Page:The Pacific Monthly vol. 14.djvu/71

Columbia River Scenery

THERE are many regions in this Western wonderland that defy the word painter and even the brush of the skilled artist. In this respect no section stands out more conspicuously than that part of the Columbia River between the mouth of the Willamette and the city of The Dalles.

The ruins of little castles of feudal barons perched upon the rocky points of the Rhine have no counterpart along the Columbia, nor is pastoral scenery to be observed. Nature, wild and untamed by the hand of man, still rules supreme over the passage of a great river through a great mountain range, presenting landscapes of imposing grandeur and beauty.

Great forces have moved and have produced great results. There is the broad expanse and reach of water, the rugged, towering mountains, thousands of feet high and reaching far into the clouds. Well known forms of vertical escarpements and conical pinnacles peculiar to basaltic formation crown the successive heights to the very mountain tops. Slender ribbon-like falls hang lightly from the brow of a sheer precipice or dash in foam down some rocky gulch, and the morning mists that linger on the wooded peaks veil in mystery the beauty beyond. One's desire to possess and perpetuate some scene of beauty becomes irresistible, when, out comes the camera—snap—and the thing is done! Of this long passage between The Dalles and Vancouver, a well-known artist has said that the scenes of interest and beauty would furnish a lifetime of sketching. The eight views presented herewith are the second in the new series of Columbia River views taken by Mrs. Sarah H. Ladd, the first having appeared in the January, 1905, number.

From a Photo by Sarah H. Ladd

The Pallisades of the Columbia