Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/80

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74
OREGON AND WASHINGTON.

valley for some little distance. Annually, large numbers of cattle and sheep are driven to a market, on the Sound, by this trail, which, for want of a suitable ferry from St. Helen across, is not much used for wagons.

Another stream comes into the Columbia, within the sixteenth of a mile of the Cathlapootle. This is the Calapooya, or Lake River, which rises in a small lake near Vancouver, twenty-five miles to the east, and flows nearly parallel with the Columbia, until it empties into it. There is a large tract of excellent farming land along this river, also, most of which is already settled up. The farmers, from both these valleys, bring their produce to St. Helen to exchange for goods. The tide, at this point on the river, rises about four feet.

As we pass along up the Columbia from this point, we notice that the shores are level on both sides; for, here, within a distance of twenty miles, the Cathlapootle, Lake, and lower and upper Wallamet enter the great river. On the right is the fertile Sauvie's Island; on the left the bottom-lands, belonging equally to Lake and Columbia rivers—each shore densely wooded with Cottonwood, ash, and willow, while, at a distance of several miles back, on either side, we behold the fir-clad highlands. This continues, without variation, to the head of Sauvie's Island, where a group of small islands, at the mouth of the Wallamet, give grace and variety to the river-view.

Passing the mouth of the Wallamet, we find that we are actually passing the foot of the Wallamet Yalley, and that the flat country on the left extends all the way from the mouth of Lake River to the foot-hills of the Cascades; but, growing narrower as