ITHE MORNING OEEGONIAN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1001'. '
ia
r
E
IMPROVEMENT AT MOUTH OF COLUMBIA RIVER
MistaRes of tKe Fast and Plans for tKe Future V? Present Jetty in "Wrong Direction
and Leaves Discharge Channel Too Wide Proposed $2,500,000 Extension
Urrwise VP Columbia Capable of Sest Bar-Harbor Entrance in the United States.
The Columbia Is the great- river o the
"West. It drains an empire and breaks
through all mountain barriers on its way
to the sea. and along Its water levels ar
tificial highways of modern commerce
easily come and go.
It flows along the line of trade and
commerce and westward with its waters
the star of progress has taken Its way
It Is a natural outlet to the Orient. Un
like the Atlantic, there are few commer
cial harbors along the Pacific, and the
engineer reports say that, the Columbia
is the only deep-water harbor between
San Francisco and the Straits of Fuca
a distance of 700 miles, equal to that be
tween South Carolina and Maine and its
entrance performs the function of a har
bor of refuge and a commercial gate
way. Last year only four American ports
excelled Portland in wheat and flour ship
ments, and no prophet can estimate the
immensity of our future -developments. .
Accompanying are two maps. On the
first, A A is a recommendation of Colo
nel Gillespie for a pile jetty of 8000 feet,
estimated cost, $430,000. to be extended
towards Cape Disappointment at will.
This plan the writer in 1SS2 submitted to
Captain James B. Eads. receiving the
earnest approval of that famous en
gineer of Mississippi jetty fame. Colonel
Gillespie's plan, however, had been re
ferred by the Chief of Engineers to his
advisory board in New York, who con
demned it, but suggested nothing in its
stead, not deeming improvement of suf
ficient merit
This adverse report stood a Hon in our
way. The writer attacked It before the
river and harbor committee and April 4,
1882, on the floor of Congress. Anally, in
a clause drafted by the writer in an act
passed" in 1882, we -were granted an ap
propriation of 57500 for a board of en
gineers to investigate and, if found feasi
ble, report a plan. They agreed that the
mouth was capable of being greatly im--nroved-a
minority. Colonel Mendell, fa
voring "a jetty along a line about paral-(
lei with that of Colonel Gillespie towara
the cape, aiid to be extended until the
mouth was normally contracted the ma
jority favoring a jetty running a little
more outward and built up only to low
tide and terminating at a point leaving
the mouth three miles wide.
B B is thejetty recommendedby Colo
nel George H. .Mendell's minority re
port, to be built northerly about 14,000 feet
and four feet higher than the majority
plan and extended as occasion required,
costing, with contingencies, $1,375,000. He
said that the controlling natural feature,
which seemed entitled to credit for past
good channels, was the occasional
elevation of Clatsop Spit, and added:
"It Is practicable to restore and mag
nify the condition of Clatsop Spit by, a
-work which -shall present no unusual
difficulties .of construction, which shall
be subject to a minimum of expense and
one" which is practicable at a moderate
cost and -capable of being built In three
years. To concentrate tlie river vrith
'in moderate -width, and to discharge
it as a unit to the sea, are the objects
Bought. This condition attained gives
the "best assurance of good results.
'The most favorable position for work
which shall fulfill these conditions
appears to be a line on the north
'side of Clntsop Spit and about paral
lel to the crest. . . . The object
to be secured by the work . . .
'is merely the practical elevation of
Clatsop Spit."
It "is regretted that Colonel Mendell's
plan was not followed. The sooner we
'conform to it the sooner the best results
will be attained.
C C is the jetty as approved and built.
D D is the proposed three miles' ex
tension estimated to cost $2,500,000.
"While the results have been greatly
beneficial, yet they are not satisfactory
as they would have been had Mendell's
plan been adopted.
"When the jetty was commenced in 1SS5,
there had been a main ship channel flow
ing -around southwesterly, and a small
unused channel flowing nearly northwest.
