468 APPENDIX. 
Columbia is navigable ninety-six miles from*its mouth for 
vessels drawing sixteen feet of water. The River, where it 
opens to the sea, is four miles wide, and that width continues 
for eighteen miles inland. Off the mouth is a bar with 
eighteen feet of water at low tide. The channel is narrow 
and crooked, the bar is difficult, the winds are frequently 
high, and fogs common; and the entrance is considered 
dangerous by mariners and insurance companies. Inside, 
the navigation is excellent, the river being wide and the 
water deep. At the Cascades, one hundred miles from the 
ocean, the Columbia falls forty feet in five miles, interrupting 
navigation; and sixty miles farther up there is another simi- 
lar interruption by a fall of forty feet at the Dalles. The 
Willamette is navigable for vessels drawing twelve feet from 
its mouth to Portland; thence to the falls at Oregon City for 
vessels drawing six feet; thence to Salem for vessels drawing 
four feet; and from Salem light steamers can run to Eugene 
City during a portion of the year. The Columbia, though not 
straight, has no short turns, whereas the Willamette, meander- 
ing through a flat valley, has a multitude of small crooks, 
with numerous sloughs and arms. Snake River is probably 
navigable, but no steamers have been placed upon it. The 
ports of Oregon, besides those on the Columbia River, are 
Port Orford, Coose Bay, Umpqua River, and Tillamook Bay, 
Port Orford, in latitude 42° 25’, is safe during the summer, 
that is, while the north winds blow, but is open to the south 
and is insecure during the winter months. The harbor is 
deep and of good size, and has a good anchorage. Coose Bay, 
in latitude-43° 30’, has an entrance about a quarter of a mile 
wide, with ten feet of water on the bar at low tide. Inside, 
the water is deep and the anchorage perfectly secure. Port 
Orford and Coose Bay rarely have any vessels at anchor in 
their waters. The Umpqua River, in latitude 43° 45’, has an 
entrance about half a mile wide, and fifteen feet water at low 
tide. Inside, the water is deeper and the anchorage safe. 
This and Portland are the only two ports of Oregon regu- 
