275 { 174] 
the Sate, Se the continent. This fact in relation to the rivers of this 
mevaa fe value to the Columbia. — a mouth is the only 
at Pare fy 
Pacific and the interior of North America ; wid all iperations of war or 
commerce, of national or social intercourse, must be conducted upon it. 
This gives it a value beyond estimation, and would involve irreparable 
injury if lost. In this unity and concentration of its waters, the Pacific 
side of our continent differs entirely from the Atlantic side, where the 
waters of the Allegany mountains are dispersed into many rivers, having 
their different gee into the sea, and opening many lines of communi- 
cation with the in 
The Pacific Biren is equally different from that of the Atlantic, The 
coast of the Atlantic is low and open, indented with numerons bays, 
sounds, and river estuaries, accessible every where, and opening by many 
channels into the’ Heart of the country. The Pacific coast, on the con- 
trary, is high and compact, with few bays, and but one that opens into 
the heart of the country. The immediate coast is what the seamen call 
iron bound. <A little within, it is skirted by two successive ranges of moun- 
tains, standing as ramparts between the sea and the interior country; and 
to get through which, there is but one gate, and that narrow and easily de, 
fended. This structure of the coast, backed by these two ranges of moun- 
tains, with its concentration and unity of waters, gives to the country am 
immense military mie te and will probably render Oregon the most im- 
pregnable country in t orld 
Differing so much Beit ‘he Atlantic side of our continent, in coast, 
mountains, and rivers, the Pacific side differs from it in another most rare 
and singular feature—that of the Great interior Basin, of phe’. I have so 
ften epolkers, and the whole form and character of which I was so anxious 
those parts, informed me that, soa the Great Salt axe west, sili y 
succession of lakes and rivers which have no outlet to the sea, 
connexion with the pe or with the Colorado of the Gulf « 
fornia. He deseribed some of these lakes as being large, with numerous 
streams, and even dieaiaoribte rivers, falling into them, In fact, all concur 
in the general report of these interior rivers and lakes; and, sed want of 
understanding the force and power of ev aporntions y which so soon estab- 
lishes an ote steeds the loss an eRe waters, the fable of 
whirlpools and subterra 
s outlets has gained belief, as the only imagi- 
off the waters which 1 have no visible discharge. 
rail rah nt ei able to cross this forr 
the Columbia or the € : ged 
nation of: fthis k kind, and quite a large one 
many streams fe considerable river, four or five hundred : 
falling i into it, it. This lake and river I saw and examined myself; and 