The main ship channel last used In 1885
in depth was 20 feet; five years after,
the northwesterly channel, which came
into use, was, 24 feet; In 1891, 27 feet; in
3892, 2S feet; in 1893-4, 29 feet, and in 1895,
when the jetty was done, 31 feet. By
1896-7 this channel unsatisfactorily dropped
to 30 feef.-in 1898, to 29 feet; In 1899, to 28
feet; 1900, to 24 feet, and now to 23 feet
These soundings mean low water. Tide
adds about S or 9 feet The channel
nised :by ships just before had by 18S5
Vcoured out about two miles northerly
' towards the -place where. It ought to run.
-Though the channel was -swinging for
a while properly northward. 'It was, how
ever, to be feared- when such a large
anouth had been left that more or less
-variation of bar depth would occur, owing
-to many causes. "While the building of
.the .present jetty, even in the mistaken
direction and only to low tide, has been
beneficial, yet the hopes of the Govern
ment have not been realized, in fact have
faeon attended with disappointment, and
jjaturally enough. .
While the mouth has been- partially
contracted advantageously, it ' has not
been contracted enough for desired re
eults. and if the present jetty Is extended
seaward,' as contemplated, the extension
Is sure to disappoint and be. abandoned.
The plan has failed because It ran In the
wrong direction, and also because not yet
built high enough.
HOW A'ATUEE DOES THE WORK.
Crowded Mouth of the Columbia
Over From Clatsop Plains.
Ages 'ago, the mouth extended from Til
lamook Head to the cape. Years of the
strong southerly winds and currents pre
vailing on this coast the greater part of
each'year gradually carried sand and silt
and filled in Clatsop Plains and drove
the current northward toward the cape.
After building up Clatsop Plains termi
nating at Point Adams, the resisting ac
tion of the crowded-over channel of the
Columbia retarded land formation, and
the outgrowing spit of sand continued un
der water, constantly growing longer and
higher (owing to the same causes) in the
submarine Clatsop Spit running on out
under the six miles' mouth space between
Point Adams and the cape.
Nature. In her prevailing southerly
winds and attending southerly currents,
has been and is now at work the greater
portion of each year trying to narrow
the six-mile mouth by this Clatsop Spit
growth, whose end, in some storm between
"Vancouver's survey In 1792 and Belcher's
in 1839 sloughed off and grew, from these
same physical causes, into Sand Island,
which island has continued to move in
ward northeast towards Baker's Bay. Na
ture, building only with sand, which has
had to contend with wave and storm and
current washing over it, has not been
capable of permanently sustaining the
spit sand growth under water, so as prop
erly to narrow the mouth, and now,
man, whose needs require a deep and per
manent channel of the river to the sea,
must aid and build and hold by a stone
jetty the contraction which nature so
happily Is trying to accomplish. The end
desirable is a narrowing of a mouth here
tofore and yet too wide.
Six miles for the proper discharge of
the waters of the Columbia at ebb tide,
is six times too large. This abnormal
width wastes the force and affords no In
dependence or stability of channel. Con
tracted to normal width, the strong out
ward current will go straight to sea In
one place, will deepen with powerful
scouring effect, and will carry far out into
deep water the sand bar which ever forms
at the mouth of any outlet of a river (or
bay fed by a river) into an ocean. Riv
ers carry silt In solution and sand, and
as they pour Into the ocean, meeting re
sisting wave and tide, the current deadens
and silt and sand are deposited as force
meets force, forming a sort of half-circle
or half-ellipse cordon, deepest, of course,
where the current is strongest, which
deepest portion Is known as the "bar,"
and through which tides flowing in and
out scour deeper still, and thus the "bar"
Is sought by ships entering or departing.
To concentrate the force of the mouth
to normal width, rendering permanent a
single channel to the sea, secures
the deepest and safest entrance, and this
is the problem presented.
