dozen years later, by H. M. Knighton, to whom it was patented by the United States. In the early years of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, this great corporation owned a wharf at St. Helen, and stopped its steamers there; but the exigencies of commerce at that period compelled them to go to Portland.
Just above this place lies Sauvé Island, about eighteen miles long by six broad in the widest part; having on one side of it the Columbia, and on the other one lower Wallamet River, which is known as the "Columbia Slough." At the junction of these two rivers is an inlet called Scappoose Bay, extending back towards the high hills a distance of seven miles, and navigable by small boats for that distance, but for sailing vessels only two or three miles. In 1851-52 a town named Milton was laid out on the low land adjacent to Scappoose Bay by a company of sea-captains. The first summer flood in the Columbia showed them their mistake, driving the inhabitants to the high bluff behind Wyeth's Rock. Hot a vestige of Milton remains at this day, and most of its projectors are gone the way of all the earth.
It should have been mentioned that the Columbia, at about the mouth of the Cowlitz, sixty miles from the sea, makes a decided bend, running from the upper end of Sauvé Island to this point in a northerly course. The Wallamet has its upper mouth at the head of this island, entering the Columbia, where it makes another bend, the course of the river being in a general east and west direction for one hundred and eighty miles above this point.
Passing the entrance to the Wallamet, we observe that the before-mentioned rule holds good here, and that the wide and fertile valley of this river seems to cross Over to the Washington side, the flat country on both sides of the Columbia continuing from the lower mouth of the Wallamet to the foot-hills of the Cascades which border the great valley on the east. Though this level country is now covered with timber, it must, from its alluvial nature, when cleared, prove very excellent farming land. That portion of it nearest the river is subject to the annual overflow; but there is no difficulty in determining the limits of submersion, for, wherever fir-trees are found, there the high-water never comes.
