"The course and elevation of these ranges give direction to the
rivers, and character to the coast. No great river does, or can, take
its rise below the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Range; the distance to
the sea is too short to admit of it. The rivers of the San Francisco
Bay, which are the largest after the Columbia, are local to that bay,
and lateral to the coast, having their sources about on a line with
the Dalles of the Columbia, and running each in a valley of its own,
between the Coast Range and the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Range. The
Columbia is the only river which traverses the whole breadth of
the country, breaking through all the ranges, and entering the sea.
Drawing its waters from a section of ten degrees of latitude in the
Rocky Mountains, which are collected into one stream by three main
forks (Lewis's, Clark's, and the North Fork), near the centre of the
Oregon valley, this great river thence proceeds by a single channel to
the sea, while its three forks lead each to a pass in the mountains,
which opens the way into the interior of the continent. This fact in
relation to the rivers of this region gives an immense value to the
Columbia. Its mouth is the only inlet and outlet to and from the sea;
its three forks lead to the passes in the mountains; it is, therefore,
the only line of communication between the Pacific and the interior of
North America; and all operations of war or commerce, of national or
social intercourse, must be conducted upon it. This gives it a value
beyond estimation, and would involve irreparable injury if lost. In
this unity and concentration of its waters, the Pacific side of our
continent differs entirely from the Atlantic side, where the waters of
the Alleghany Mountains are dispersed into many rivers, having
their different entrances into the sea, and opening many lines of
communication with the interior."

"The Pacific coast is equally different from that of the Atlantic. The