the increased width of the river, as well as to the gravel brought down by the Yamhill River during its annual freshets. The river might be temporarily improved here by a system of wing-dams, but the boatmen say that other bars higher up the river are so much worse than this one that they do not consider the Yamhill Bar a serious obstacle to navigation. Below Yamhill Bar and Salem are numerous shoals, covered by twentyfour to thirty inches depth of water, with deep water between them. The names of the bars are Runaway Bar, Bennett's Dread, Five Islands, Tow-head, Matheney's, Beaver and Lone Tree Rapids, McCloskey's Chute, and Chitwood Bar. Each of these shoals are of the same nature. Of the bars just mentioned, Matheney's, Beaver and Lone Tree Rapids, and Chitwood Bar are the worst, on account of the channel being less wide and more tortuous than on the other bars. The depth of water is about the same on each of these bars.

Steamboats navigate the river between Oregon City and Salem (65) miles) during the entire year, and as far as Corvallis, 42 miles above Salem, during nine months of the year. During a high-water stage of the river, they run up as far as Eugene City, about 80 miles above Salem.

From the 1st of October to the 1st of August the river is said to be high, and the boats make their trips regularly, transporting heavy loads of freight; after that navigation above Salem ceases, and all towns above Salem either have to wagon their grain and supplies to or from Salem, or stow them away until navigation reopens.

The bars between Salem and Corvallis are not very numerous; they are of a similar nature to those below, but have a few inches less depth of water, and the boulders become larger as we go higher up the river. Above Salem we surveyed Humphrey's Rapid and Bower's Bar. They are considered the worst bars in the whole river; and, if they were improved, it is thought that navigation would be open to Corvallis during the entire year. The names of the other bars above Salem are Eola Bar, Rocky Rapids, Independence Bar, Buena Vista Bar, Luckamute Bar, and Long Crossing; none of these, however, are considered serious obstacles to navigation.

The Upper Willamette River varies in width from 300 to 1,000 feet; its average width from Albany to Oregon City is probably 500 feet. At every shoal on the river it is wider than it is immediately above or below the shoal. The difference between the highest water and low water of this river varies at different places. Where the banks are high it is said to be as much as 60 feet; at Salem it is about 40 feet. The banks of the river generally are low, and heavily timbered for a distance of about half a mile in width; beyond that is fine prairie land, forming by far the most valuable farming land in the State.

During the year, (October 1, 1869, to October 1, 1870,) 51,437 tons of freight were carried by the boats navigating the river. The People's Transportation Company monopolize the carrying trade of the river. They run seven steamboats above the falls at Oregon City and two below. Within the last few years this company has improved the navigation at Chitwood, Matheney's, and Runaway Bars, by building wingdams in the river, thereby contracting its width and causing the increased current to wash the finer gravel from the shoals into deeper water below the dams. The results in some cases were satisfactory, and would have been better had the dams been better constructed and placed in more favorable localities. As a rule, they were roughly constructed, and consisted of a log being thrown into the stream, making an angle of about 135° with the current; willow bushes and gravel were then thrown in

on the up-stream side of the log. The log, being aground, would remain in place until the water raised, when it would be carried away. In a few instances the dams were constructed by driving light piles into the gravelly bed of the river, then placing logs against the piles and brush and gravel against the logs. The dams so constructed are still standing. The danger to be apprehended in building wing dams in the river is that the current, striking the dam, is deflected to the opposite shore, which, if it be of a soft character, is gradually washed away, leaving the river as wide as before the dam was constructed. When the banks are washing away, the trees fall into the river, ground, and offer a partial protection to further wash until the river rises and floats them off. The current then carries them off until they lodge on some gravel bar, where they form a wing dam and sometimes produce a bad effect. The river pilots say that at nearly every bar the channel changes from year to year. It is therefore probable that any change which a wing-dam will produce on a bar will be temporary. It will produce an increased depth of water, but the gravel which it scours out will be deposited below, and may make another shoal as bad as the original.

Surveys were made of the following-named bars of the river, viz, Bower's Bar, Humphrey's Rapid, Chitwood Bar, Beaver and Lone Tree Rapids, and Matheney's Bar. Maps of each of these bars accompany the report. They will now be described in the above order, commencing at

BOWER'S BAR.

