The Newtown bee., 1891-10-23
Where Rolls the Oregon.

have many times, as my thoughts turned
back Eastward, wished that my friends
in that far-away land could see the many
sights of interest which are presented on
every band In this country. They are in
Vulnerable; any account of them must
be wandering and discursive, unless one
should write a book as large as Web
ster's Unabridged. We crossed the back
bone of the continent in British Column
bia, where the Fraser river breaks
through the Selkirk range, leaping and
plunging down the wild and rocky canon
a thousand feet sheer down below the
railroad. will not now speak of the
grandeur of the majestic and awful seem
cry which passed before our eyes like
panorama, in our trip from Montreal to
Vancouver. Some other day, perhaps,
should not fresh impressions obliterate
the old, / may attempt it. To come down
to the present time, to to-day, for any
thing i'll this rapid country week old is
forgotten, [ came back from the Sound
this morning, latter my second visit there.
The more | see of that section, the more
l.
ent greatness and its certain great fu-
tnre. The climate is lovely, healthful
and invigorating. The scenery of Puget
Sound is grand, indescrbably grand.
Very applicably is it named The Medi-
terranean of the North.'' The water is
blue on account of its great depth. In
the stretch opposite Tacoma, it is 100
fathoms, half mile from land, and any
where close to the shore the depth is 80
to 60 fathoms. The steamers pass along
so close to the pine-clad precipices that
one can almost reach out with the hand
and pull the fir cones from the boughs.
Streaming over these placid waters at the
close of day. when the sky is clear and
the sun declining unclouded in the West,
the most enhancing view is presented
from the deck of the steamer. AS the
eyes. already filled with pictures which
can never be erased, sweep around the
horizon, they are arrested and rest at
once as the sight falls upon Grand Old
Tacoma-monarch of the mountains of
the Cascade Range. Bathed in the rosy
glow of sunset from base to summit, he
stands there, clear cut against the ceru-
lean sky, IA, 440 feet above the level of
the sea. And as the waters of the Sound
are sea level, you can imagine how
nightly he rises with his almost three
miles of altitude, standing sout without
foot hills to obstruct any portion of his
grandeur. Back in the Rocky Mountains
we passed peaks 5000 feet in height, but
they seemed not so immense as this and
these mighty domes of the Cascade
Range. The top of these peaks were
from II, 900 to is, 200 feet above the sea
level, but, as the railroad grade was from
5000 to 5000 feet above the sea, we were
on the train half way up the mountain.
A little further to the southeast, Mount
st. Helens comes out in the giant march
of these grand old extinct volcanoes.
This giant march of mountains begins
with Mt. Shasta in California, Mt. Scott,
tue Three Sisters and Mt. Hood in Ore
gon, Mt. st. Helens, Mt. Fitzhugh, Mt.
Tacoma and Mt. Adams and Mt. Baker
in Washington. This is the grand pro-
cession of the monarchs of the Cascade
range within the United States, ice-clad
and snow-crowned eternally. Above
them all and far over them all towers
Mount Tacoma into the pure serene, clad
in his imperial ermine. 1t is 60 miles
from where | am, on the steamer between
Tacoma and Seattle, to his base. | saw
him from the heights above Astoria at the
mouth of the Columbia river, $50 miles
away, rearing his white head, clear-cut
against the cloudless sky, far away over
the blue pine-clad hills. have seen him
from every direction, from sea and land,
the Mont Blac of this Western Empire.
From the glaciers which flow down his
sides originate five glacial rivers, two of
which flow eastward into the Columbia
and three westward into the Sound.
They are all white or milky in appear
ance, like all glacial rivers caused by the
grinding of the glacier upon the SUBJ
structure of rock as it rolls the great
boulders under its superintendent
weight. The Puyallup is milky until it
enters the Sound at Tacoma.
| will not speak of this western coast
ularize and localize more subsequently.
This is wonderful country west of the
from the 10th parallel to the
Mexican border. From it's northern
boundary with its temperate climate to
its southern limit where the sub-tropical
fruits flourish and are successfully culti-
waited; its resources are incalculable. In
lumber, iron, coal, all the
precious metals, wheat and fruit. The
production of any of these is in its infan-
cy. The wheat production of Washing
ton and Oregon alone this year is 30, 000,-
900 bushels. saw in the Tacoma expo
sition on Saturday night stick of fir
feet inches thick; feet 2 inches wide
and SO feet long sawed clear.
Another section of fir tree 400 years
Did, 10 feet in diameter three feet from t
The ground, 1888 feet long. These are, of t
course, specimens of the largest trees to
De found. But there are many such. q
have seen them standing equally large. L
have seen them so high that it took me L
hree time to see the top of thenl-once S
10 look at the stupendous trunk rising gil @
santic without limb more than 100 feet Q
once to look at the magnificent proper h
ions and once to take in the grandeur of '
hese forest levithians from base to top. G
And they stand SO close together that the i
lorse trail winds in and out among them
o that my guide is lost to my view be- L
lind the trunks most of the time. | saw 4
piece of bituminous coal Is IL feetx2 Il