A river with too big a mouth, like a
wide hose-nozzle, "scatters" to much. Its
current can have no straight, enduring
channel. The mouth of the Columbia has
had at times, and will have until normally
adjusted, divided and shallow channels
with shoaling sand banks at one place
one year and another next. In Its ab
normal width It has yet much wastage of
current water over shallow sand spits and
even the jetty Itself, with resulting dif
fusion of channel. Every river should
have a normal width of mouth and then
its ebbing concentrated current will drive
out against the counter-wave action into
the deep sea., with all its current and tidal
force greatest in the center and weakest
on the sides, with universal result that
there will, and ever must be, a half-moon
or cordon of sand around the mouth In
the sea with the deepest cut or "bar" in
its outer center. The stronger the cur
rent the farther out will be the 'ever-existing
"bar." Observation of the channel
of the Columbia wherever it passes
through headlands or at the mouth sug
gests that one mile between Point Adams
and the cape would be ample and there
fore proper. Experience with river har
bor entrances confirms this.
have had a fluctuating or divided chan
nel, or talk of any kind of a jetty? To
ask is to answer the question.
DEFECT OF PRESENT JETTY.
Appears to Narrow Channel, but
Does Not Really Do So.
People gazing at the remarkable sight
of cars running apparently 4 miles in
ocean (though really over wasting wat-
member of the river and harbor commit
tee, to all such Improvements in this
country, and nave spent some thought on
this work, and what I say is earnest con
viction. It is the universal experience elsewhere
that harbor Improvements cost far above
estimates, but It is notable that the
mouth of the Columbia has been the ex
ception. The estimates for the present
jetty were $3,710,000, without contingencies.
squarely against it; but fortunately sit
uated as we are. with a bluff on the
north and prevailing elements of nature
working the channel against a solid bluff,
the improvement is but a simple and
easy problem. A jetty has merely to
run with the prevailing winds and cur
rents building up and sustaining it, and
to operate on a naturally growing head
like a sideboard guide to help turn the
channel to where It wants to go and
ought to and will go if we only protect It.
A glance at the map demonstrates this.
The present jetty having been built
qomewhnt across Clatsop Sand Spit,
instead of along: it, if now extend
ed as proposed, will leave the spit
and strike to sea with but little
benefit. If continued to sea, It leaves the
mouth too wide forever. This Is fatal.
Leave thejetty where It Is. Branch about
three-fifths of the way a spur extension,
"obstruct unduly free entry of the flood
tide into the basin at the mouth of the
river, from which it is to ebb and do
the work required of it," but In San
Francisco Bay three times our tidal basin
water easily enters through Heads
scarcely one mile apart. However, ir
anything would "obstruct unduly," cer
tainly the proposed extension out around
in the sea opening three miles would. The
controlling feature of any Improvement
should be concentrating the force in
normal passage-way of the outgoing
Immense Columbia water, which never
returns, and nature, as at San Fran
cisco, will take care of the rest. The
strong river, enforced with the In-tidal
back water through only a mile opening
even, will In Its powerful ebb scour out
its own deep way to the sea. It is a
mistake to leave the top of the jetty at
low-water line, that incoming tide may
E E, about two miles towards the cape, flow over it to fill a tidal basin inside the
and some feet above low tide (Colonel
Mendell said four feet), and gradually
STATE OffiffiMNGTON
...; . V " ";i J (?xs " -&
mouth. "What flows In that way flows out
that way. and helps nothing; besides, so
much more flows out over a low jetty
(and uselessly, too) than flows In, for
what flows in flows slowly against the
backing-up waters of the strong Colum
bia current, while what flows out goes
with the current and flows rapidly. The
ebbing scour of this excess should be
utilized. There need be no fear by en
gineers but the "tidal basin" inside will
sufficiently fill with water.
Once get a straight permanent channel
to the sea, it will scour and carry out
the sands of the bar to the deepest outer
water possible, and we shall have a
deeper bar entrance than any leading
American city and the finest river water
entrance In the world.
NO USE TO BUILD IN" DEEP "WATER.
EXPLANATION.
(Scale Scant half-inch one mile.)
A-A Colonel Gillespie's first recommendation for Jetty.
B-B Colonel Mendell's recommendation for jetty.
C-C Jetty as built; cost $1,048,223.
D-D Proposed extension of Jetty; estimated cost $2,300,000.
E-E Suggested modification.
F-F Ship channel In 18S5.
G-G Ship channel In 1895.
II-H Ship channel in 1001.
I-I Ship channel where It should be.
MAP NO. 1 MOUTH OF COLUMBIA RIVER, BASED ON SURVEY OF 1001.
ers on a sand spit between river current
and ocean) think they see a jetty, but
they see only a pile tramway for carloads
of stone to be dumped along the Jetty on
Clatsop Spit and not yet raised high
enough.
