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Volume VII September-October 1905 Number 5 
Among the Sea Birds off the Oregon Coast, Part I 
BY WILLIAM LOVELL BIN LEY 
PHOTOGRAPHS BY HERMAN T. BOHLMAN 
T HK coast line of Oregon is rugged and very picturesque. It is interspersed 
with short sand beaches and jutting rocks, which have been left standing at 
intervals by the erosion of the sea. Sixty miles south of the mouth of the 
Columbia is the largest group, charted as Three Arch Rocks, so named because 
each has a great arch worn completely through its base. These great stacks of 
basalt are a mile off shore; the outer rock is 297 feet high and the inner rises 304 
feet above the sea surface. In shore from Three Arch Rocks is a smaller broken 
group, some of which may be reached by wading out at extreme low tide. 
Our plan was to make a careful study of the sea birds that lived on Three 
Arch Rocks, and picture them with our cameras. This could not be done in a 
day, nor in several hurried trips, so we intended to hazard a camp on the ledges of 
one of the rocks, where, with the least possible disturbance to the birds, we could 
watch them carefully for several days in succession and collect a good series of 
photographs. 
How could we carry out these plans? The only way the rocks could be 
reached was by a small boat. We found no one along the beach who cared to 
take the risk of helping us. But we did find a small fourteen-foot, double-ended 
dory at Netart’s, the only available craft along the coast. In point of necessity, if 
we camped on the rocks, we had to have a supply of fresh w'ater, tenting and 
clothing for stormy weather, some fuel for cooking, and provisions enough for 
emergency. Besides this, we had a heavy camera equipment of two 5x7 long- 
focus cameras and about 150 plates. 
We were in a dilemma. This boat was too light to carry such a load, to say 
nothing of passing the barrier of big breakers that never ceased to pound in along 
