The Columbia River . seem to haveusually ascended by cordelling their bateaux beside therocks, and at some especially difficult places by light-ening the load and carrying around. Steamers haveboth ascended and descended, but it is so slow andtedious (on one occasion requiring a steamer threedays to ascend the ten miles) that it cannot be con-sidered commercially navigable. It will doubtless be-come necessary to construct a canal and locks at thispoint to render the River continuously and profitablynavigable. Alexander Ross, in his Adventures on the Coluinhia,tells us how Priest Rapids came to
The Columbia River . seem to haveusually ascended by cordelling their bateaux beside therocks, and at some especially difficult places by light-ening the load and carrying around. Steamers haveboth ascended and descended, but it is so slow andtedious (on one occasion requiring a steamer threedays to ascend the ten miles) that it cannot be con-sidered commercially navigable. It will doubtless be-come necessary to construct a canal and locks at thispoint to render the River continuously and profitablynavigable. Alexander Ross, in his Adventures on the Coluinhia,tells us how Priest Rapids came to be named. Thefirst expedition of the Pacific Fur Company, of whichRoss was a member, was making its way from As-toria up the River in 1811, and had reached the lowerend of this fall. While reconnoitring and makingpreparations for proceeding, a large body of Indiansgathered, watching operations with great them was a fantastically dressed individual,with many feathers on his head, who was going through. 0)0) -t-> aa o C ^^ 03 o o <1 Land of Wheat-field, Orchard, and Garden 333 some kind of a performance which the explorers con-ceived to have a religious significance. Consideringhim a priest, they named the rapids thus. The country around Priest Rapids is barren andunpromising in its natural state, but just below thefoot of the rapids is one of the most interestingirrigation projects in the State. Along the west sideof the River for twenty-five miles extends a belt of themost fertile land. An immense pumping plant runby electricity, which in turn is generated by the cur-rent, has been put in at the foot of the rapids. Bythis the water is conducted over the twenty thousandor more acres of land available, and it is the expecta-tion that within a few years a dense population willline the river bank and repeat on a larger and finerscale the miracle of redemption by water already per-formed at various points on the River and its tribu-taries. Several town sites, o
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishernewyorkandlondongp
