CHAPTER III.
ABOUT THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA.
Where the Columbia meets the sea, in an almost continuous line of surf, is some distance outside the capes; but from the one to the other of these—that is, from Cape Hancock to Point Adams—is seven miles. Should the sea be calm on making the entrance, nothing more than a long, white line will indicate the bar. If the wind be fresh, the surf will dash up handsomely; and if it be stormy, great walls of foam will rear themselves threateningly on either side, and your breath will be abated while the quivering ship, with a most "uneasy motion," plunges into the thick of it, dashes through the white-crested tumult, and emerges triumphantly upon the smooth bosom of the river.
Of the two channels, the south is most used. Should you happen to go in by the north one, you will find yourself pretty close under a handsome promontory, with a white tower, in which a first-class Fresnel-light is burning from sunset to sunrise, all the year round. This promontory is the Cape Hancock of Captain Gray and the United States Government, and the Cape Disappointment of the English navigators and of common usage, since the long residence in the country of the Hudson's Bay Company.
The steamers of the North Pacific Transportation Company will not land you before reaching Astoria, a dozen miles inside the bar. But, for this once, we will
