The Forrest City times. [volume] (Forrest City, Ark.) 1871-1919, 1899-09-08
Baker City to Portland.

followed all IT Serpentine winnings. Inc
Columbia river was discovered in May.
1192, by Capt Robert Gray. in the ship
Columbia, Of Boston, and named for his
vessel. 1t Is the Amazon of North Amer
lea Ten miles above Its mouth. it Is
nine miles wide. and some distance fur
Their up;it Is seventeen miles wide /; while
1000 miles away by its own devious wan
derings, ii is from five to thirty.fve miles
In width. and 1900 feet in depth. With
IFS tributaries it drains a mighty empire
OF 500 900 square miles while the entire
area OF the United States east of the Miss
issippi river is but $4,000 square miles
A writer has said of ii =" From its mouth
between Oregon and Washington, to its
ar-away sources in Idaho. Wyoming.
Montana and British Columbia, 1t pours
its resstless flood through an endless sue
cession of scenes, which inelade all that
is wild, enhancing, picturesque and beau
tiful-mountain and valley, gem-like is
lands, boundless forests, rugged erags and
golden sands while over all Is thrown
the translucent glory OF a sky rs devinely
blue and crystalline as ever d0med the
verdant bowers OF prmival Eden. There
is not ON the whole Atlantic Coast. from
Newfoundland to Florida from Halifax
to Dry Tortugas. view comparable with
the transcendently sublime three-hundred
mile sweep of the eye from the cloud
kissed eyrie OF Fort Candy, at the very
entrance OF the great rivers mouth. The
artist who could glorify his canvass with
one-ten- thousandth part of its Jehovah
wrought splend0rs and beauties would
swo0p down upon an Immortality that
would dwarf all the Titans and Turner's
aud Claude Lorraines in the grand panthe-
on Of human genius to pigmy daubers of
cc,amOn oclire.
Tho trip from Umatilla to Portland CON-
bines all that Is wild, sublime and beauti-
full IN mountain and stream, crag, cataract
and cascade. For two hundred miles, on
one side the greatest river of western
North or South America, and on the other
the giant peaks OF the Cascade Range,
that numbers Monnt Hood, Mount Adams
and Mount st. st. Helen among its mighty
jewels. Precipices towering above the
clouds OH one hand, and huge falls or
rapids of blue green water roaring and
foaming on the other. Multnomah Falls,
$50 feet high, have been painted and pen
ciled and sung throughout the world, but
they are only one of more than twenty
cataracfs that tumble, flashing and re-
splendently irridescent, from themountain-
tops along the route. Latourelle and the
Bridal Veil Falls are scarcely, IL at all,
less lovely than Multnomah; and wild,
weird Oneonta Gorge looks like Mammoth
Cave. with ali its vast halls and cham
bers rent open by all earthquake, and tap
estried with MOSES, ferns and flowers
Among the most noted and marvel.
GUS crags along the line are Rooster Rock,
Gibraltar and Castle Rock, huge testimo.
mails to the titanic struggle that took
place when the Columbia burst through
the Cascade Range, and the vast glacier
crested submits of ~Mount Hood, Mount
Adams and Mount ST. Helen CLEAN in the
distance. Tho Cascade kocks, forty-iive
miles east of Portland. are one of the vast
engineering feats of the age, and In their
CONSTRUCTION the United States govern
Ment spent nearly $50, O00,0O At The
Dalles of the Columbia, where the mile
wide river Is narrowed. between giant
walls OF volcanic stone. to few yards.
handsome and tlourishing little city has
sprung up. The railroad track follows
every winding of the mighty river for
nearly 200 miles.
Majestic and impressive as the Alps
may be. they do not lift their heads more
grandly than the submits of the Rockies.
the Cascades or the Sieras, and nowhere
are they clad with such wealth of no.
BILE verdure as is spread about the base of
our Western mountains. The Rhine
may seem to sweep in stately fashion be-
meath beetling cliffs and hills that soar
loftily above its waters, but in the pres
ence OF the awe-inspiring heights and
depths and ever changing shadows of the
Columbia, the Rhine becomes an insig-
nifcant memory. and the minds sense OF
dimension is bailled trying to grasp the
beauties of this infinitely greater and more
majestic Rhine of our native land"
Coming out of the gorge forty mile
above the city of Portland, the traveller
feels that he has entered another world.
The azure sky and snow-capped noun
tain peaks alone of all the eye surveys.
remind him of the land through which he
has journeyed many hundred miles. All
else is new and strange. and inexpressibly
more beautiful. lie feels as though over
this new world some Magic GEM had
Waved hand
And castles sprung from earth to towers
Had waved wand
Ana fragrance burst from MYRIAD flowers. y
Instead of blazing. barron mountain-si
and plain. as far as the eye cam cleave the
crystal air, giant iirtrees that have defied
thousand storms, lift their towering
heads three hundred feet above their
Swallowed base, and wave their banners
defiant in the face of heaven. Flowers
flash from crag and cliff and bury beneath
their fragrant petals the darkened soil of
plain and valley. Ferns. shrubs and wild
berry bushes cothe every hillside with a
luxuriance that exceeds story and dream
OF the verdant wealth of tropics. The
suddenness OF the change from sandy
plaid 10 shadowy grove makes it doubly
Impressive. Passing down from The Dali
les you first behold here and there a lone
hr-tree clinging to the mountain side, its
form outlined against cliff and sky-a
lone sentinel flung out from the silent
hosts that spread their emerald tents on
the Western slope. Then more and more
frequent they appear, and in places
grouped together like picket and support
As Yet the stony sleeps are SO rugged and
so high that naught but the winged min.
ions OF the air could reach even the base
OF the trees that in some way cling to. and
fiHd "A fnntinU 4 tho lad