The jetty, as built, only comes to low
water on what was a shoal sand spit, and
three miles space of real depth of water
is yet left. But little has been done in
the way of concentration of diffused
water. It has been a narrowing In
looks, but not in reality.
Build your jetty eventually high enough
so the sand drifting or flowing will form
It was, however, built for 1,948,223, a lit
tle over half. The sand filled in and built
up, giving more shallow water to work In
and less depth of jetty to build up. These
great southerly winds and coast currents
do the main work. These winds blow
hard, as each Oregonlan can attest, and
they blow the greater portion of the year,
and they build up the great Clatsop spit
by natural operation.
There, however, is a small sand growth
on the north, the result of light northerly
Summer winds, known as sea breezes.
They have a somewhat counteracting ef
fect and produce Peacock Spit, and par-
continue a mile or so, as the channel of
the river swings over towards the cape.
Then ultimately raise the entire jetty with
sand growth to high tide. The work
ought not to be pushed violently. Results
cannot be forced In a day when contend
ing with sand spits and great river cur
rents. The mistaken idea of the engineers In
the present Jetty was to leave the mouth
a little less in width than the 3 miles
between Chinook Point and Point Adams,
reasoning that a termination three miles
from the cape would leave the' mouth of
the river about right Any assumption
SAN FRANCISCO'S GOLDEN GATE.
Bar There, but Narrow Mouth Car
ries It Out to Sea.
The Golden Gate at San Francisco Is
less than a mile between the heads. The
Sacramento and other rivers, with waters
of tho tidal basin, flow out as the tide
ebbs, twice every 24 hours. The Heads
hold the current permanently in place
and the water goes out In a straight,
ever-enduring channel, with the "bar" far
out It may be news that there Is a baf
at San Francisco. Men talk of the 50 or
60 feet of water In the Golden Gate, but
overlook the "bar" far out, and unheard
of, except by pilots. It Is seven miles out
from the Heads, but Its sand bottom Is
down only about 32 or 33 feet, and the
tide only raises the water over it about
four or five feet more, so that they only
have about 38 feet at high tide over their
bar, nevertheless It Is sufficient for the
shipping of the world.
The San Francisco bar Is a quarter of
a mile across and out over this narrow
bar, seven miles at sea, all their deep
draft ships must pass, under guide of
pilot Our bar today Is not out over three
miles from the cape. Our powerful Co
lumbia, however, sends to sea annually
nearly as much water as "the Mississippi.
It now has one Head for a Golden Gate
In Cape Disappointment, on the north.
Give it another Head on the south, about
a mile or so away, and we, too, will have
a Golden Gateway for the deepest of
deep-draft ocean liners, freighted with the
goods of or for the Orient or the leading
ports of the world, with our bar thrown
twice as far out as it Is today.
The great prevailing winds and cur
rents from the south and southwest are
working to build up this Head on the
south, in the immense growing and rising
Clatsop Spit Uncle Sam and an appro
priation and a jetty of stone will com
bine with the ever-upbuilding forces of
nature, and also prevent destructive in
roads of sloughing or wasting waves or
currents, which otherwise occasslonally i
swash or tear out the upbuilding of Clat
sop Spit "Head."
A deep channel was once washed out
and ran to sea right through where the
jetty now crosses and along where it Is
built, and near the mainland at Point
Adams, as Belcher's survey of 1839 shows:
but It later on filled up, or rather moved
northward with the Sand Island cut off.
Again, by the time of the commencement
of the jetty In 1SS5, the same deadly swash
again was threatening, in what was
termed "Tillamook Chute," and but for
a Jetty we probably -would have had an
other swash channel to the sea, destroy
ing or weakening the main channel, and
another Sand Island.
Nature is ever struggling to build up
and hold Clatsop Spit To aid nature
is the key of success at the mouth of
the Columbia. Uncle Sam has but a sim
ple problem on his hands. Nature points
out the system and is constantly at work
attempting to build up a south bank and
the Government has but to run Its stone
and pile jettty out and hold it Nature
does the rest
Stone is cheap and plentiful, and no
teredo attacks wood in "the fresh water
of the mouth.
