laboring, ancl although I had on board a person from the Sand¬ 
wich Islands who professed to be a Columbia river pilot, I found 
him at a loss to designate the true passage, and unable to tell 
whether we were in a right way or not. I therefore determined 
at once to haul off with the tide which was running ebb with 
great rapidity, and which 60 on carried us back to the blue 
waters of the ocean.” 
Prof. Davidson, of the coast survey, in describing this river 
says, 44 The entrance to Columbia river is five miles wide be¬ 
tween the nearests parts of Cape Disappointment and Point 
Adams, bearing N.W, by W. \ W., and S.E. by E. \ E. from 
each other. But the passage is greatly obstructed by shifting 
shoals, which lie two or three miles outside of the line joining 
the two points. The numerous surveys that have been made of 
this bar at different times, prove conclusively the great changes 
constantly going on in the channels through the shoals, that no 
sailing directions that may be prepared can be relied upon for 
any great length of time. The best advice that can be given is, 
when up to the bar take a pilot. . . . During heavy weath¬ 
er, and especially in winter, the sea breaks with terrific fury 
from northwest of Cape Disappointment well to the southward 
of Point Adams. The mail steamers have sometimes to wait 
days for the smallest show of an opening to get in, and sailing 
vessels have laid off the entrance six weeks waiting for a fair 
opportunity to enter. Many lie inside for weeks unable to get 
out; the mail steamers, by exerting all their power, sometimes 
drive through the combers, but have their decks swept fore and 
aft by every sea. Few places present a scene of more wildness 
than this bar during a southeast gale.” 
A telegram to the Sacramento Union , dated Portland, March 
3, 1871, says, u The steamer 4 Ajax* succeeded in crossing the 
bar for San Francisco on Wednesday, at 10, a.m., after three 
hours’ trial. Barques 4 Rosedale,’ 4 Live Yankee,’ and 4 Stella,’ 
are waiting their chances to cross the bar going out. Barque 
‘Whistler’ is aground below St. Helen’s, and may require 
lightening to let her out.” 
44 The ship 4 Montgomery Castle ’ has completed her cargo 
and was hauled out in the stream yesterday ; she is drawing 18 
feet, and will have to wait a rise of water to cross the bar, even 
if the ice blockade was broken up.”— Oregonian , Dec. 29,1870. 
The “river of the west” is often, in the winter months, 
