rom many points along the river banks, Mount Hood can be seen towering
away up into the clouds. The bluffs themselves are marvels of formation,
very difficult to explain or account for. When the water is low, there
is an exposure of almost vertical cliffs. The bluffs vary in height to a
remarkable extent, and the lower the water, the more grotesque the
appearance of the figures along them. When the water is very low, there
is a cascade, or waterfall, every few feet, presenting an appearance of
continuous uproar and froth, very attractive to the sightseer, but very
objectionable from the standpoint of navigation.

When the water is high, these cascades are lost sight of, and the rocks
which form them are covered with one raging torrent, which seems
inclined to dash everything to one side in its headlong course towards
the Pacific Ocean. Logging is a most important use to which the Columbia
River is put, and when immense masses of timber come thundering down the
Dalles, at a speed sometimes as great as fifty miles an hour, all
preconceived notions of order and safety are set at naught. There is one
timber shoot, more than 3,000 feet long, down which the logs rush so
rapidly that scarcely twenty seconds is occupied in the entire trip. The
Dalles generally may be described as a marvelous trough, and the name is
a French word, which well signifies this feature.

Farther down the river, and near the city of Portland, there are some
very delightful falls, not exceptionally large or high, but very
delightful in character, and full of contradictions and peculiarities.
Steamboating on the Columbia River, in its navigable sections, is
exceedingly pleasant and instructive. The river is the largest in
America which empties into the Pacific Ocean. For more than 140 miles it
is navigable by steamers of the largest kind, while other vessels can
get up very much higher, and nearer the picturesque source. On some
sections of it, glaciers of great magnitude can be seen, and there are
also many points concerning which legend and tradition have been very
busy. According to one of these traditions, the Indians who formerly
lived on the banks of the river were as brave as the ancient Spartans
and Greeks, though if this is approximately correct, the law and
argument of descent must be entirely erroneous, for the Indians of this
section to-day rank among the meanest and most objectionable of the
entire country.

An artistic illustration is gi