OREGON. 



Oregon is the name usually applied to the part of the western section 

 of America, which is traversed and principally drained by the Columbia 

 — from the supposition, no doubt erroneous, that this river was called 

 Oregon by the aborigines in its vicinity. 



The political boundaries of Oregon have not as yet been fixed by 

 agreement between the parties claiming possession of it. The govern- 

 ment of the United States considers them as embracing the whole territory 

 west of the Rocky Mountains, from the latitude of 42 degrees to that of 

 54 degrees 40 minutes ; the British have, however, refused to acknowl- 

 edge the right of the Americans to any portion north of the Columbia 

 River. Leaving this political question to be determined hereafter, a view 

 will first be presented of 



THE COUNTRY OF THE COLUMBIA. 



This country extends on the Pacific from the vicinity of Cape Mendo- 

 cino, five hundred miles, to Cape Flattery, at the entrance of the Strait of 

 Fuca ; from the eastern extremity of which strait, distant one hundred 

 miles from the ocean, a range of mountains stretches north-eastward, 

 about four hundred miles, to the Rocky Mountains, near the 54th degree 

 of latitude, separating the waters of the Columbia from those of Frazer's 

 River. The Rocky Mountains form the eastern boundary of the Colum- 

 bia regions, for about twelve hundred miles, from the 54th to the 42d 

 parallels ; and those regions are separated from California, on the south, 

 by the Snowy Mountains, which appear to extend continuously from 

 the Rocky Mountains, nearly in the course of the 41st parallel, about 

 seven hundred miles westward, to the vicinity of the Pacific. It is not easy 

 to define these boundaries more exactly, as the directions of the mountain 

 chains are not accurately ascertained. The territory included within these 

 limits, and drained almost entirely by the Columbia, is not less than four 

 hundred thousand square miles in superficial extent ; which is more than 

 double that of France, and nearly half that of all the states of the Federal 

 Union. Its southernmost points are in the same latitudes with Boston 

 and with Florence ; while its northernmost correspond with the north- 

 ern extremities of Newfoundland, and with the southern shores of the 

 Baltic Sea. 



The Pacific coast of this territory extends in a line nearly due north 

 from Cape Mendocino to Cape Flattery; in which whole distance there is 

 but one harbor, or place of refuge for ships, namely, the mouth of the 

 Columbia River, near the 46th degree of latitude, and that harbor is very 

 frequently inaccessible. 



The shores south of the Columbia are most perilous to navigators at all 

 times ; as they are every where steep and rocky, and bordered by shoals 



