The record-union., 1892-06-23
UP TIE COLUMBIA RIVER.
"Di Vernon" is Delighted With the
Charming Stream.
What She Saw on Trip to Bonnie
Vile Described in Glowing
Language.


All my life have wanted to see a river,
real. rushing river. It has always been
my fate to get into the country after the
streams have run dry, and the shrunken
creeks are all that are left of the streams
that more than once during the winter
had swept away bridges and left their
mark on the banks which they gouged
ruthlessly. 1t would take a wide sweep
of the imagination to see the cobble-stone-
spread bed of the Russian River filled
with mighty torrent. But the Column
bia-ah! that's river that both gratifies
and exceeds the widest anticipations.
AS patriotic American | rejoice that it
is entirely within our own domain, that
it is ours. When our party embarked on
the tiny little steamer Bonita last Satur-
day to go to Bonneville, the end of her
course, had no idea of what was in store
for us. Through the courtesy of the
purser we were taken up into the pilot
house, where Captain Pease, 1.-THE man
at the Wheel" guided the boat with one
band and directed our observation with
the other. oh, but that was a trip to be
remembered.
We started from the Ash-street wharf
at o'clock in the morning. Even at that
early hour there was good deal OF ac-
tivity at the dock. a pile of great fish lay
in heap in one corner. They were stur-
geon, which had been brought in from
the Columbia River and were to figure
later on in the restaurants Of Portland as
''sea bass"
The little steamer sped away on the
Willamette, passing the city fronts OF
East and West Portland, passing through
the draw and flying by grain elevators,
and lumber mills, and storage ware
houses, at great rate 1t was not so
long before we were in the Columbia
River, gliding thence at the confluence of
the two streams. At first the scenery
was broad and expansive in character.
The face of the river was one clear, clean
expanse, very different from the drift
streWn Willamette we had left. In some
places the Columbia is two miles in
width. Think of it, you people who have
seen only the summer-dried creeks of
California. or yet the rushing waters Of
the great Sacramento! a river whose aver
age width is one mile, whose occasional
breadth is two miles. All, that is river,
indeed! For the tourist it is a fortunate
circumstance that the Columbia reaches
its highest watermark during the sum-
mer. This is caused by the melting
SHOWS of the mountains drained by the
tributaries of the Columbia. AT present
the river is from fifteen to thirty feet
higher than usual. The volume of water
Is consequently immense, and the steady
quiet surge Of the tide running seaward
could be telt as the sturdy Bonita held
her own and made unfaltering progress
up the river.
One of the most picturesque features of
the Columbia River is the number of
islands which dot or stretch along its
wide expanse. Some Of them are under
cultivation IS farms. They are covered
with trees, principally those of the
were either many feet under water, or
had lost much of their shore line
by the encroachment Of the high tide.
This was also true Of the shore
line of the mainland. The little steamer
Iii the majority of cases was compelled
to seek landing at some accommodating
high edge Of land, since all its docks and
Wharyes We're tar under water. This was
true at Vancouver, where we stopped for
q few minutes. Not few of the bridges
and landings, too submerged to be of
service at this date, presented the some
what odd spectacle of being heavily
weighted with stones and small powders
to keep the tide from floating them away,
The Captain said that frequently the
river made a deposit OF sand on these
islands, and shore line farms, to a depth
OF five and six feet, which while it might
have had some merit in holding thA trees
down, was rather bad when it setHed it.
self over mans cultivated fields. The
purser has been on that river for over
thirty years, and lie pointed out one
island that had doubled its size in that
time. and another, 1.-The Three Trees
Island" had all passed away, leaving
only the tall trees that had given the SDot
its name, now standing in strip partly
out Of the water, to mark the place where
once the island lay. These changes are
wrought by wind and current. Other
islands are now being submitted to the
same influences of change. Cattle are to
be seen browsing on the slopes. and some
more venturesome than others were
swimming from mainland to island.
There was something fascinatingly
primitive in the way that little Bonita
took her course up the river. The Cap
tain's ever alert eye kept watch up the
river and on either side. ready to take
note of the silent but gesticulating figure
on the bank. TO catch the first CLEAN OF a
White handkerchief. waved as a signal
Tor the boat to stop and take on board a
passenger, or to heave off some empty
1sh boxes or to take on load of fish.
When the passenger or the freight was on
the bank the steamer ran IN, the narrow
gang-plank was run out, and with great
agility the deck-hands skipped OFT and on
IN the discharge of their line of work.
At one place an entire family, dog and all,
diSembarked; at another the mail bags
were exchanged: at a third heavy iron
hands picking 1t up as easily as if it had
been clam shell instead OF 4 heavy piece
OF iron. \ horse, buggy ana household
furniture We're left at the summer resi-
dence OF a Portland millionaire.
In many instances the steamer was APP
preached by man in a small rowbQat.
bringing either load of fish or anxious
to get his returning packing cases.
Sometimes" said the Captain, when
they can't get up alongside, or haven't
put out from shore, we throw 'em ont
their empty boxes and they row round
and pick 'em up. They keep pretty busy
Tor two or three months, for they have
got to make all they can in the season.
Great fortunes are made on the Columbia
All this time the steamer was nearer
the left bank of the river. This was the
Washington shore. The scenery kept
growing more rugged, the flat water line
gave place TO gentle slopes. Some OF
them were covered with the virgin for
eStS, others had been cleared and the
wood stacked in piles. The steamer
loaded mp with firewood at such a point.
Near by were choice farming lands
others were III process of being cleared.
Then this feature of the landscape
changed, the slopes grew sleeper, and
then we were facing wall of rock, a de-
faint mountain OF stone that stood in
culumnar butts like the bastions OF an
antique castle, with neither portal, port
cullis nor warder's tower, but solid. i'm
pregnable stone. The great cliffs rose in
perpendicular defiance, and over their
forbiddnIg severity venturesome MOSES
had striven in spots TO spread velvet
mantel of emerald. gemmed with yellow
flowers and fringed here and there with
frs. Nature had flung living bands OF
silver in the streams that ran down be-
tween the columns. At low water these
columns became great cliffs that hung