THE RIVERS OF OREGON 



to fight, erected crosses, and took possession 

 in the names of their sovereigns, establishing 

 claims, such as they were, to everything in 

 sight and beyond, to be quarreled for and bat- 

 tled for, and passed from hand to hand in 

 treaties and settlements made during the 

 intermissions of war. 



The branch of the river that bears the name 

 of Columbia all the way to its head takes its 

 rise in two lakes about ten miles in length that 

 lie between the Selkirk and main ranges of the 

 Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, about 

 eighty miles beyond the boundary-line. They 

 are called the Upper and Lower Columbia 

 Lakes. Issuing from these, the young river 

 holds a nearly straight course for a hundred 

 and seventy miles hi a northwesterly direction 

 to a plain called "Boat Encampment," receiv- 

 ing many beautiful affluents by the way from 

 the Selkirk and main ranges, among which 

 are the Beaver-Foot, Blackberry, Spill-e-Mee- 

 Chene, and Gold Rivers. At Boat Encamp- 

 ment it receives two large tributaries, the 

 Canoe River from the northwest, a stream 

 about a hundred and twenty miles long; and 

 the Whirlpool River from the north, about a 

 hundred and forty miles in length. 



The Whirlpool River takes its rise near the 

 summit of the mam axis of the range on the 



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