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.