Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1904-08-03
OUT IN THE CASCADE MOUNrAIss.
Professor cOrliss Bulger Writes Of Big and Grand
Western Sights

Ben Brown received a letter from Prof
Corliss Bulger, who spent the past win.
ter in this city. With his family he is
spending the heated period in the west
ern mountains. The CENSOR is privileg-
ed to make few extracts from the letter
1t is dated at Enumclaw, Washington,
under date of July 81
We'll here | am out in Washington
and so Ithought / would tell you what
fine time / am having out here. /
have been up in the mountains and along
the beautiful Cascades, camping and
fishing along the mountain streams. 1t
is great treat can tell you, for the
fishing is all one could wish and the
scenery is grand, in fact the grandeur
of the big mountains give one feeling
of awe and admiration. | am only q
little way from Mount Rainier, the
highest mountain in the state, towering
high above the clouds, on whose massive
head glistens mountains Of snow all the
year around. have in my travels seen
many sights of beauty and grandeur,
but this big white mountain with its
mantel of snow is over-powering in its
Influences. No one feels like standing
with hat on in presence of this king of
mountains Now to the mountain streams
that flow from the glaciers. The water
is pure and SO clean that looking down
in its depths of five OF six feet, small
objects are plainly visible. The water
is green of a beautiful shade, while at
the rapids, which are frequent, ii is
whipped into snowy clouds of foam apd
rainbowed sheets of vapor
The trees are in keeping with tho rest
of this big country. 1t seems chat this
must have been the home of some pre-
historic giants, as all nature tiles to ont
do all else in bigness of form, visited
the lumber camps mp in the mountains
on White river, and for day srent my
time studying the workings of the wood
men, and Ii is sight TO remember. The
giant fir trees reach to height of 300
feet, and when the woodmen fell one Of
them ii crashes TO earth like huge
building An old settler leveled one to
the ground and here are the dimensions:
Over feet across the stump and 275
feet in height, and from this one tree
was sawed %, 600 feet of lumber and the
commercial value in planed lumber
would be about 1850
Out from Tacoma is a very old Catho-
lie church and it has the tallest tower
in America. 1t is one of these trees and
the bell is mounted on the stump Of this
old tree about IS feet high. Ivy vines
cling about this natural tower to the
very top 1t is estimated that this tree
must be FIVE CENTRES old. | visited the
little quaint church, left the usual offer
ing OF silver that was solicited by the
little old sexton to buy modern stained
glass for the oldest church on the Pacific
coast and the tallest church tower in sill
America.
The weather here is grand, days warm
and nights delightfully."- cool No mat
ter how hot may be the days, when the
sun once descends into the haze of the
Pacific ocean the air begins to cool, and
no one ever lays awake nights with the
heat.
The language Of the people differs a
great deal here from home. No one
here ever says 25c or soc, but two bits
or -four bits, and they do not sell wood
by the cord but by the rick Every
thing is sold ~ the pound, Ion the
eggs: and pc tatoes are called for as
''spuds" They never say farmer or
gardner, but 'rancher" everything is
ranch, garden 20 feet square is q
ranch. 1t rains great deal here on
| this side of the mountains, but the
clouds never cross the mountains. and
on the other side it seldom If ever rains,
and all farming is done by irrigation.