the channel. The cost is computed at $3,710,000, and of this only $287,500 had been appropriated in 1887. The work was begun under the appropriation act of July 5, 1884. So far as it has progressed its effect on the entrance to the river has proven satisfactory. The lack of depth in the channel, which it is the intention to keep at thirty feet, prevents American vessels with deep bottoms from entering the river, while the light-draught British iron-bottomed vessels secure the trade.