PEEFACE. 



The following pages are devoted, principally, to the de- 

 scription and history of the portion of North America bor- 

 dering on the Pacific Ocean, between the 40th and the 54th 

 parallels of latitude, which is traversed and in a great meas- 

 ure drained, by the River Columbia, and to which the name 

 of OREGON is now usually applied. It has, however, been 

 found necessary, for the objects of the work, to bestow 

 almost equal attention on the regions embraced under the 

 general appellation of California, extending southward 

 from the Columbia countries, to the arm of the Pacific, 

 called the Californian Gulf; and also to take into consid- 

 eration the coasts and islands north and north-west of those 

 countries, as far as the Arctic Sea. 



The vast division of America, comprehending these ter- 

 ritories, remains, with the exception of a few isolated spots 

 on the coasts and on the margins of the larger streams, 

 uncultivated and inhabited only by tribes of wandering sav- 

 ages. Its shores and some of its rivers have been examined 

 with care, and their course may be found delineated with 

 considerable minuteness on maps. Of its interior regions, 

 some have never been explored, and are indeed apparently 

 impenetrable by man ; others, which offer fewer obstacles 

 to the traveller, are only known through the vague and im- 

 perfect accounts of traders or missionaries ; and in those 

 which have been the most frequented by civilized persons, 

 much remains to be effected by the aid of scientific obser- 

 vations, in order to obtain satisfactory ideas of their geog- 

 raphy and physical characteristics. 



