Warre and Vavasour, 1845-6. 45 There is an inexhaustible salmon fishery at this point, to which the Indians of all the surrounding country resort dur- ing the months of March and October for their summer and winter supplies. Frequent attempts have been made to penetrate to the val- ley of the Willamette by a more southern route, avoiding the Columbia River, but the country is so densely covered with fir trees and intersected by mountains and ravines that the undertaking has invariably failed, the parties being obliged to abandon their wagons, with the loss of numbers of their cattle.* We have been informed by the gentlemen of the H. B. Co. that there is a road, known only to their trappers, near the southern boundary (1819) by which easy access might be attained to the valley of the Willamette River, where the great body of the citizens of the United States are settled, f From the "Dalles" the River Columbia is deep and unin- terrupted to the Cascades (48 miles), where it forces a pas- sage through a range of lofty mountains, extending from lat- itude 49 degrees into California, parallel with the sea coast, and where it again becomes unnavigable for a distance of three miles. The south bank is impassable at this point. The emigrants descend on the north side, recross the river about 15 miles below the rapids, from whence they strike across a thickly wooded country to the Clackamas River, which they descend to the valley of the Willamette. Below the Cascades the Columbia is navigable to the Pa- cific (150 niiles), although occasionally obstructed by sand bars. Ships of 300 tons burden are constantly navigatinsf its water to Fort Vancouver, 35 miles below the Cascades (the principal depot of the Hudson's Bay Company west of the Rocky Mountains), on the north bank of the river, situated in
- The reference is apparently to those efforts which eventuated a year later in
the opening of the Barlow road, which crossed the Cascade Mountains near Mount Hood.
fThis road was sought by Fremont, and opened by the Applegate party in 1846.----
