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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1880)
tllE WEST SHORE. October; 1800 CP TIIK (OtX'MIIIA HV I. A VI). W. II, I.VMAN. To otic having teen the shore of the Columbia from the steamer only, it licvcr occur thnt those towering cliff nre really piece of rock, thiit those trailing spray clouds arc actually water or that those passing evergreen are coiiikik'(I of pilch, bark and fiber a phantasmagoria of ky, rock and wa ter! A kalcidocoj)c fifty mile long, pointed at the morning tun and cur tained by the mint of the ocean! Such U the Columbia between Cajc Horn and Hood River. Can a man walk be hind the acenck? Can such a puny thing ct foot on those khining crag or cjuiiir the froth from the waterfall bub bling out of those goblet of the god? Could I, for instance, enter into that liind of Mono giant and frozen temple two thousand feet high, ami come forth alive? Such were the thought that ngiiuted my brain one August afternoon, when after having left the effete and ener vating civilisation ol Portland in the early morning J afcr having ridden through the great dairy farm eastward then from; after having put behind me the river Sandy, stained with the dreg f Ml, Hood' morning cup; after hav ing crept through ten mile of jungle klicuhing eastward from the Sanity, I auddenly emerged and stood mi the edge of a Jwuuliful plateau, five bun died feet above the acrcd water. There it wa. The laud of the un known. The toft alluvial mil with it vino-maple jungle, the chccsc-f.u loiics and cow pasture, the house, bam ami fi-ncrt, were all bchinti. Ilcforc u wa the first of those gigantic pile of basalt which from the deck of I ho steamer had teemed so picture-like, o fantastic, o unreal. We were actually In-hind the Kcnc. Now we can tee w hat hand hiA tlu tvencty. Now we can find the pol ol color w here the changing hour dip their brushes. Now we can we where the waterfall get their wondrous w hite ness and where the rainbow hide. Now we can enter the dreing.ruom ol the pine Irect w here they deck them selves with inuu and sunbeams. The first scene i Rooster Kock and the lofty cliff behind it which ha no name, but might be called Cajc Eternity. Eternal it look in it shaggy grandeur I It rrm to (rown down upon the twenty mile up and down ami the two mile acros of yellow water. Other still mightier bustioncd heights up the river frown back. Hut these rocky frowns arc softened by clinging ferns and trailing vines. Wherever the water comes trickling over the precipice, there the greenest of mot and the brightest of Mowers hide the black bareness of the rock. A break-neck road down from the plateau lead u to the river-bank. It is the flood-time of the mighty stream. The water comes swashing through the long row of coltonwoods and makes great sport of the fences, barns, mid such other little tokens of inhabitancy as happen to be in the vi cinity. There i a polished log fairly pro truding into the road. That log grew in Idaho or British Columbia. A cen tury' growth on the fertile bank of some mountain creek had carried its branches high and it roots deep. lint an evil time came in the history of that tree. Snow, sunshine, deluge. These three degree of comparison washed the stumling-room from beneath its feet. One frightful plunge, and the ill-Marred forest-king set out on his funeral march of a thousand miles. A wild journey for one accustomed to a ijuict life, a journey involving rapid change and admitting of no lay-over check. Through the torrents to the quirt lake of the Upper Columbia, from the lake again to the torrents, with occasional half-way rests. Through the Dalles, through the Cascades, and, stripped of bark and of every branch, it drift at random on the solemn cur rent of the lower river. And to w hat end ha the tree sought such a resting place f The next day, some salmon scaring Siwash or some sore-footed ramj kindles fire against it, and amid the whirl of mokc and the crackle of flame, that long-travelled tree vanishes in the air, I would remark, at this point, that the road up the river i a trail. There are point where it teems hardly even trail. Nevertheless the pedestrian limit no great difficulty in parting the maple copses iml climbing over the gigantic block, of rock that have rolled down from their too lofty heights. Almot constantly we tec the shim-menu- of live river behind the willow and cottonwoods. Nevcrthless, it is only at a very few points that the cliffs come right down to the water's edge. Through almost the entire distance from the Cascades to Rooster Rock, there 18 a most excellent railroad route. At points where my observation from the steamer had led me to suppose that there was hardly level land enough for a squirrel to stand safely, I found fertile flats one quarter of a mile wide. Fourteen miles from Rooster Rock, and the curtain rises on scene second of the great scenes. That fourteen miles has exhibited numberless little scenes which would be great anywhere else. Huge clifTs, streaked with snowy cascades, mountain streams of wondrous clearness, overgrown by vegetation of almost tropical luxuriance. Hut wc forget these varied beauties as we stand in wonder before, that marvel of beauty, Multnomah Fall ; triple-named. Some longing swain would have that snowy vail albeit somewhat large, to hide the face of his beloved, hence it was called the Bridal Vuil. Some other bold genius, seized with an equine frenzy, named it tell it not in Oregon City, publish it not in the streets of Salem Horse Tail Fall.. What a horse the mind's eye of that chap must have witnessed, pawing the crest of the Cascade mountains, nndi dipping his eight-hundred-foot tail in. the Columbia ! Hut the Indian name is most beautiful. There is a sweet ripple to those liquid sounds, Mult nomah, and a sonorousness to their whole effect that well suggest the soft plash mingled with the wild majesty of the fall. This musical splash not a roar is the first intimation to the trav eler that he is approaching anything unusual. Then perhaps casting his eyes upward, he sees a dusky cliff fringed with trees. Scarce discernible among the trees, a moving whiteness. A few steps more and he stands before a sundered wall, joo feet high on one side, and 30 on the other, through which flows a limpid stream. For a few yards, he follows the alternate pools and rapids of the creek through this rocky corridor. Then he suddenly emerge into a little bit of a valley, edged with a little bit of a beach, and covered with the greenest grass. The little valley tciminates in a wall of rock seventy feet high, over which the creek comes tumbling into a deep