20 LIEUTENANT HOWISON REPORT ON OREGON, 1846
by the month of June, it attains its greatest force and volume; it is then actually a tributary to the Wilhammette, forcing its wa- ters back to the falls and causing a perceptible current in that di- rection. This rise in the Columbia is, however, like freshets in the Mississippi, not perceptible on the bar at the mouth, except to extend the time and increase the force of the ebb tide; at Vancouver the average summer rise is 16 to 18 feet.
The most suitable sailing vessels for this navigation are brig or barque rig, and of light draught of water not to exceed, when loaded, 13 feet. They should be well found in ground tackling, and furnished with at least two good sized hawsers and kedges of suitable weight. During the summer months the prevailing westerly winds make the voyage up the river both safe and quick, a'nd a vessel may descend at that season with the assistance of the downward current without much deten- tion ; but in winter both wind and tide are generally from the eastward, and forty-five days is the usual time to get to Van- couver ; and this can only be done by warping, a very laborious operation for merchant vessels. I have been thus prolix in speaking of these two rivers, as they are the arteries of life to this country ; indeed, I have no information touching points distant from their banks which has not already been published to the world by means vastly more competent than ?.ny in my possession. Besides, the information desired of me was more particularly in relation to the civilized inhabitants of Oregon; and very few of these are found settled, as yet, any great dis- tance from the rivers.
Of Puget's sound and its many harbors nothing more is known or can be at present added to Wilkes's observations in 1841.
English jealousy a'nd unoccupied country in the south have interposed to prevent American emigration to the north side of the Columbia until the last autumn.
I fell in with many persons exploring the country between the Cowlitz river (which is navigable by boats thirty miles from the Columbia in the line of route to Puget's sound) and
