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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1880)
December, 1880. a dozen to twelve hundred feet in height. In one place we find a cluster of rocks shaped by the elements into the semblance of a ruined city, with its shrines and battlements and towers, like those of Poe's "City of the Sea," "time-eaten towers that tremble not." Twenty-five miles further on, near what is called Bridge Creek station, is a mound, twenty feet in height and perfectly rounded, as though it had been deposited by an eddy in some great stream, which is composed of layers of slaty stone completely cov ered with leaf impressions. Not far distant is a ledge from which the finest fossils in the cabinet of Prof. Condon were taken. Here also a company of Yale College geologists under Prof. Marsh camped for an entire summer and carried off rocky spoils by the ton. There also are found numerous mounds of variegated soils, some green, some almost snow-white, others red, and some i nged with all the colors of the rainbow. We come face to face with gigantic red sentinels, keeping watch and ward over immense cemeteries above whose wierd sepulchres frown black sphinxes and yellow hippogriffs. The entire country looks as though it had been boiling like a witch's cauldron and then had suddenly stiffened. While among these fantastic pleasure grounds of the old volcano gods, one needs to contin ually rub his eyes to make sure that he sees straight. We can assure all lovers of geological study at well as lovers of nature's oddities in general, that this portion of the John Day valley will fully satisfy them. We will now conduct our readers across a beautiful spur of the Ulue Mts. into the Ochoco valley, w hich is the largest farming section of the upper Dcs Shutcs basin. It is a fertile valley, but so narrow, seldom more than a mile in width, and so elevated, probably over two thousand feet above the sea, that it will never be of great importance. The uplands of Central Oregon, un like those of the Walla Walla and Spokan regions, are not generally sus ceptible of cultivation. Hut they do now and always will support multi tudes of stock. From Princvillc, which is the only town of Central Wasco and contains bout six hundred inhabitants, we turn THE WEST SHORE. toward the west. As we cross the flank of Grizzly nutte,wesce tho long line of snow-peaks glittering in the beams of the summer sunj and at once acknowledge that our western side of the Cascades furnishes no view equal to that. Twelve snowy peaks confront us, from Hood on the north to Diamond Peak on the south. The Three Sisters form the magnificent center. Time forbids us to pause on the curious and beautiful plains of the Des Shutcs, or at the Warm Spring's In dian Reservation, where the Indians have become more nearly self-supporting than anywhere else in tho State, and where the two great problems, the problems that encompass Indian civili zation as well as all other, namely, teaching the men to work for a living and teaching the women to establish homes, have been in some measure solved. Nor can we pause as we begin to ascend the Cascade mountains to look back on the beautiful panorama below. Nor can we pause among the larch woods of Cash Creek, nor on tho 'SSY points of Olullie Hutte, nor on the lonesome desolation of Sand Moun tain. Hut as we descend from the latter into the beautiful basin from which spring the main eastern tributaries of the Willamette, we must look into the placid deeps of Clear Lake, This lake is about eighty miles east of Albany and is the source of the McKcnzie river. It is the principal of cluster which lie between two cleurly-defined ridges of the range. The Santiam road, on which we came, passes within three miles of the lake. It seems to be formed in con siderable measure by a spring half as big as the Tualatin river, gushing from the volcanic rocks above the road. We follow this torrent down to the lake whose i.tlin depths contrast curiously with the tumult of the stream. The hike is about two miles In length and half a mile wide. There was a calm silentness about it at the time of our visit which was almost appalling. We felt like saying with the ancient mariner, "We were the first, that ever but at, upon that silent sea." We could not truthfully say it, however, since we found there a craiy canoe in which we ventured out upon the walcr. Hut it no longer appeared water. Had it not I been for the ripple from the boat and 37 the plash of our paddles we would hove supposed ourselves hanging 11 the air. Objects forty feet down up. peared with startling distinctness. Oc casionally we passed over black streuks which made us draw our breaths, for we could imagine them to be cracks in the back-bone of the mountain range. At intervals we arc startled by the ghostly-white form of n submerged tree pointing right up from tho bottom of the lake. We glance down a hun dred feet of its glistening" trunk and then it fades in the obscurity, It Is evi dent that this strange and beautiful lake with Its almost unfathomable depths was formed by some recent volcanic convulsion which dammed tho stream and threw its waters back upon tho deep canyon through which it had been llowing. Ilenco these forests were si lently submerged ami remain standing to this day. Here we may fittingly end our long horseback ride. Wo left the black and panting river with Its fit companion, the wild and panting and reckless Dalles. We walked in fossil forests and trod in the footsteps of hlpparion and rhinoceroses. Wo wont through temples and among tombs fashioned by fire and water. We traversed sandy wastes and snowy ridges. Now wo float in the silence and nmid the vor dure and the humid air of Clear Lake, and we drop our pen Into these limpid waters hoping that they may cleurly reveal it when we again shall wish. Seven doctors were gathered around a man who had fallen on tho sidewalk. Four called it a case of sunstroke, mil the others said it was a fit. Along came a small lxy and proved that it was a bananna peel. Restaurant chicken soup can I made, it is said, by hanging up a hen in the sun, so the shadow can f on a pot of suit and water. Tho only trouble is, that on a cloudy day tn, soup is liable to le weak. The man who loafs hi time away around a one-horse grocery, while his wife takes in washing to suppoit him, can always tell you just what tlii. coun try needs to enhance its prosjarrity. "My son," .aid . tcrn father, "do you know the reason why I sm going to whip your" "Yes," replied the hope, j ful, "I suppose It'a because you're big. Igcrnorlam." .,