Young's river is a stream about one hundred and fifty yards in width, and is navigable for steamboats and small sloops to the forks, six or seven miles up. About seven miles further up are the "Falls," where the water pitches over a ledge of rocks, making a fall of about sixty feet. Around the falls the mountains are covered with heavy timber. Near the forks the river receives from the east a small stream, upon which a machine for making shingles has been erected; and as the timber in the vicinity is good for shingles, which can be readily sold for the Sandwich Islands market, the owners expect to do a profitable business. Young's river rises in or near Saddle mountain.[175] From the mouth of this river it is about eight or ten miles, around the point which forms on the east Young's Bay, to Astoria, or Fort George, as it is called by the Hudson's Bay Company. This stands on the south side of the Columbia river, about sixteen miles from its mouth.[176]
The Columbia river and its location have been so often described, that it is hardly necessary for me to go into details. But as this work is designed to be afforded so low as to place {107} it within the reach of every one, and may fall into the hands of many whose means will not enable them to procure expensive works on Oregon, it may not be amiss to say something about that noble stream, which discharges its waters into the ocean between cape Disappointment on the north, and point Adams or Clatsop point on the south, and in latitude about 46° 15['] north.
At its mouth the Columbia is narrowed to about six miles in width by cape Disappointment extending in a south west direction far out into the stream, the cape being washed on the west side by the ocean. Cape Disappointment and Chinook point, a few miles above it, form Baker's bay, which affords good anchorage for vessels as soon as they round the point.[177] This cape presents a rocky shore, is quite high, and covered with timber. An American had taken it as his land claim, according to the laws of the territory; but during the last winter, he sold his right to Mr. Ogden, then one of the principal factors, but now Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company in Oregon, for one thousand dollars. A fortification on this cape would command the entrance of the river by the northern channel, which is immediately around the point, and as it is said, not more than half a mile in width.[178]
Point Adams, the southern cape of the Columbia, is a little above cape Disappointment. It is low and sandy, and continues a sand ridge four miles to Clatsop plains. This point, and the high ground at Astoria, as before stated, form Young's bay, near which the ridge is covered with timber. Near point Adams is the southern channel or entrance into the Columbia, which is thought to be preferable to the northern channel; and I think either of them much better than heretofore represented. In each there is a sufficiency of water to float any sized vessel. With the advantages of light houses, buoys, and skillful pilots, which the increasing commerce of the country must soon secure, the harbor at the mouth of the Columbia would compare well with those on the Atlantic coast; and I may say that it would be superior to many of them.
As we ascend, Astoria occupies probably the first suitable site for a town. It stands upon a gradual slope, which extends from the bank of the river up to the mountain. The timber was once taken off of some forty or fifty acres here, which, except about twenty acres, has since been suffered to grow up again, and it is now a thicket of spruce and briars. Five or six old dilapidated buildings, which are occupied by the Hudson's Bay Company, who have a small stock of goods for trading {108} with the natives, and a few old looking lodges upon the bank of the river, filled with greasy, filthy Indians, constitute Astoria.[179]
The person in charge of this establishment, whose name is Birney, seems to be a distant, haughty, sulky fellow, whose demeanor and looks belie the character generally given to a mountaineer or backwoodsman.[180] As evidence of his real character, I will state one circumstance as it was related to me by persons residing in the vicinity of the place. During the summer or fall, while the British war vessel Modesté was lying at Astoria, one of the sailors fell overboard and was drowned. Search was made, but his body could not be found. Several weeks afterwards the body of a man was found upon the shore, a short distance above Astoria. Information was immediately communicated to Birney, who promised to give the body a decent burial. About two weeks after this, some Indians travelling along the shore, attracted to the place by a disagreeable scent and the number of buzzards collected together, discovered the body of a man much mangled, and in a state of putrefaction. They informed two white men, Trask, and Duncan,[181] who immediately made enquiry as to whether the body found on the beach previously had been buried, and received for answer from Birney, that it was no countryman of his, but it was likely one of the late emigrants from the States that had been drowned at the Cascade Falls. Trask and Duncan proceeded to bury the body, and found it to be in the garb of a British sailor or marine. This, to say the least, was carrying national prejudice a little too far.