At that time, all traffic proceeding upriver had to be offloaded onto a portage railroad that went around the impassable Cascades, then run upriver by rail to the Upper Cascades to be loaded onto another steamer to be carried to The Dalles, where another portage railroad existed around Celilo Falls.

[1] In the 1870s, the Oregon Steam Navigation Company had a monopoly on all traffic on the Columbia River.

[1] Transfer of Teaser to Puget Sound meant the vessel had to be taken through the dangerous Cascade Rapids.

The vessel was brought around the Olympic Peninsula and arrived at Seattle on July 8, 1875, and was placed on a route out of Snohomish.

Capt J. C. Brittain is reported to have owned Teaser when the vessel was on Puget Sound, and used the vessel in connection with the steamers Despatch and Comet to carry the mail, for which he had a contract, to Snohomish, La Conner, Whidbey Island, Fidalgo Island, Bellingham Bay, Semiahmoo Bay, and Lopez, Orcas and San Juan islands.