1. Are there not States where citizens over 21 years of age are not permitted to vote without a property qualification? 2. If so, has the representation of such States in Congress been reduced in proportion, as would seem to be required by the United States Constitution? 3. Do the peeresses entitled to seats in the English House of Lords ever occupy them and vote as members of that body?
W. R. Johnston.
Answer.—1. Yes, and we gave their names in these columns recently. Rhode Island is the most exacting one of them. 2. No. 3. Yes.
COLUMBIA RIVER.
Onarga, Ill.
To settle a dispute, please state the precise place where the Columbia River rises. Also give its length, and tell how far it is navigable.
Hugh E. Sutton.
Answer.—The Columbia River rises in a trivial lake on the Western slope of the Rocky Mountains, in latitude 50 deg. 31 min. north, and longitude 116 deg. west of Greenwich. It is a swift, tortuous stream, cutting its way through many wild, deep gorges, or canons, and obstructed by numerous rapids and falls, until it reaches the foot of the Cascades, a series of rapids where it makes its way through the Cascade Mountains. Here the scene on either hand is most impressive, rising in places to the height of sublimity. From where the Clarke River fork enters to the sea the Columbia forms the boundary between Oregon and Washington Territory. Its total length is variously estimated, the best authorities making it between 1,400 and 1,450 miles. It is navigable for sea-going vessels of 300 tons burden to the head of tide water, at the foot of the Cascades, 160 miles, and steamboats ply on it above this, both below and above the narrow known as the Dalles, in all 485 miles more.