Columbia

a large river on the Pacific coast of North America. Its rivals are the Yukon and the Colorado. It is credited with a total length of 1,400 miles, and a basin area of 300,000 square miles. Through its tributaries, including the Kootenai, the Clarke, and the Snake, it drains the greater part of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and a part of British Columbia, Montana, and western Wyoming. On the south, it drains the borders of Utah and Nevada. Its head waters mingle with those of the Fraser, the Saskatchewan, the Missouri, and the Colorado. There are divides where the tourist can throw a dipper of water one way into the drainage basin of the Atlantic, or the other way into the drainage basin of the Pacific. The mouth of the river was entered by Captain Gray in 1792. The valley was explored by the Lewis and Clarke expedition in 1805. The mouth of the river forms an estuary separating Oregon and Washington. It is about thirty-five miles long, and from two to seven miles in width. A sandbar at the ocean entrance has been scoured out through the construction of government jetties. The national government has spent also about $4,000,000 in constructing a canal and lock at the Cascades, about 200 miles from the ocean. A similar work is under way at the Dalles, 150 miles farther up. It is estimated that these improvements will open up over 2,000 miles of navigable water to steamers from the Pacific. The Columbia has long been noted for its salmon fisheries. Half a million cans of the best salmon in the world are put up on its banks annually. See Cascades; Portland; Salmon; Oregon; Washington