looking the Columbia basin. Fields of waving grain and
other products exhibit the richness of the Klickitat valley. Those
desiring can motor from Goldendale into the Yakima valley or return to
the Columbia via Maryhill, where Hon. Samuel Hill has built a $100,000
road across his 6,000-acre farm.

Nor do all the wonders belong to the lower Columbia. Before being joined
by the Snake River, it has drained a region noted for agricultural
superiority and contributed liberally to the needs of irrigation. The
"Big Bend" on the left, and the valleys watered by its tributaries from
the right, are described under the chapter entitled "The Inland Empire."

Following its channel still farther towards the source, wilder scenes
are met with, the gorges are deeper, the cascades noisier, native trees
more plentiful, waterfalls higher, and the course of the stream more
winding. Startling phenomena appear in rapid succession, and scenes
unimagined will astonish the tourist who spends a little time in
re-exploring this great river, for ages a prize eagerly sought by the
searchers for the unknown.

[Illustration: ROCK LAKE, 25 MILES SOUTHWEST OF SPOKANE.

Photo by Curtis & Miller.]

[Illustration: THE INLAND EMPIRE

"See Pan with flocks with fruits Pomona crowned:
Here blushing flora paints the enameled ground;
Here Ceres' gifts in waving prospect stand,
And nodding, tempt the joyful reapers hand."]

Thousands of years ago, scientists tell us, there existed between the
Rocky Mountains and the Cascade range a vast inland sea--the waters left
imprisoned when the ocean had receded. After many ages these pent up
waters burst the restraining barriers and forced their way to the ocean,
creating the deep canyon of the Columbia, but leaving behind a broad
plain, now known as the Inland Empire.

What was once a desolate waste, however, has been transformed into a
"Land of Canaan." Its plateaus unite to form one of the bountiful "bread
baskets of the world" while its valleys yield generously of nearly all
the products of husbandry. Near its borders the mountains, with their
retinue of trees, flowers and grassy meadows, reach as far as the
invisible power permits and then dispatch their emissaries, the rivers,
to wind through and through and distribute the welcome waters that
enkindle the irrigated districts with life and activity.

Far beyond the boundaries of our own state spreads this wo