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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1882)
February, 1882. THE WEST SHORE. 37 most forcibly to those who have a smattering of geology. Throughout seven-eighths of the jour ney the river Columbia makes its way through the Cascade range of mountains, many of whose peaks are snow clad, and some of them attain an altitude exceeding 14,000 feet. Looking at this range from any other point than this river, it seems as if it were a vast plateau, some $,000 feet high, and that the snow peaks rise out of this like kings seated upon raided platforms. But from the river it is plain that these great peaks, Mood, Jefferson, Adams, St. Helen, Baker, Ranier, the Three Sisters and others, are standing almost to their waists in their own lava, in the cooled floods which they have in times past belched out. There was a time when people believed that riv ers cut their channels by their own unaided force in their way to the sea, but no one can look upon this scene and so agree. It is more probable that the lava contracted greatly in cooling, and that in the fissures made by such contraction the river found its outlet. It is true that a fissure so enormous as the channel of the Columbia, a mile broad, is opposed to the conceptions of all but theorists. But it is difficult to conceive that the river and the lava beds were coeval. Probably tens of thousands of years between the earliest de posits of this great section of the volcanic range that reaches so far south, and the Columbia. The upper part of the busalt gorge through which the Columbia pours its waters must have been reduced by disintegration to a broad glacis or slope before ever this was a river at all. One has only to look at the little lava beds on the surface of the ground to see in what order the fissures are formed by the contraction of the cooling pro cess. They are both longitudinal and transverse, so the blocks are eminently rectangular. And what is true of the small masses live feet high, is equally true of the masses of the plateau 5,000 feet high. They are pierced by gorges which run east and west like the river, and north and south like the mountains. At first the mountains were rectangular masses, but disintegration has worn them away. And as the basalt is most .unequalled in its hardness, and as some part are more ex posed than others to the action of the frost laiien winds, and the steady attrition of falling waters, it results that the appearance of these time worn rocks is most varied and most peculiar. One fact only is constant, the rectangular character of the rock itself. When this assumes, ai it often does, the columnar form, the aspect of the basalt ! comes' enchantingly interesting. There is hardly a shape under the heaven's dome which it does not mimic, not, of course, with any intense resem blance, but there is a' something in the outline ' and the mass which is very succestive. Of course what U termed constellation is the most frequent, and those who have seen the upicr Missisip must admit that the towers and ramparts of its sandstone cliffs cannot enter into comparison with the terrible basalt formation ol the Colum bia. There are spots where the rock rises per pendicularly f.om the water and goes sheer up to a height of three hundred feet in one solid mass without a crack or crevice. This great wall some Titanic fortification stretches for hundred of yards in a straight line and then turns abruptly. leaving an acute angle. Lichens, ferns and mosses cover its sides and give it the appearance of a forgotten stronghold that hat passed out the history of the world. Above this great stretch of rampart there is a grassy slope, cov ered with trees, yellow firs and pine. Above that again rises another huge rampart, and more bastions; above that another slope of grass and wavering green tress; then another rampart, then another slope, and so in regular gradation until the neck of the enchanted gaier is craned to the utmost, and the eye reaches the crest of the plateau. In the consolidated form the bnsalt is regularity itself. In others nothing can be more irregular. There is a place along the river where originally there, were for the whole sheer descent only two terraces or, in other words, the lava, instead of spreading itself out in beds, had occupied itself in filling up a great hollow. The lower of these, being the softer, Is very much worn, and disinte gration has been exceedingly busy. Hut, In the center of the range, there is a mass which suggests strongly a Gothic cathedral. The lady chapel, greatly foreshortened, is in front, then above it comes a perfectly shaped apse, with its singular roof, then to right and left are the projections of the transepts, and above all towers the mighty roof of the nave, with the subordinate aisles, There is nothing to cheat the view as In the ba gallic country of Hindustan, so well dcscrlled by Bishop Hebcr. No vegetation to help the intngi nation, no clustering vines to hint the tracery of Gothic decoration. All is the bare basalt, but the masses nre so wonderfully suggestive, that I doubt f any one can see it without receiving a similar im pression. Hut the most ordinary