1841.] HARBORS. 421 



the Willamette, are bordered by the finest tracts of timbered 

 land, and the most fertile prairies and intervales. 



The coast outline of Oregon is bold and rocky, and there 

 are but few indentations forming harbors sufficiently large for 

 vessels of any considerable burden, and as most of them are 

 openings at the mouths of rivers, they are usually obstructed 

 by sand bars. The straits of Juan de Fuca, however, form 

 the noble entrance to a chain of magnificent harbors on its 

 southern coast, prominent among which is Puget's Sound, 

 consisting of an inlet that stretches into the interior for about 

 one hundred miles parallel to the ocean. The entrance to 

 the straits is easy, the shores are bold, and the anchorage 

 deep in the main channel. For the greater part of the year 

 the winds are favorable, and the navigation is not often ob- 

 structed by the ice descending from the upper rivers. There 

 are no shoals in the straits, and the harbors are accessible to 

 vessels of any burden, spacious, and perfectly secure. 



Gray's Harbor is the only one of importance south of Cape 

 Flattery, at the entrance of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, and 

 above the mouth of the Columbia. This has a narrow open- 

 ing, however, with dangerous breakers on either side, and 

 though it immediately opens out, it is filled with mudflats, 

 which confine the anchorage within narrow limits. Various 

 opinions are entertained in regard to the entrance to the Co- 

 lumbia river, which affords deep and secure anchorage in 

 abundance inside its bar. For twenty miles above the ocean 

 this river widens out like a bay, and at its mouth is seven 

 miles across, from Cape Disappointment on the north to Point 

 Adams on the south. Here, where its mighty tide meets the 

 rolling surge of the ocean, sand bars have been formed stretch- 

 ing out for a great distance on both sides, and leaving but a 

 narrow channel through which a vessel can enter. And even 

 this cannot always be reached, as the cross tides changing every 

 half hour often render it impossible for a ship to maintain her 

 pusition. At some seasons, and, as it is said, for the greater part 

 of the year, it is highly dangerous to attempt entering or leav- 

 ing the river. From one shore to the other a foaming line of 



