CHARACTERISTICS OF OREGON 



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 val 

 ley, wild garden and desert, presenting land 

 scape beauty on a grand scale and in a thou 

 sand forms, and new lessons without number, 

 delightful to learn. Oregon has three moun 

 tain-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 



277 



