listen undisturbed in the heart
of it. Perhaps now and then we may dimly see the tops of the highest
breakers, looking ghostly in the gloom; but when the water happens to be
phosphorescent, as it oftentimes is, then both the sea and the rocks are
visible, and the wild, exulting, up-dashing spray burns, every particle
of it, and is combined into one glowing mass of white fire; while back
in the woods and along the bluffs and crags of the shore the storm wind
roars, and the rain-floods, gathering strength and coming from far and
near, rush wildly down every gulch to the sea, as if eager to join the
waves in their grand, savage harmony; deep calling unto deep in the
heart of the great, dark night, making a sight and a song unspeakably
sublime and glorious.

In the pleasant weather of summer, after the rainy season is past and
only occasional refreshing showers fall, washing the sky and bringing
out the fragrance of the flowers and the evergreens, then one may enjoy
a fine, free walk all the way across the State from the sea to the
eastern boundary on the Snake River. Many a beautiful stream we should
cross in such a walk, singing through forest and meadow and deep rocky
gorge, and many a broad prairie and plain, mountain and valley, wild
garden and desert, presenting landscape beauty on a grand scale and in
a thousand forms, and new lessons without number, delightful to learn.
Oregon has three mountain ranges which run nearly parallel with the
coast, the most influential of which, in every way, is the Cascade
Range. It is about six thousand to seven thousand feet in average
height, and divides the State into two main sections called Eastern and
Western Oregon, corresponding with the main divisions of Washington;
while these are again divided, but less perfectly, by the Blue Mountains
and the Coast Range. The eastern section is about two hundred and thirty
miles wide, and is made up in great part of the treeless plains of the
Columbia, which are green and flowery in spring, but gray, dusty, hot,
and forbidding in summer. Considerable areas, however, on these plains,
as well as some of the valleys countersunk below the general surface
along the banks of the streams, have proved fertile and produce large
crops of wheat, barley, hay, and other products.

In general views the western section seems to be covered with one vast,
evenly planted forest, with the exception of the few snow-clad peaks of
the Cascade Range, these peaks