The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-09-08
UP THE COLUMBIA.


From the time so minutely described
in "Irving's Astoria" when the weary, |
famished remnant of the band sent out
by John Jacob Astor, after months of
hardship, toll and privation, lifted up
their eyes and beheld the mighty
"Rlver of the West" journalists and
others have We'd with each other in the
attempt to describe the magnificent
grandeur of its surroundings.
The scenery which attends the Co.
lumbia from her birth region, dim,
somber, and white with eternal SHOWS,
to her burial place where the waves of
the mighty Pacific sing ever her re-
QUEEN, has in it sort of inspiration
that renders it impossible to view it in
silence, even while you feel that no pen
nor pencil can do it justice. A feeling
which we "can ne'er express, yet can
not all conceal" takes possession of us
as we view for the first time what
many have become so familiar with as
scarcely to give a second glance, and,
standing on the steamers prov we be-
hold the mighty chasm worn by the
unceasiug and restless waters, as age
after age they have burst from the
bosom of the Cascade Mountains, and
poured their turbulent tides toward
the ocean. Silent and still on either
hand stand these grim sentinels, giving
no sign as the impetuous flood flows on
and on. Giving no sign? What,
then, is the record that is written upon
their scared and scanned sides, and
storm-torn SUBMITS? What but the
story of the "prodidious motion and
rueful throes" of nature, when, in the
unremembered ages she travelled, and
brought forth this wild, wierd, rugged
beauty? When ''yet the yet young earth
was younger yet" these mountains
were reared as enduring monuments to
the power and majesty of the Creator.
The river, widening now as the noun
tains on either hand recede, or narrow.
ing with angry protest as the mighty
walls close in and circumscribe its lin.
) its, makes its way toward the sunset
} gate of the great Northwest, bearing
upon its bosom the busy barges of com.
merce where erst sped the light canoe o.
| the savage, and concealing here and
} there upon its banks, where friendly
: space will allow, an occasional quie
; and secluded home telling of civiliza
/ ton and industry where once dwell
nature serene and alone. Now pun,
= rivulet steals softly down the precip
= itous cliff, and again cataract curtain
( with foam and spray a mountain side
3 Here the shelving mountains converg
to green and rugged valley rendere
r stately by giant frs, and there bal,
a domes and rocks, Enthusiastically chiseled
y rear their heads.
x The Cascades are at length reached,
e dingy little settlement, whose street
are of sand, houses and barns utterl
If undistinguishable and grounds destitut
If of verdure; then the cars, and we al
: whirled past the chasm where the nois
waters defy the power of steam and tn
d ingenuity of man, and behold anothe
! forlorn little settlement, as devoid {
1t vegetation as the first. A hill
% crowned with the block house, relic
T. the Indian war of '55 and $50, its grir
" walls and silent portfolios suggestive
os "times that tried mems SOULS" and ser
lie women and children huddling togetht
u like so many sheep in a fold. The III
h written history of this pile of logs, if a
d, tainable, would doubtless furnish
theme for as thrilling romances as ev'
'e were enclosed in yellow covers.
le Above and beyond, the Columbi
If placid as if she had no thought of Il
l. fury into which she would be plunged
'e few yards below, winds quietly out
III sight behind the mountains, whiC
81 still attend her "like wardens faithf
j. and GRIM" and, viewing them as the
ie stretch away cloudward, we are in
Vi pressed with their magnitude that Civ
~ instant impression of a power abo7
III man; with their grandeur that def
j. decay; their antiquity that tells of ag
ss unnumbered; their beauty that Il
E touch of time makes only more beaut
{ full; their strength imperishable as Il
globe, and consider them as the true
u earthly emblem of that "ever-Iivin
unchanging, irresistible majesty,