The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1879-08-14

EDITOR INDEPENDENT.


On one of the hot days of last week
it was the good fortune of your cor
respondent TO be passenger on the
o. S. n. Co.'S steamer Dicie Thompson,
bound for Astoria. Recolections of
days in former years spent during
the summer months in that delightful
locality, together with the beckonings
of friends now there, lured me thither,
and with eagerness | watched for
the headlands over the steamers Prov
as we passed one familiar point after
another and sped away along the de-
vious windings of the mountain bor-
dered Columbia. The fishing season
was just over and at all the canneries
l saw fleets of laid up boats and the
good natured and contented faces of
white fishermen and monaghan can
ners, waiting for pay and transporta-
ton to other fields of labor. Among
the fishermen there appeared stolid
reticence as they smoked their pipes
and lolled on the wharves in the sun,
while theis mooneyed colaborers chat
tered with others of their race on the
steamer like so many magpies. But
Captain Billy Smith did not give US
much time for observation at the diff
ferent landings, for there are too
many of them to stay long at any one,
and at five o'clock P. NJ. we steamed
by Tongue point and from the great
sea in the distance beyond met and
gratefully inhaled the bracing breeze,
wherein is recreation and health and
length of days to all inland breathers
Of malaria and dust who go on theis
pilgrimage.
Astoria is the veritable Liverpool
of the northwest. Her docks are eX-
tensive and substantial and afford
abundant accommodation for the ship
ping of the port. This city commands
the entrance to the most important
body of water between the Rocky
mountains and the Pacific Ocean, and
has brilliant future. There is no
point on the North Pacific coast whose
future is so certain to be important,
great even, as Astoria. The surface
of the country has all the coast range
ruggedness. The vegetation, trees,
underbrush and swamp grasses, have
a most extravaganza growth, and the
mountains are often precipitous and
rocky. Nature has been both lavish
and reckless in her disposition of
material, and the scenery is CORE
pondingly grand, picturesque and
beautiful. Standing on the heights
back of the city on moonlight night
overlooking the panorama below and
beyond far out towards the flashing
light off Disappointment, the beholder
is entranced with the wonderful scene.
Then there is solemn grandeur adj
ded to the picture by the dense for
ests arrayed on every mountain side.
The slab fire which blazes up brightly
every night six miles across the water
at Knappton mills makes lurid glare
and renders the scene strangely wild,
and would be lonely and oppressive
did not the gazer feel the presence
near of friends, mortals like himself,
with whom to talk and break the
spell. There are numerous points of
beauty and interest in this vicinity;
one of these, Young's River, and its
falls twelve miles from town, had
the pleasure of visiting in company,
with three very agreeable friends who
have eyes adapted to natures book,
and never before felt better repaid
for the time and muscle spent on the
trip. The falls, which are about 60
feet in heighth, descend twelve feet
and strike ledge of rocks and fall
again fifty feet dispersed in foam of
snowy wilderness, down to the river
bed below, the spray falls constantly
on the ground and rocks around
the precipice and here in hooks and
de!ls and secret places among the
clefts grow MOSES and ferns, and
tendrils and many things delicate,
fragrant and beautiful. The picnic
dinner ate from the top of a big fiat
rock tasted better than the royal feast
of King. The Kings Of the earth
were never in all their places sur
rounded with courts like this. After
dinner we climbed the hill to the top
Of the fall, and went up the river a
little distance to where sulphdr
spring comes from the rocks on the
opposite side. Two of US crossed
over on log and drank the water