Suppose Tillamook Head could have
closed in with the ages of Clatsop
growth, narrowing the wide waters of
the mouth towards the cape, like the
closing of the under jaw against the
upper, until Tillamook Head rested on
the end of Clatsop Spit a mile or less from
the cape, does anyone suppose we would
MAP NO. 2 MOUTH OF COLUMBIA RIVER.
higher land and shut the water from
wasting its ebbing, scouring force across
the spit; extend the jetty northward and
make the waeting, spreading water do
duty scouring out a main channel and
allow the growth to gradually narrow the
mouth, and work the channel over toward
the cape, cutting off the sands of -Peacock
Spit (which ought never to project
south of the cape), and let one straight,
deep channel go to sea, scouring deeper
as Its sides are narrowed, and we will
have a mile or so of Golden Gate en
trance, with 50 or 60 feet of water be
tween the two heads (the end of the
jetty and the Cape opposite), and our
bar will be six, seven, possibly eight
miles out to sea in deep water, which bar
cordon will keep more or less cleared by
littoral currents out there, often moving
northerly two or three miles an hour, and
over that bar will be 35 or 36 feet or more
at low tide, and 44 or 45 feet at high tide,
and the biggest of the coming big ships
will come and go with no delay.
That the channel will move over, as
naturally tending, and cut off Peacock
sand, spit to the Cape, there Is no ques
tion. A small wlngdam jutting but slightly
into a river current above turns the cur
rent below. Colonel Gillespie's Short,
cheap jetty might have guided the river
current long ere this over against the
Cape and on to the sea in one concen
trated channel.
There Is not a foot of the 6lx miles from
Point Adams to the Cape that has nothad
a ship channel over It at some time In
the last 60 years, and the movement has
been from south to north.
There need be no fear of Clatsop Spit
growing too far toward the bold Cape
bluff, or that the mouth will become ab
normally encroached, for as the sustained
and jettled sand land grows and gradually
works the mile of channel current over
to the Cape, and throws into It present
wasting water, this strong current will
say to approaching sand spit and Jetty,
"Thus far and no "farther." Nature will
work automatically. In truth, we are spe
cially favored by nature, over all other
places.
COST UNDER THE. ESTIMATES.
tially neutralize the great southerly Win.
ter winds In building up Clatsop Spit, but
for which these Winter winds and cur
rents would, wjthout any jetty, drive the
current completely over to the cape.
A stone jetty on "Clatsop Spit, helping
It to grow in height and length, would
make headland on the south, and by con
centrating the present wasting water, the
current would scour out the sand of Pe i
cock Spit until the river current would
wash against the opposite cape. If we
only had headland on the south as now
on the north, with only a mile or so be
tween, and all the great ebbing current of
the river had to go to sea between these
two heads, we would have a permanent
straight and deep channel, with the bar
sands thrown six or seven miles out, as
at the Golden Gate, and no more need of
a Jetty than San Francisco. Nature's
strong southerly winds and currents are
constantly building up a head for us, and
that the V miles between Chinook Point
and Point Adams is normal was error,
for moat of the width there Is shoal and
dead current, with scarcely a mile of
channel ways, and channels shallower be
cause of water diffused in surplus width.
Every drop would easily flow out even if
Point Adams and Chinook Point were
only a mile aDart.
Oa-f 60ff r ,0
our- .. s$ 0
MISTAKE OF PRESENT JETTY.
Map No. 3 Ship channel from San
Francisco.
j why Is it not the simple, practical plan
I to assist In this essential narrowing of
the mouth and upbuilding of a head. The
true system Is so plainly written that he
who runs ought to read.
Fortunately for us, nature, with south
erly winds, is throwing the river channel
over against an enduring head like the
cape. Were the situation reversed, that
Is, were the cape on the south, with the
heavy winds and currents driving the
channel to a north sand spit, and we were
trying to narrow the mouth by a jetty onf
the north, the problem would, Indeed, be
a most difficult one, for any such jetty
and sand head growth would have to
A Notable Feature of Columbia Im
provement. liruil -. n.1. nln IvMlmrv an irlnoartno1 air 111
yet for two years I gave close study, as a struggle with winds end currents cutting j narrowing the mouth did not desire to
Extension of It Like Adding Flaring
Mouth to Hose Nozzle.
While the jetty built has done much, it
confessedly has not done enough. Time
has shown Its failure to secure desired re
sults, and now to fall to profit by mis
takes of the past, and worse yet, to base
a new plan on a continuation of past er
rors, and go yet farther and do what
was not anticipated, by extending the
outer end out into the sea and three
quarters of a mile fartUer away than
ever from the cape, thus widening
the mouth of the river when nar
rowing was the purpose, like .adding
a flaring mouth to a hose nozzle, would
be a striking departure, do but little
good In any event, complicate matters
and delay final complete success. The
proposed extension Is wrong In principle.
The jetty so far has been confined to
Clatsop Spit, a local product of southern
winds and currents and along which a
jetty can properly be built, had It been
built In the right direction.
The proposed extension, however, Is to
be out In the sea off from Clatsop Spit
sands and over sands constituting the
bar product of Inevitable conflict between
all river mouths and ocean, and over
which It Is useless to ever build a jetty..
The two sand formations should never be
confounded. While running into each
other they are as distinct in production
and function as the heads at San Fran
cisco or lands at each side of a mouth of
a river are distinct from the sand half
moon cordon which encircles San Fran
cisco's, entrance or the entrance of any
river outlet Into an ocean. (See maps 2
and 3.) ,
The mouth was left too wide. Experi
ence has demonstrated the mistake, and
matters will never be permanently helped
by extending the mistaken direction clear
out into the sea, where no jetty should
ever be built.
In 1882 the majority of the board in
Less Red Tape and More Independ
ent Thinking' Advisable.
To run the present jetty out a total
of 7& miles when the mouth of the river
was only six miles. Is wasteful and useless
and would only delay final success. To
extend the three miles, as contemplated.
Is not only contrary to a correct system,
but Is also to build into deep water and
water that deepens as the jetty extends,
and costing $2,300,000. with, at best, uncer
tain results. To run a spur, however,
from the present jetty is to build with
nature, and In shallow water and where
Incoming sands will reduce expenditures
below estimates on present depths, and
narrow the excessive throat or river
mouth. Extensions of the present jetty
cost too much money and promise too
doubtful results. Far less expended on
Clatsop Spit on line to the cape, as
Colonels Gillespie and Mendell recom
mended, would surely accomplish the de
sired results, and quickly. Results are
what we want.
The present jetty, while too much to
sea, can be utilized to good purpose, and.
any abandoned part will contribute to the
support of Clatsop Spit and serve as a
buffer for the spur extension.
It may prove harder to change Govern
ment plans than the river channel itself,
but if the able and well-intentioned en
gineers will but care less for red tape
and precedent all along up to a weJI-mcan-ing
Congress, and do a little independent
thinking, all will be well.
Now is the time to reason this matter
over. Colonel Gillespie and Colonel Men
dell and Captain Eads had the true Idea,
but the Government plan as carried out
mistakenly swung too much outward and
now threatens to "drift to sea" In more
senses than one.
Visions of "40-foot channel clear to sea"
will be Dead Sea fruit and but ashes to
the lips. Let us think twice before we
leap. Time Is too precious to throw away.
In fact, no one stands sponsor for de
sired success In the proposed extension.
The local engineer, realizing, as he said,
that "In Its present state the condition of
the bar channel Is unsatisfactory" (see
report of November 6, 1899), and that since
work stopped in 1895 "this channel has de
teriorated in depth," proposed the plan of
extending the present jetty. His Idea of
results is In these words:
"Since the 40-foot depth In the channel
extends considerably over a mile seaward
of the sea end of the jetty, a pro
longation of the latter sufficiently
would certainly induce an extension
of the former," probably until this
depth (40 feet) "broke through the bar
and the desired 40-foot channel be ob
tained." This Is his strongest recom
mendation for this expensive extension.
