145 P. 1061 | Or. | 1915
delivered the opinion of the court.
The appointment of McQuinn under the circumstances was irregular, and his report does not pretend to be based upon the testimony, but upon the facts observed by him upon the ground. While in the main it is fair and generally accords with the testimony, we shall treat the case as coming here for trial upon the evidence taken before the referee, and only refer to the report and division made by McQuinn and adopted by the court for convenience in description. The Grillihan claim is an old donation claim located upon the east end of Sauvies Island, which is an island 3 or 4 miles in width and probably from 15 to 18 miles in length. The Willamette River originally debouched into the Columbia through two channels, one about a mile above the most northeasterly corner of Sauvies Island, and the other flowing along the easterly end of the island and separated from the channel first mentioned by Coon Island, which was a long narrow island originally containing about 20 acres, and separated from Sauvies Island by what was known as Coon Island Slough. This slough or channel was originally about 600 feet wide and of equal depth with the more easterly channel, and was navigated by the larger class of vessels. It afforded a means of access to navigation and abundant water frontage for the G-illihan place, and naturally doubled the water frontage of Coon Island, which also had the advantage of frontage on the easterly channel. About 1880 the government built a dike or bulkhead across the head of Coon