THE PACIFIC COAST SURVEY 255
own hook (as the saying is) Capt. Williams being unable to obtain men with which to operate.
"We have completed a very correct outline of the coast, its headlands, Bays, Rivers and indentations from San Francisco to this place, as well as carrying on our soundings as we go, and the results are such as to please me very much. We have discovered many important errors in the charts of the coast, and shall probably discover greater discrepancies as we go to the north, as less is pretended to be known of the country in that direction.
"I shall start from here tomorrow and shall stop at Pt. Georges, distant about 40 miles to the northward of this place. . . . There are also vessels there and a settlement has been made. Rogues or Klamet River is my next stopping place, after that then the Columbia. I may be detained at point Georges Pt. some days, as I shall endeavor to secure the bodies of Lieuten- ants Ricd. Bache and Robert L. Browning, who were drowned at that place. 7
McArthur's next letter to Commander Young is dated As- toria, Oregon Territory, June 3, 1850. Among other things he says :
"We are now in Oregon, where I shall remain until I re- ceive further instructions or orders. I hope such will be given me as will permit us to proceed at once to work. We can live better and cheaper here than in any part of the coast. The ^almon is fine and abundant, but not so good as the shad. Butter is plenty at 62 to 75 cts pr. lb., fresh beef 20 cts. pr. Ib. The climate is agreeable and healthy. The water is not inferior to any in the world. The face of the country is too uneven to permit as general cultivation, still it will and must soon become a great agricultural and stock growing country.
7 Lieutenant Richard Bache and Lieutenant Robert L. Browning were drowned on the northwest coast of California on March 27, 1850, while making some special surveying investigations. Lieutenant Bache was the younger brother of Professor Bache.
