The soil is good, but most of it so heavily timbered that it would require much labour to prepare it for farming. But as the streams from the mountain afford an abundance of water power, it would be an easy matter to manufacture the timber into lumber, for which there is a good market for shipping, and thus make the clearing of the land for cultivation a profitable business.
Along the coast from Cape Lookout to the 42d parallel there is much land that can be cultivated; and even the mountains, when cleared of the heavy bodies of timber with which they are clothed, will be good farming land. There is so much pitch in the timber that it burns very freely; sometimes a green standing tree set on fire will all be consumed; so that it is altogether a mistaken idea that the timber lands of the country can never be cultivated. I am fully of the opinion that two-thirds of the country between the Willamette valley and the coast, and extending from the Columbia river to the forty-second parallel, which includes the Coast range of mountains, can be successfully cultivated. This region abounds in valuable cedar, hemlock and fir timber, is well watered, possesses a fertile soil, and being on the coast, it will always have the advantage of a good market; for the statements that soundings cannot be had along the coast, between Puget Sound and the Bay of San Francisco, are altogether erroneous. No place along the range would be more than thirty miles from market; and the difficulty of constructing roads over and through this range would be trifling, compared with that of constructing similar works over the Alleghanies.
{105} The country about Cape Lookout is inhabited by a tribe of Indians called the Kilamooks. They are a lazy and filthy set of beings, who live chiefly on fish and berries, of which there is here a great abundance. They have a tradition among them that a long time ago the Great Spirit became angry with them, set the mountain on fire, destroyed their towns, turned their tiye (chief) and tilicums (people) into stone, and cast them in the ocean outside of Cape Lookout; that the Great Spirit becoming appeased, removed the fire to Saddle Mountain, and subsequently to the Sawhle Illahe (high mountain,) or Mount Regnier, as it is called by the whites, on the north side of the Columbia river.[171]
In the ocean about a mile west of Cape Lookout, is to be seen at high water a solitary rock, which they call Kilamook's Head, after the chief of the tribe. Around this rock for half a mile in every direction may be seen at low water divers other rocks, which are called the tilicums, (people) of the tribe. At low water is to be seen a cavity passing quite through Kilamook's Head, giving the rock the appearance of a solid stone arch.[172]
In support of this tradition, the appearance of the promontory of Cape Lookout indicates that it may be the remains of an extinct volcano; and on Saddle Mountain there is an ancient crater, several hundred feet deep; while Mount Regnier is still a volcano. Those who have visited the rocky cliffs of Cape Lookout, report that there is some singular carving upon the ledges, resembling more the hieroglyphics of the Chinese, than any thing they have seen elsewhere.
These Indians have another tradition, that five white men, or, as they call them, pale faces, came ashore on this point of rock, and buried something in the cliffs, which have since fallen down and buried the article deep in the rocks; that these pale faces took off the Indian women, and raised a nation of people, who still inhabit the region to the south. And I have met with travelers who say they have seen a race of people in that region, whose appearance would seem to indicate that they may have some European blood in their veins. A reasonable conjecture is, that a vessel may have been cast away upon the coast, and that these five men escaped to Cape Lookout. Another circumstance renders it probable that such might have been the case. Frequently, after a long and heavy south westerly storm, large cakes of beeswax, from two to four inches thick and from twelve to eighteen inches in diameter, {106} are found along the beach, near the south end of Clatsop Plains. The cakes when found are covered with a kind of sea-moss, and small shells adhere to them, indicating that they have been a long time under water.[173]
In or about Saddle Mountain rises a stream called Skipenoin's river, which, though extremely crooked, runs nearly north, and empties into the western side of Young's bay, which, it will be remembered, is a large body of water extending south from the Columbia river between Point Adams and Astoria. Between this river and Clatsop plains is a strip of thick spruce and hemlock, with several low marshes. The landing for Clatsop plains is about two miles up the river; which it is rather difficult to follow, as there are many slues putting in from either side, of equal width with the main stream. From the bay a low marshy bottom extends up to the landing, covered with rushes and sea-grass. This bottom is overflowed opposite the landing at high water. Between the landing and Clatsop plains is a lake one or two miles in length, which has its outlet into the bay. Its banks are high, and covered with spruce. Near this is a stream, from the mouth of which it is about two or three miles along the bay to the creek upon which Lewis and Clark wintered; and thence about three and a half miles to the head of the bay where Young's river enters.[174]