This obstruction is 3 miles above Albany. The river suddenly widens from 225 feet to 400 feet, where the shoal is found. The distance from 3 feet depth of water above to the same depth below the shoal is 150 feet. Average depth of water on the shoal is 2 feet. The current flows nearly west, with a velocity of 400 feet per minute. Immediately above the shoal the current is less rapid. The bed of the river is gravel, averaging about 2 pounds in weight. Some of them, however, weigh as much as 20 pounds. Near the shoal are three bare gravel bars, two of them on the north side of the channel, the other near the mouth of the creek on the south side of the channel. The lower of these bars is gradnally washing away on the channel side. The south bank of the river is clay, stands nearly vertical, and is also gradually wearing away. The north bank is a gravelly shore, having a gradual slope from the water's edge for a distance of about 200 feet; beyond that we find timber. The river can be improved here by building a wing-dam from the foot of the northerly gravel bar to the head of the lower bar. This would be 325 feet long, would concentrate the current and cause it to scour the shoal, but would also undermine the south bank and cause it to wash. This can be remedied by piling close to shore and then throwing in logs and brush behind the piles. Five hundred lineal feet of piling would probably suffice. The estimated cost of the wing-dam is $900; that of the bulkhead for shore protection, $2,600, making a total estimated cost of this improvement, $3,500. After leaving Bower's Bar we pass down the river without meeting with any serious obstacles until we arrive at

HUMPHREY'S RAPID.

This obstruction is about 20 miles, by river, above Salem. The bed of the river is gravel, like that on the other shoals, but the obstruction consists of two rocky reefs, nearly parallel to each other, about 150 feet apart, putting out from opposite sides of the channel. The lower one S. Ex. 14-2

projects from the south shore, and is 125 feet in length, by an average width of 75 feet. The upper reef puts out from an island on the north side of the channel for a distance of 250 feet, and has an average width of 100 feet. These two obstacles cause the boat, in ascending or descending, to make two sharp turns in contrary directions, (like the letter S,) and the current being rapid, nearly 400 feet per minute, has a tendency to throw a boat, in crossing, broadside on the lower reef, which is covered by about 2 feet of water. The upper one is barely covered. A channel can be made by blasting through either of these ledges of rock, but the work would be very expensive. An equally good channel, at a small cost, can be made between the island and the north shore. This chute contains an average depth of 15 feet of water, except at its upper end, for a distance of 300 feet, where there is less than 3 feet of water. This shoal, however, is all small gravel, none of it any larger than an egg, and if a wing-dam 220 feet long was constructed diagonally across the current, its lower end abutting against the head of the small gravel bar near the head of the island, the increased current would soon scour out the small gravelly shoals, and give a channel 75 feet wide in its narrowest part. At the end of the island was an immense accumulation of drift, probably 20 feet high, which lodges there during every freshet. This was set fire to and burned out in a few days. The only objection to building a dam at the head of this bar is that it might catch the drift and choke any channel which it might form. This is not probable, because the gravel bar against which the dam would abut is about 3 feet high, whereas the top of the dam would be but a few inches above the water surface. The estimated cost of building this dam, 220 feet in length, is $700.

The next important obstruction below this is called

CHITWOOD BAR.

This is about a mile and a half below Salem, and gives the steamboat men considerable trouble during low-water stage of the river. The river contains a long gravel bar or island, the foot of which is about 600 feet above the shoal. At the shoal the river widens suddenly from 300 to 675 feet. Immediately above and below the shoal is a good channel, carrying upward of 3 feet of water. Length of the shoal between the 3foot curves, above and below, is 475 feet. On the west bank, a little above the shoal, is a wing-dam 150 feet long. Another was built from the foot of the island, and is 550 feet long. The shoal commences at the foot of the long wing-dam, and extends across the river, covered with from 20 to 30 inches of water. In the prolongation of the shorter wing-dam, and distant from its foot about 140 feet, is a pile driven into the gravelly bed of the river. In ascending the river, the boats hug the west bank until they arrive about 150 feet below the wing-dam; a line is then taken from the boat and one end made fast to the pile, the other end remaining on board wound around the capstan; the boat then backs; the result is that she is carried into mid-stream and held there by the line. The engine is then quickly reversed, a few feet of progress made, and the spare line taken in. The probabilities are that by this time the boat is aground. She again commences to back, which throws a little water under her and causes her to rise a trifle on the wave so produced. The engine is again quickly reversed, and more progress made. This process is repeated sometimes for hours, until the boat reaches the pile, after which she has no more difficulty. While surveying this bar a break 100 feet long occurred in the long dam near the foot of the island. The water, which was 2