lorm alter ail is the pyramidal. All will comprehend how readily a solid rectangular mass would by disintegration assume this aspect. The greatest beauty of these mountain forms, in my judgment, Is the terrace when It is upheav ed. It the reader fancy a broad terrace several hundred yards in width, that comet down to the water's edge, and rises by slight gradations to heicht lietween a.ooo and 3,000 lecl. These ter- races are opularIy called devils dyke s, for in ev erything that is sublime the vulgar mind sees the hand of the evil one rather than the finger of God Ingersoll is undoubtedly an extremist, but there it some excuse for him in the reflection that churchmen have so vigorously miseducatcd hu inanity that such a blunder is possible. Had the church fulfilled its duty, or done even lithe of what it might have done, the terrible mantle of horror, which has daikened mens minds and kept them from the sunlight of God'i providence, would never have crazed human beings. This, a natural outburst, it must be allowed, for these upheaved terraces are very dear to me. For here the gras set crow softest and greenest, and cover the red volcanic soil with a tender, velvety carpet. Ami here the fir grows tallest and tlraightest. Here, too, are bushel of wild roses of an immense !. Sometimes in the center of such a dyke there is a slightly elevated ridge, mostly of bowlder-like masses of basalt. Among these the wild syringa blooms with admirable luxurioiisness, to that at distance the bushes seem like patches of lute mow. The odors of this bush resemble faintly the ex quisite perfume of the orange. And when these combine with the fragrance of the wild roset, and balsamic tmell of the fin, the nir it heavy with tweets, that delight without cloying, and stimulate without reaction. From the ridge in the center burst tiny springs that trickle slowly across the terrace with many devious windings, wandering downward, but still moving towards the edge, where they pour their crystal drops in a faint shower of spray into the abyss Mow. It is do ubtful to mount steadily upward to the very end of the dyke, and stnnd against the sky and look downward upon the trees In the gorge, and out ward against the sloet and terraces of the cen tml plateau. Here the sun shine brightly, and warmly, but the air It not enervating and the heat is not oppressive. The Rolden rayt Bilu every thing with a superb glory, and one watches the white fleecy clouds tailing over everything, mak ing shadows upon the glittering river and tasting momentary ghiom upon the little footpath through the gorge. I he blood nowitls in one 1 veins, and one feels an Intense delight in living, ineffable thanklulnest to the Great bather of us all. Hut the crowning splendor ot all is wiicn one turnt one's eyes either to the north towards mount Adams, or to the south towards mount Hood t for these arc the only mow peaks vlslblu from the immediate neighborhood of the river. 1 have seen the mountains of the French Alps, and of the Apentnes, but these of the Cascades have a peculiarity very singular and very ticauil ful. The snow line begins almost at the level of the plaloau, and thit varies from 4.S00 10 5. fceli so that these giants are really snow-clad not merely topped with snow. I hey have the appearance of huge pyramids of snow, through which one discerns, here ami there, tne nasau liones, In ridges and occasional precipitous cliffs. At the point 1 am describing, one is nearer to mount Adamt than to mount Hood, but sullklcnl ly close to the latter to I Impressed thoroughly by Its grandeur and its beauty, lo those wno have the color tense, the sight of these Immense white pyramids against the blue sky will ever I one of the grand sensallont of their existence. It is useless to attempt to dcscril what is Imlescrin able, flow can color lie described, or In what words can man explain what Is a sense, a feeling? The purity of It, the depth of It, the immensity of it nre what one feels most when gmg At suui a Mcc:w-lc. Hut when the sun is sinking In the westward, and the sun-god names wiin an ins brightest colors before he disappear lhw the horizon, all the glowing tints, all the supernal tones of the sunset are reflected uMn the snow masses of these mountains with glory that brings tears Into the eyes. It Is the aothels of color. It it u bright, to splendid and yet so ethereal, that the glowing hues of the ruby and emerald tiecome dirty and tawdry In comparison. The aurora borealis is the only thing with which it can be compared. That, however, U flicker. Inif and comparatively evanescent. This fade slowly into dnrknen through t long, '""K twi light, and at last become a taint cloud as the darkness fall un the mountains, ami the star shed Ihcir light like dew. Cattlk ro Til F.AvmaN Makkkt. Mer. Ung& Kyan, who have been in Wasco county for some time purchasing raltle, at Ut account had about i,ooohead purchased, which Ihty in tend to drive cast a soon a spring on. For some year cattle dealer have ken taking several thousand head out of this country, and yet lh supply seems scarcely diminished. Aside from this, quite a number of sheep are taken lo the eastern market, where a good price 1 obtained for them.