The report, "endorsed" by officials
through which It passed, finally arrived at
Congress and has been waiting action now
nearly two years. With all of us the
"wish Is father to the thought," and we
jumped to the conclusion that the En
gineering Department assured us that if
we can only get $2,500,000 from Congress
for such an extension, we shall have 40
feet of low water to the sea. .. little
observation will undeceive us. He Is pos
sibly right that an extension of the pres
ent jetty would Induce an extension of the
present 40-foot depth (see map) pos
sibly until this depth broke through the
(present) bar and a 40-foot channel be ob
tained (through the present bar), but even
if it did, the bar would merely be driven
out some farther and probably a little
deeper, but how far and how deep, the
report is silent. If out a mile and a half.
it might indeed be true that a 40-foot
channel had been driven through the
bar," but the bar would simply be a little
beyond, but not out two or three miles
farther into deeper water, where It should
be forced to Insure desired depth.
It may be desirable, of course, to ex
tend the 40-foot depth out and cut through
where the bnr is at present, If it can
be done, but the mistake the public makes
is in assuming that then there would
be no bar beyond, and 40 feet obtained
clear to the sea, but the report does not
so predict, and no engineer will so ntsert.
No engineer has or will place himself on
record that there will be no bar beyond,
nor have any predicted what depth of
water will be over any new bar as It
forms, as form It must
That there will .be a bar beyond, every
body on a moment's thought must see.
There must ever be a bar at the ocean
mouth of any river. These are the cold
facts, notwithstanding prevailing Im
pressions that engineers have predicted
as a result what all devoutly desire,
namely, a 40-foot channel reaching
permanently to the sen. The ?2,500,0CO
extension proposed in any such assurance
will prove but words of promise to the
ear but broken to the hope. Indeed, a
40-foot channel at low water to the sea
Is questionable. However, a 40-foot chan
nel at high tide can easily be secured at
the mouth of the Columbia, but never by
extension from the present end of Jetty
In the direction proposed.
nothing practical in the Idea, especially
as jetties out there are exposed to all
destructive elements of the ocean itself.
In other words, the whole thing is" im
practicable. Again, suppose the three-mile extension
disappoints, what then? And what Is to
become of the mass of stone lying out
side along, our ship channel to the sea
and buffeted by storm and wave? The
whole extension project Is utterly out of
the question. The engineer In his recom
mendation of 1S99 conceded that the bar
had decreased from 31 feet in 1S03 to 2S
in 1S99. No wonder he said "the decrease.
In depth since 1S95 is serious." As It nasi
since decreased to 21 feet in 1900, and tha
present year to 23 feet, but three feet
more than when the jetty was com
menced. It Is more serious yet.
The great flood of 1S94 helped drive the
bar further out. and scoured It deeper,
resulting In 31 feet In the next survey oC
1S95, and our comparative freedom from
flood since, and the consequent weaken
ing of the force, has contributed to de
terioration of depth since. During all
these times the low jetty leaving a three-
mile mouth has not properly concentrated
any of the time, and allowed too much
wastage at all times. Another 1804 flood
would "extend the 40-foot channel" farther
out than any proposed $2,5tX,0flO jetty. The
flood of 1S91 extended the 40-channel and
bar a long way farther out than ever
since. Though the entrance Is not nearly
so bad as in the past, the truth is it is
still so wide that the channel varies and
crooks. Is subject to shifting sands and
shoaling currents, one depth one year and.
another next, -and bar and channel buoys
have to be adjusted and readjusted to
mark the changing shipway. This is all
wrong, and can easily be righted, and.
should be without further needless delay.
The river throat has been left so exces
sively wide that even in the last year a
sand bank is cropping up like an embrjo
sand island over a half-mile from tno
cape en a line to Point Adams, right in
the throat of the river, and where the
ship cnannel came from Baker's Ba 20
years ago, and directly where the ship
channel ought now to go out to sea. (See
map No. 1, marked "X.")
hy not contract the too-wide mouth
where nature and sound judgment indi
cate, and cut out such growth as "X"
shows?
