I THE WEST SHORE. 72 who cares? It will require several thousand years to accomplish the " closing," and long before that time arrived steainlNmta and railroads will bo obsolete; New York city will I at the bottom of the ocean, and tourists will Ik mnking trips in sir-ships over where Boston now stands. Imagine that the drama has been played; that for ages Boston has nestled at the iMittom of the ocean; that Atlantis has leen restored to the surface; that she has had her ago of sloiio, of bronze and of iron, and that bar barism has given laco to civilization. America will then Im "tho lost continent" Perhaps some ancient coin, stamped with the imago of our "Goddess of Liberty," thousands of years old, will bo found in the cabinet of an enthusiastic nrchmologist A few scraps of history, mutilated until the original meaning has been lost, may lead him to the conclusion that the ancient Americans, Although somewhat in advance of savages, were but heathen idolators who worshiped a goddess in tho form of a woman. Should this hapcn I am fully persuaded that he will not misjudge us any moro than tho uncient Orientals havo leen misjudged by their successors. Lot us imagine also that our supx)Hod arclmtologist has a wrap of history concerning tho city of Portland, in the Ktataof Oregon, that shall havo lcen written after Boston lion "gono to it last account" Ho roads of an expedi tion (to him as mythical as that of Jason in search of tho golden fliw is to us) wherein n party of Portlanders, ladies and gentlemen, made a pleasure trip in tho beauti ful Mrial car Wilfanwlte to tho island known as "Wash- ...fc-..., ni.nr.,mii w who WWII 111 111100111 1111108 B mountain Is-longing to the fabled Appalachian rango, onco (1,0.14 feet alov tho level of tho ocean, according to tradition, but now less than a hundred feet The journoy was made iu less than a day, as the car ilew through tho iiir at tho rata of over 200 miles an hour. Attached to tho lower ortioii of the car was a vessel of singular con struction, which the passengers descended by broad stairways. Here was every kind of fishing tackle needed forwpturing the finny tril. Tho ear was so constructed that it could lie niado to rise in tho air like a bird or descend H.r1H...dioularly and remain stationary nt any desired ,,i,,l Thus, nt any moment, tho pleasure party oould .woopdown.dovota an hour to fishing, then rise agau, and pursue their journey. I one of these descents Uiey found by thc.r reckoning that they were in the exact long. tudo and latitude of a supped ancient city called where they caught a vast number of codfish. on, hat ho has somewhere read n fabulous story about U 'Hlfish nnstocracy." Then, reliance, he wS pul hn, Warns U, diWer the relation between Z rT" y "t A. D. 1884 and tho an.m-1, ....u by the Tortlandens who dwelt in 4M. that the relish an,,. 1 "? .U nW M b e conclude that the ancient Orientals believed those queer legends that have been handed down to us in the literal sense in which they are given. True, we find these legends in ancient litera, ture, but we do not know who first wrote them nor how much has been since added. Yet we may feel sure that a people so advanced in science and philosophy as they were never could have thought these and similar legends true in a literal sense. There must have been a meaning, lost by the lapse of time, clear to them, and no doubt beautiful. We misunderstand their meaning and are too ready to pronounce against their intelligence. Future generations may, and probably will, do us the same injustice. ' In this dilemma where is man to look for truth? Where can he read the history of the past? Is there nothing reliable and enduring? Is there no truthful record of the earth's history that can be transmitted throughout all time? Yes, she writes her own autobiog raphy, which can perish only with a perishing earth. She needs no amanuensis, no book of parchment, no historian, to record her epochs serene or catastrophes stupendous. Her great volume lies open before us. Even if not mendacious, man is but finite and imperfect Nature is Infinite in all that she does. The earth rolls through space, impelled and restrained by invisible and infinite forces. Man cannot comprehend them, much less the manifestations of an infinite power that is exercised alike upon a twilight monad or a whirling planet The great volume of Nature is open for alL In it we may read, in God's own handwriting, which no man can counterfeit or imitate, the history of the illustrious past Study it; ponder upon it; believe nothing which man has written unless it harmonizes with this grand history. I havo tried to tell you of the Great Northwest as I read it in the records of the rocks. But do not accept a single statement on my mere assertion. Man is always blundering, and in his proudest estates but a mere worm when compared with the Infinite. I am trying to amuse, hoping that I may instruct, or, at least, to stimulate the youth of our country to study the great volume of Nature. Alaska is a portion of our national territory and de serves a notice in these papers. Alaska, the infant, the youngest born, in its first stages of evolution. The phenomena now being manifested there is but a repeti tion of what was visible centuries ago on the coast of Oregon. As the youth lays aside the habits of infancy and begins to assume the manners of a man, so has Ore gon, especially at the south, outgrown her volcanio dis turbances; but she still exhibits her beds of. lava and extinguished volcanoes, as the youth preserves the gar ments which he has outgrown. But Alaska has not yet done with eruptions, burning lava and smoking volcanoes. Last October, near Cook's Inlet, there was a volcanio disturbance, accompanied by an upheaval and an earth quake wave, similar to that described in this series of papers as having occurred at Nestucca Bay, in this State. It was first observed by some fishermen who have a set t ement at English Bay. On the morning of October 6 they hoard a heavy report, and looking in the direction