Next, lower down, is the claim of Mr. Hugh Burns, a native of Ireland, but lately an emigrant from Missouri; he is the proprietor of Multinoma city, which is so called from the Indian name for the Willamette river, and a tribe of Indians of this name that once inhabited that country.[134] This tribe is now nearly extinct. At their burial places, near this, there are hundreds of skulls yet lying over the ground. When I left, {88} there were but few buildings, and some few mechanics settled in it. There are two ferries established over the river, from the villages on the west side, to Oregon city.[135] Upon the west side, the bank of the river is similar to that on the east, quite high, leaving but a small semicircular level for the first bottom; and upon a farther ascent of about twenty feet, there is a larger plain at the lower end of this bluff. The bottom corresponds well with that above the Clackamis on the opposite side, and is covered with a dense growth of fir; the trees are tall and straight.
Description of the Country. The journey to Oregon city accomplished, and an examination of the immediate vicinity completed, I set about an inquiry as to the features of the country—its fertility, its general susceptibility of improvement, and its capability for the support of a large and industrious population. In so doing, in addition to what I could see for myself, I applied for information to all whose opportunities had been favorable for obtaining a knowledge of any particular section. In this work I was an inquirer after facts, in order to decide the question as to the propriety of taking my family there for a permanent home; and when I noted these facts, no attention was paid to the classification and arrangement of the various subjects, as is generally done by those travelers and geographers whose business is book-making. Necessarily, therefore, my Journal presents facts, just in the order in which they came to me, and as I received them they are placed before the reader.
The landscape immediately adjacent to the villages of Linn city and Multinoma present several abrupt precipices of various heights, upon each of which is a small level, of lesser and greater widths, clothed with fine grass and studded over with oak timber, until the highest ascent is reached, when it spreads out into an extensive fern opening. From these cliffs there gush out fine streams of pure spring water; and they will afford most beautiful country seats for the erection of residences convenient to the towns, when their improvement shall render such sites desirable. From these heights, (which are easily ascended,) there is a fine view of the falls of the river for several miles, and of Mount Hood. From the heights to Quality Plains, a distance of twenty-five miles, the country presents rolling plains, with small groves of oak and fir, and it is well watered by springs and small rivulets.
{89} From the description given of the towns, the reader may have already inferred, that the Falls of the Willamette combine all that is necessary to constitute great water privileges for propelling machinery; but before leaving this point, we will take a more particular view of them.
These falls are occasioned by the descent of the whole volume of the river over a ledge of basaltic rock that crosses the entire channel. The greatest fall at any point is twenty-eight feet, but the whole descent here is about forty feet. The water is so divided in the channels at the Falls, and the islands are so situated, that nearly all of the water may be rendered available, at a very small expense, when it shall be needed. Nature rarely at any one point concentrates so many advantages for the erection and support of a great commercial and manufacturing city, as are to be found here. There is an abundance of water to propel the machinery, stone and timber convenient to erect the necessary buildings, an extensive country of the best farming lands in the world to support the towns by their trade, and a fine navigable river to bring the raw material to the manufactories, and when manufactured to carry the surplus to the Pacific, whence it can easily be taken to the best markets the world affords. At this place, the business of the upper Willamette will concentrate, for many years at least. Tide water reaches to the mouth of the Clackamis, which is within two miles of the Falls. Here there is a considerable ripple in the river, which can easily be removed by confining the Clackamis to its original bed upon the eastern side of the island. As it is, there are four feet of water over the bar, and not so rapid as to prevent the ascent of steamboats to the Falls. Vessels of two hundred and fifty tons burthen have ascended within two miles of the rapids; but, from the crookedness of the stream and the difficulty in tacking so frequently, they generally receive and discharge their cargoes at Portland, twelve miles below.[136]
Traveling up the river, five miles from the Falls, brings us to Rock Island. Here is said to be a serious obstruction to the navigation of the river. The difficulty consists in there being several peaks of rocks so elevated, as to be near the surface of the water in a low stage; and as the channels between them are very narrow, and the water quite rapid, boats are liable to run on to them. But the rock can be removed at an inconsiderable expense. It is fifteen miles above the Falls to the {90} first gravel bar, at which place, in low water, there is but three feet in the channel.[137]