152 Kansas Academy of Science. 



the present mouth with a dike, to protect the sand-spit between the 

 existing lagoon and the ocean, and to make"a cut across the sand- 

 spit to the south of the lagoon into the Quillayute harbor. 

 The estimated cost of this improvement is as follows : 



Dike of piles, brush and stone, 1000 feet, at $5 per foot. . . . $5,000 



Protection sill of brush and stone, 4400 feet, at $2 per foot. . 8.800 



Excavating cut across sand-spit 3,200 



R moving snags and other obstructions by blasting 1,200 



Engineering, superintendence, and contingencies, 10 per cent., 1,820 



Total $20,020 



Or, in round numbers, $20,000. 



In summer the river is low and does not carry much water. In 

 the spring and fall, however, the water is high and the current 

 rapid. The fall freshets are due to the heavy rains and the spring 

 freshets to the melting of snow on the mountains. The river reaches 

 its greatest height of about ten feet above low-water stage during 

 the fall freshets, usually in November. It is probable that if the 

 improvements as outlined above were made during the summer the 

 fall freshets would scour out the channel through the lagoon and 

 across the sand-spit into the Quillayute harbor, as the material at 

 the north end of the lagoon would be readily moved by the current, 

 and the sand-spit between the lagoon and the harbor would be 

 easily scoured away. 



The reopening of the old mouth of the river is the most practi- 

 cable and feasible scheme of improving this river and harbor. An 

 objection to this improvement is that the bay, though protected 

 from the northwest storms, is exposed to the prevailing southwest 

 winds of winter, and that heavy seas would break directly into the 

 mouth of the river; but at such times the tides run high and 

 the schooners could anchor in the river up from its mouth and be 

 safe from the sweeping storms. Moreover, it would afford a safe 

 outlet to any logs which might be cut and put in the river. Also, 

 it would afford an opportunity to float sawed timber out on lighters 

 to vessels which might be at anchor in the bay. ^^ 



Neah Bay was a possession of the Spaniards, as we have seen. 

 For many centuries it has been the home of the Makah Indians, 

 though they succeeded another race, likely the Quileutes. Near 

 this village lives the Indian agent of the Neah Bay agency; and on 

 an island opposite the Indian village there is being built the Pa- 

 cific life-saving and wireless telegraph station. It has a good har- 

 bor but is exposed to the northwest storms. The building of a 

 breakwater from the mainland northwest of the bay to the island 



15. Partly after Capt. Harry Taylor, report on "Quillayute Harbor and River, Washington," 

 August, 1897, under river and harbor act of June 3, 1896. 



