The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-03-02
Washington Territory Scenery,
East and West.

waters, gathering volume in its cease
less flow, moves so majestically through
the forests of fir on toward the sea.
The one admirable for the lofty and
Jagged heights of the Cascade pass, the
rolling and billowy like surface of the
country further east, the narrow defiles
of the Dalles and Umatlla rapids, with
Mt. Hood in its kingly supremacy look
ing down from its dome in the sky; the
other flowing in placid tranquility
through a more generous channel, the
sombre forest shades reflected upon its
bosom, the varied standings upon the
mountains from the deepest indigo below
to the violet hue of the SUBMITS, the
Aeecy clouds and anon the changing
phases of the mellow tinted sky, so Of
ten seen in the spring and autumn sea-
sons how unlike are the two pictures to
be only different aspects of the same
great river. To him whose soul is at
tuned to the harmony of these natural
manifestations, how wonderful is the
scope of ideal thought, how sublime the
conceptions of that Creator whose hand
has power to infuse inert matter with
such celestial radience. But it is of the
second chapter or edition as it were, of
these waters that we design to speak.
1t is said that familiarity among people
sometimes breeds contempt, and while
it is not true that familiarity with ma
ture will breed in the minds of men
contempt for her, it is true that with
the large majority such relation is the
cause of an indifference to her charms,
by which the people lose the half of
lie worth living for. We fear that
many of our people OF Western Wash
mgton are Indifferent to the beauty and
grandeur of their natural surroundings.
Here it is not to the lofty mountains, or
to the wide spreading landscape that
we must look for those qualities of ma
ture which are called sublime and beau
tiful, or which inspire us with feelings
of awe and reverence, but rather to the
multitude of forms assumed by the veg
etable kingdom, and the infinite variety
of her plants and flowers, her trees and
shrubs. her mosses and ferns, and her
thousands of harmless insects that peo-
pie this verdant quarter Of the world.
They do not speak to us in language
of stentorian tones, thrilling the soul
with their very grandeur, but appeal
with voice so gentle that the sweetness
OF It's cadences is lost upon all, save
those whose ears are open to catch its
minute though none the less celestial
melody. The diminutive in creation is
fraught with many wonderful evidences
of Creative wisdom. Upon the delicate
ferns there grows pollen so fine that
it is almost invisible to the naked eye,
yet it contains in its littleness an in6nity
of details more wonderful than many
things of more gigantic proportions.
But it is not altogether in the infntes-
NAL that treasures of beauty and Won
der abound, for in the sylvan scenes,
the messy dells, the gnarled oak or the
kingly fir, the fragrant balm of gilead
and the thousand forms of shrub and
flower and creeper are the lines of beau
ty blended most perfectly, and to the
lover of nature they constitute an ever
varying picture to be admired, to be
studied, and to be absorbed into the
very soul OF man as a pert of his daily
existence. If it is true that "the groy es
were Gods first temples" then indeed
has this section Of the world been bless
ed with large number of the pure and
primitive sanctuaries. But do men
worship therein as they ought: DO
they ever pause from the engrossing
cares of their daily lives to contemplate
the beautiful order of these works.
We fear NOT as offsp m ybo.lJ l.. II =: