26 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



had cstablislicd a station at Fort Hall, on the Lewis River, a branch 

 of the Columbia. 



In 1833 Capt. Wye th returned overland to Boston, while the rest of 

 liis party dispersed tlu-oughout the Columbia Valley. Far from dis- 

 heartened by the disaster to his vessel, Capt. Wj^eth dispatched the 

 brig May Dacre, Capt. Lambert, laden with trading goods and sup- 

 plies, to the Columbia River via Cape Horn, while he crossed overland 

 with 200 men. He established a salmon fish(U\v and fort at the lower 

 end of Wappatoo (now Sauvies) Island, at the mouth of the Wil- 

 lamette River. 



The salmon fishery did not prove successful and the brig sailed in 

 1835 with only a half cargo of lish and did not come back. The same 

 year Capt. "Wyeth broke up both the establishment here and on the 

 Lewis River and, disheartened, returned to Massachusetts, having 

 found the competition of the Hudson Bay Co. too powerful for him. 



In August, 1840, Capt. John H. Couch, in command of the brig 

 Maryland, which bclong(>d to Cushing & Co., of Newburyport, Mass., 

 arrived in the Cohimbia River. After takhig a few salmon the vessel 

 left in the autumn never to return. On April 2, 1842, Capt. Couch 

 reappeared in th(^ river with a new vessel, the Ohenamus, named after 

 the chief of the Chinooks. With his cargo of goods he established 

 himself at the present site of Oregon City, the first American trading 

 house to be establislied in the Willamette Valley, He also estab- 

 lished a small fishery on the Columbia River. The vessel returned 

 to Newburyport in the autumn. 



The next Am(^rican vessel to come in established a far from enviable 

 record. There is no record of her name, but she was commanded by 

 a man named Chapman and entered the river April 10, 1842. She 

 came for the purpose of trailing and fishing and remained till autumn. 

 During her presence in the river it is charged she sold liquor to the 

 Chitsop and other savages, as a result of which much bloodshed and 

 discord resulted. 



About 1857 John West began salting salmon in barrels at Westport, 

 on the lower Columbia. 



In Febi-uary, 1 859, the Washington Legislature passed an act pro- 

 hibiting nonresidents from taking fish on the beach of the Columbia 

 between Point Ellis and Cape Hancock. 



Bancroft ° states: 



On the 2r)th of January, 1801, J. T. Lovelace and W. H. Dillon were granted the 

 exolusiv*! right to fish in the ('oliiml)ia for a distance of 1 mile along its banks and 

 extending from low-water mark half a mile toward the middle of the stream. 



In 1861, H. N. Rice and Jotham Reed began packing salted salmon 

 in barrels at Oak Point, 60 mik'S Ixdow Portland. The first season's 

 pack amounted to 600 barrels. Th(^ venture proved fairly profitable 

 and was soon participated in by others. 



In th(^ spring of 1866 William Hume, who had assisted in starting 

 the first salmon cannery in the United States on the Sacramento 

 River in 1864, finding the run of fish in the latter stream rather dis- 

 appointing, started a cannery for Hapgood, Hume & Co. on the 

 Columbia at Eagle Cliff, Wash., about 40 miles above Astoria. 



a History of the Pacific Stales, Washington, Idaho, and Montana, 1845-1889, vol. 26, p. 349. By Hubert 

 Howe Bancroft. 



