Page:Voyages in the Northern Pacific - 1896.djvu/75

Rh endeavour to give an account of the Columbia River, with the manners of the people.

Cape Disappointment forms the north point of the river; it is in the latitude of 46° 19′ north and longitude 123° 54′ west; it is high, bluff land, very remarkable, and covered with wood. On that part which faces the S. W., there are a great many dead trees; and the bluff, or face of the cape, is quite bare. Point Adams forms the south side of the river; it is a low point, about seven miles from Cape Disappointment, in a S. E. direction, with a number of trees scattered over it. There is a sand-bank which runs from Point Adams to within two miles of the cape, and also another which runs from point Disappointment, in a S. W. direction, about two miles; this bank, of course, lies considerably outside the other, and the two are formed by the sea heaving up the sand when the wind sets in strong from the S. W., when, for some days, the sea breaks from point to point without any channel, and after the wind abates, the channel is again opened by the tide, which strikes Cape Disappointment, turns off in a S. W. direction, and divides both sands. Ships going into the river, may stand in without fear in mid-channel, till they bring the easternmost bluff of the cape to bear N. E., then haul up for it immediately, and, if bound into Baker's Bay, keep close round the cape, and come too in five fathoms, the cape bearing south. Upon getting into the bay, you lose the tide; if bound up the river, run out of the bay, and bring Tongue Point open about a ship's length, with Chinook or