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a short distance, and its tributaries, on account of the 
numerous falls, are not suited for navigation, there is 
the better opportunity for mills and power plants; B 
and better communications could easily be secured 
through the construction of canals. Moreover, the 
country is very suitable for agriculture and cattle rais- 
ing. The interior trade and the coast trade with the 
Indians is very profitable. The intercourse with the 
Sandwich Islands, California, Russian America and 
Asia grows from year to year; and the trading vessels 
and whalers on the Pacific Ocean find here a safe base 
for action. In short, if any place on the western shore 
of North America seems designed by nature to be a 
western New York on the Pacific Ocean, it is this. 
The Straits of Juan de Fuca, somewhat further north, 
form a much better harbor. It is said that a whole 
fleet could anchor there in safety. These straits also 
lie south of the forty-ninth parallel. The Hudson’s 
Bay Company seems to have secret assurances from 
the English government that at the worst the course 
of the Columbia River would be made the boundary, 
and its right bank retained; at least all the chief set- 
tlements of the company are made on that side, and 
buildings begun on the left shore have been aban- 
doned. But the United States will not submit to such 
an infraction of its rights, and again the problem of 
the Gordian Knot will not be solved without the 
sword. 
