GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. 23 



be convenient to present a general view of the Columbia River and its 

 branches. 



The Columbia enters the Pacific Ocean between two points of land, 

 seven miles apart — Cape Disappointment on the north, and Cape Adams 

 on the south, of which the former is in the latitude of 46 degrees 19 

 minutes, (corresponding nearly with Quebec, in Canada, and Geneva, in 

 Switzerland,) and in longitude of 47 degrees west from Washington, or 

 124 degrees west from Greenwich. The main river is formed, at the 

 distance of two hundred and fifty miles from its mouth, by the union of 

 two large streams, one from the north, which is usually considered as the 

 principal branch, and the other, called the Sahaptin, or Snake, or Lewis's 

 River, from the south-east. These two great confluents receive, in their 

 course, many other streams, and they thus collect together all the waters 

 flowing from the western sides of the Rocky Mountains, between the 42d 

 and the 54th parallels of latitude. 



The northern branch of the Columbia rises in the Rocky Mountains, 

 near the 53d degree of latitude. One of its head-waters, the Canoe 

 River, runs from a small lake, situated in a remarkable cleft of the great 

 chain, called the Punch Bowl, at the distance of only a few feet from 

 another lake, whence flows the westernmost stream of the Athabasca 

 River, a tributary to the Mackenzie, emptying into the Arctic Sea. This 

 cleft appears to be the only practicable pass in the mountains north of the 

 49th degree of latitude, and through it is conducted all the trade of 

 British subjects between the territories on either side of the ridge. It is 

 described, by those who have visited it, as presenting scenes of the most 

 terrific grandeur, being overhung by the highest peaks in the dividing 

 range, of which one, called Mount Brown, is not less than sixteen thousand 

 feet, and another, Mount Hooker, exceeds fifteen thousand feet, above the 

 ocean level. 



At a place called Boat Encampment, near the 52d degree of latitude, 

 Canoe River joins two other streams, the one from the north, the other, 

 the largest of the three, running along the base of the Rocky Mountains, 

 from the south. The river thus formed, considered as the main Colum- 

 bia, takes its course nearly due south, through defiles, between lofty 

 mountains, being generally a third of a mile in width, but, in some 

 places, spreading out into broad lakes, for about three hundred miles, to the 

 latitude of 48£ degrees, where it receives the Flatbow or M'Gillivray's 

 River, a large branch, flowing, also, from the Rocky Mountains on the 

 east. A little farther south, the northern branch unites with the Clarke 

 or Flathead River — scarcely inferior, in the quantity of water supplied, to 

 the other. The sources of the Clarke are situated in the dividing range, 

 near those of the Missouri and the Yellowstone, whence it runs north- 

 ward, along the base of the mountains, and then westward, forming, under 

 the 48th parallel, an extensive sheet of water, called the KullerspelmLake, 

 surrounded by rich tracts of land, and lofty mountains, covered with noble 

 trees; from this lake the river issues, a large and rapid stream, and, after 

 running about seventy miles westward, it falls into the north branch of 

 the Columbia, over a ledge of rocks. From the point of union of these 

 two rivers, the Columbia turns towards the west, and rushes through a 

 ridge of mountains, where it forms a cataract called the Chaudiere or 

 Kettle Falls. Continuing in the same direction eighty miles, between the 

 48th and the 49th parallels, it receives, in succession, the Spokan from 