feet deep before the break, soon increased to 8 feet depth. A good channel can be made through the break of this dam by throwing a dam, 200 feet long, from the west bank, 500 feet above and parallel to the one already built on the bank. The lower dam should also be lengthened 200 feet. The channel would then be on the east side of the river, until crossing through the break of the long dam we would again arrive in deep water in the old channel above the shoal. The estimated cost of this improvement is $1,400. The east bank would also have to be protected by a bulkhead of piles and logs. This is estimated at $2,600. Leaving Chitwood Bar we pass down the river 9 miles and reach

BEAVER AND LONE TREE RAPIDS.

These two rapids, being only a mile apart, and each of them being shoal, were surveyed as one rapid. That nearest the top of the map is called Beaver Rapids. The average width of the river at and between these rapids is 700 feet; the bed of the river is large, coarse gravel. The fall of the river from the head of Lone Tree to the foot of Beaver Rapids, a little over a mile, is 5.6 feet. The observed velocity of the current was 204 feet per minute, but in the shoalest part, between the two gravel bars, it was swifter. Between the two rapids the channel is well defined, and contains from 4 to 8 feet of water, but at the rapids it is scarcely 3 feet in depth, and very narrow. Beaver Rapids is navigated without much difficulty, but when in Lone Tree Rapids the boats have to cross the current above the upper gravel bar, and are liable to be swept broadside against the bar. As the swiftest current and smallest gravel are between the two gravel bars, I think that the best place for making a channel. This can probably be done by building a dam from the head of gravel bar No. 2 diagonally across the current to the south shore, 200 feet. This will scour away the small gravel at the foot of bar No. 1. If it does not give a channel sufficiently wide, concentrate the current still more by throwing out a wing-dam from the right bank 300 feet long toward the head of bar No. 1. This will deflect the current toward the left bank, and materially assist the lower dam in producing sufficient scour. The estimated cost of the two wing-dams is $1,500.

If the upper dam should be built, it might cause the left bank to wash, which is low and flat, and covered with trees. To prevent this we should have to pile and protect the left bank for a lineal distance of 1,000 feet. This, it is estimated, will cost $5,100.

Four miles below Beaver Rapids we reach

MATHENEY'S BAR,

which is about 15 miles below Salem, and a place where the boats frequently ground. The river widens to 750 feet, has a velocity of 300 feet per minute, and a gravelly bottom. Two dams have been built here by the company. The upper one was very rudely constructed, and was not of sufficient length, and the lower one, though being well constructed, is, I think, improperly located. This shoal might be improved by repairing the old upper dam, and extending it 350 feet further out, as indicated on the map. This would leave a water way 400 feet wide, and would soon scour out gravel enough to make a good channel. There is no danger of the left bank washing, as it is a coarse, gravelly shore. Immediately below the bar the river becomes from 12 to 15 feet deep. The cost of repairing the old upper dam and extending it 350 feet would be $1,200.

The wing-dams for which the above estimates were made are of the simplest construction, consisting of logs 2 feet in diameter, and long as possible, to be thrown down diagonally across the current and held in position by four piles, two at each end of each log; willow bush to be lodged against the upper side, and held in place by gravel. These dams would be equally as good as any of those constructed by the company, and might answer the purpose for which they are intended, viz, temporarily improving the navigation of the river at such bars on which they may be placed. The dams already constructed have benefited the navigation at certain localities. Navigation has become more difficult at others, but the injury to other parts of the river is not necessarily to be attributed to the wing-dams.

If the river should be improved at Matheney's Bar, Beaver and Lone Tree Rapids, and Chitwood Bar, the result would be that boats might make the trip from Oregon City to Salem in a few hours less time than at present, and would be able to carry a little more freight. As all the boats plying on this river are owned by one company, it is questionable whether any improvement on these bars by the Government would cause any reduction in the freight tariff.

Should the two obstacles above Salem be removed, viz, Humphrey's Rapid and Bower's Bar, boats might get to Albany and Corvallis during low-water stage. Before closing this report, I wish to thank assistants Charles F. Brown and S. D. Adair for their valuable services during the survey.

Respectfully submitted.

Major R. S. WILLIAMSON,

United States Engineers.

WM. H. HEUER, Lieutenant of Engineers.