WONDERLAND.                             65
number of fish wheels, those novel contrivances by which the fish are literally scooped up out of the water in shoals.:
Three miles above Warrendale we come to the Cascades, where the river, which has elsewhere the appearance of a placid lake, changes to swift rapids and a foaming torrent. A narrow gauge railway, six miles long, has here been constructed on the right bank of the river, and passengers are quickly transferred to another steamer in waiting to receive them. This transfer is still known by the old name of a "portage," though it is one that would make the early traders open their eyes in astonishment, could they see it. So far from involving trouble or inconvenience, the transfer is an exceedingly pleasant feature of the trip. For some little distance the train forsakes the river, traversing a narrow and sparsely wooded tract of land. When the river once more comes in sight, it is about 200 feet beneath us, rushing swiftly along and white with foam. Another instant and the Cascades are in view,-the point at which the great river tumultuously forces its passage through a rocky and contracted channel, forming, with the great mountains that rise on either side, a scene of savage grandeur, for which no adequate comparison can. be found.
Having re-embarked, the tourist will notice the solid rock cuttings through which is carried the line of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, which follows the left bank of the river, and whose construction along the face of mountains rising precipitously from the water's edge, was one of no ordinary difficulty. Amid ever changing scenery, the steamer keeps on its course. At Chenoweth, on the right bank, an object of especial interest is the great flume in which logs and manufactured ties are sent down from the top of a neighboring mountain, making the descent, a distance of over half a mile, in from eighteen to twenty seconds.
Near the mouth of the Klickitat, the steamer passes through one of several sharply cut natural gateways in a rocky barrier that here stretches across the river, and in a few minutes more it is alongside the wharf at the good old town of The Dalles. As long ago as 1847, this place was an important fur-trading centre, and with the gradual development of the country naturally tributary to it, more particularly on the south or Oregon side of the river, it has continued to grow in importance. Five miles above the city are the great Dalles of the Columbia, where the river is literally turned on edge, so narrow and profound being the chasm through which it flows that the huge proportions of its mighty flood are absolutely inverted.
  The return journey to Portland may be made, either by boat or by any of the trains of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. The latter route not only affords fine views of the scenery on the right bank of the river, but also embraces several waterfalls of exceeding beauty that come down from the mountains on the left and are not seen to advantage from the river itself. Among them is the lovely Oneonta, 600 feet of silvery ribbon floating from a dizzy height, situated near the thirty-fourth mile-post eastward from Portland. A few minutes more, and the train comes to a stand opposite the still more