88 Joseph Schafer angles toward Baker's Bay. These spurs are also narrow and steep ; that to the N. West falling into a large, deep marsh of about half a mile in length, and a quarter of a mile in width, near the extremity of which there are two headlands jutting into the sea and rising abruptly from it. The Cape and adja- cent country is densely covered with pine trees. Point Adams, on the south shore, is a low, sandy point, densely covered with timber, having some small plains in its rear, on which there are several families settled. . The entrance to the Columbia River is obstructed by a very dangerous bar, two lines of breakers, called the north and south spits, running respectively from Cape Disappointment to Point Adams, and also a middle sand, between these two points, on either side of which run the north and south chan- nels.. The north and one in general use passes close under the north bluff of the Cape, which completely commands it, and also the anchorage in Baker's Bay. The south channel runs along the Clatsop shore, is straight but narrow, and has sel- dom been attempted. These channels are constantly chang- ing; the difficulties of the northern have been greatly increased by the formation of a new spit in the channel during the last year, altering all the former bearings and marks for entrance. Tongue Point on the south shore of the Columbia and 15 miles from its mouth, is a narrow peninsula, half a mile in length, containing about 70 acres of land. The highest point is about 300 feet above the river, from whence it descends, in a succession of steps, towards the mainland, and its ex- tremity; the western side is steep in all and quite perpendicu- lar in many places, on the east side it slopes more gradually, but is very steep, having a small space of open level on the summit, the remainder is covered with magnificent fir trees, having a thick underbrush on the east side. The ship chan- nel at present known passes round this point, whether the
river is entered by the north or the south channel, for which----
