Opposite to this, on the northern shore, is a deep bay, where the
Columbia anchored at the time of the discovery, and which is still
called Gray's Bay, from the name of her commander.
From hence, the general course of the river for about seventy miles
was nearly southeast; varying in breadth according to its bays and
indentations, and navigable for vessels of three hundred tons. The
shores were in some places high and rocky, with low marshy islands at
their feet, subject to inundation, and covered with willows, poplars,
and other trees that love an alluvial soil. Sometimes the mountains
receded, and gave place to beautiful plains and noble forests. While
the river margin was richly fringed with trees of deciduous foliage, the
rough uplands were crowned by majestic pines, and firs of gigantic size,
some towering to the height of between two and three hundred feet, with
proportionate circumference. Out of these the Indians wrought their
great canoes and pirogues.
At one part of the river, they passed, on the northern side, an isolated
rock, about one hundred and fifty feet high, rising from a low marshy
soil, and totally disconnected with the adjacent mountains. This was
held in great reverence by the neighboring Indians, being one of their
principal places of sepulture.
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