Let us call a halt, and be sure we are
right I feel sure we are- wrong in agi
tating for the extension of the jetty a3
proposed. Let the coming river and har
bor bill, as in the last one talked to death
by Senator Carter, contain an appropria
tion for the improvement of the mouth of
the Columbia, but to be expended on such
plan as may be approved by the present
Chief of Engineers. Colonel Gillespie
has fortunately recently become Chief of
Engineers. Let him be given a fair
chance again at this great work, and after
this "lapse of 20 years, and empower him
at his discretion to appoint a board ot
engineers to review, with all the light we
now have, and let General Gillespie, who
for years was local engineer in charge,
now say what plan of jetty extension and
from what point will secure the greatest
benefit.
The quicker we conform to practical
Ideas of such eminent engineers as Gen
eral Gillespie and Colonel Mendell and
Captain James B. Eads, the sooner we
shall attain the destined grandeur of the
harbor of the great Columbia.
- Mi-Ct- GEORGE.
ROOSEVELT AT HARVARD.
WHOLE THING IMPRACTICABLE.
T-,...n "sAiiottic All Wrong and
Could Be Easily Righted.
Another thought Any extension into
the sea and away from the real throat of
the river should be accompanied by a
companion three-mile parallel project on
the opposite side from the cape to the
sea; but as that would be no better than
the three-mile throat existing, there Is
Rejection of His Candidacy for Con
nection With College Paper.
Youth's Companion.
When, in 1S77, the editors of the Harvard
Advocate were about to select five sopho
mores to become members of their board
upon the retirement of the live memoera
from the senior class, a committee was
appointed, as is usual In such cases, to
Inquire into the availability of the sopho
mores who were ambitious for the honor.
About 12 sophomores were "prominently
mentioned," as the politicians say, and an
iippcr classman was placed on the track
of each of them to see what could be
learned of hl3 special abilities and per
sonal Interests. The reports were then
submitted to the full board, after which
the new mca were selected for admission
by ballot
No uncommon Interest was aroused when
one of the Investigating committee an
nounced that he was ready to report on
the candidacy of Theodore Roosevelt, jr.,
of the sophomore class.
"I cannot see that he is the kind of a
man we want," began the senlon. "Al
though I And that he Is a thoroughly
good fellow and much liked by his class
mates, I do not believe that he has much,
literary Interest. He spends his spare
time culpplng off pieces of rock and ex
amining strata, catching butterflies and
bugs, and would. I think, be better suited
for a scientific society than for us."
The editorial board sustained the re
port, and a youth who is now somewhat
famous as the writer of dialect stories waa
elected to the place on the board to which
young Roosevelt aspired.
This true story affords a particularly
striking application of "the stone that
the builders rejected" theory, In view of
the fact that the young sophomore was
destined to become not only the President
of the Unletd States, but to do perhaps
the most famous for literary activity ot
any one In the long line of occupants of
that office. It Is not necessary to make
comparison of his productions, as to liter
ary quality, with those ot Jefferson, John
Qulncy Adams, and Lincoln; but he is
more distinctly than any of his predeces
sors a bookwriter, and would have earned
a name In literature had he never entered
politics.
Socialism and Sale of Votes.
PORTLAND. Oct 29. (fTo the Editor.)
I want Information on a question re
garding the new political faith called
socialism. Last evening about 9 o'clock
while strolling through the lower end. of
town, I heard one of the alleged rerorm
ers. whose name Is Crowley, recently from,
our sister State of Washington, as I
learned upon Inquiry, advise his hearers,
mostly workingmen. to 3ell their votes
on election day for $1, If It were offered. I
thought at first that I must have mis
understood him, but he repeated it fre
quently, so I suppose that that Is his Idea
of socialism.
I had supposed from reading the vision
ary Utoplsts, Bellamy, Gronlund, Morris,
et al.. that socialism would do away with
bribing voters and the wholesale evil at
tending our election campaigns. If thi3
man Crowley Is right, then socialism
won't Improve the present methods a lit
tle bit A dollar a vote! Cheap voters,
cheap franchise and the result anarchy.
What docs The Oregonlan think?
J. C. BEALS.
Outrageous as such proposals are, there
Is no way to stop these blatherskites, ex
cept by education of the people In de
cency and duty, so that such speakers no
longer can And an audience.
LOWEST RATES
To All Points East.
Apply via Rio Grande lines. Through
deeDers. Personally conducted excursions
once I week. Call at office. No. 124 Third
street