The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1880-08-12

From the Niles, Mich. Republican.

We are permitted to publish the fol-
lowing interesting letter written by
General Morrow to Judge Coolidge, of
this city:
VANCOUVER BARRACKS, w. T. |
June 10, 1880.
My Dear Judge Coolidye:-I have
seen in the Niles Mirror that the wind
spared not the old oak which so often
sheltered us from the suns rays in
those pleasant days when we played
croquet The calamity which has be-
fallen this old friend, for tree is
friend to both man and beast, has re-
vived in my memory great many
pleasant recollections. 1t is pleasant
to me at times, to sit down in my home
among the fir trees and call up old
memories. But it is sad too, Judge,
for in this world of change nothing re-
mains stationary, and in contemplating
the past, one is in the position of the
astronomer who never sees star where
it is but always where it WAS longer
or shorter time before. And yet this
happiness of Old age is largely made up
of recollections of things gone 10y. The
Old oak will shelter us no more, but we
can remember that it once did SO, and
that feeling excites gratitude in our
hearts. | wish | could look in upon
you some afternoon, when your party
is at play. | have not see croquet
party since | left the Niles, and when
| shall see another there / do not dare
give guess Fate has put me almost
on the shores of the sounding Pacific,
and how long | will remain here | do
not know. Any place would be lonely
without my family, and so need not
say Vancouver is lonely, and yet it is
II beautiful spot. The broad Columbia,
| ! miles wide, flows 10y in an arrowy
stream within a few hundred yards OF
the post. This is my foreground, with
the addition of II fine range of high
bluffs beyond the river. At my back
is forest of magnificent fir trees, some
OF them 200 feet high. In the eastern
sky Mount Hood rears his crown of
snow, monarch of the Cascade range of
Oregon. All around me are noble
mountains. They encircle me like a
halo of glory. Far away | see Mount
Jefferson, always, even in the heat of
summer. IA white shaft supporting the
clouds like IL column of light Mount
st. Helens, (she WAS the mother of Con
stantne, believe), shaped like sugar
loaf, by its beautiful symmetry relieves
the eye and is in the northeast. Two
hundred miles away, almost due north,
Mount Rainier Il ZOO feet high stands
in solemn, austere, majestic solltarl-
ness. Five great glaciers till the chasms
in its sides, and from the base of these
glaciers five rivers have their source.
To the northeast OF Rainier, Mount
Adams, nearly us high as Hood, stands
conspicuous landmark for Il hundred
miles around. SO you see, dear Jud sc,
am surrounded 10y imposing scenery,
and as fine scenery has great charm
for me, | am always at II feast OF beauty
and soemnity. Ii l did not fear |
would be weurying you, | should be
tempted to say something of Puget
Sound, but | must restrain my pen.
The climate of this country is pecu
liar. 1t is never very cold in winter,
nor very warm in summer. There
were not over five days last winter
when ice formed across the Colum bia,
and now in the middle of June, | am
sleeping under the same clothing | slept
under in January. But it rains inces |
sanity for about five months, beginning
with December. Mount Hood, 60 or
65 miles distant, is often hid from view
for weeks at a time. But when the
weather is good, it is good indeed. 1t
is pleasure merely to exist. This wet
climate does not extend beyond the
Cascade Mountains, which divide Ore
gon and Washington Territory into
two regions entirely unlike each other
in climate, soil and natural produc
tions. West of the Cascades the eli
mate is wet, there being an annual rain
fall of so to 75 inches, and productions
of certain kinds are impossible. A
heavy fir forest overspreads the conn
Try, except where the settler has cleared
it ". The land belongs, l must say,
to the geological age-called the gla-
cial. 1t is made up largely of drift
that is, of the wearing away OF mount
tains far away from this, which have