STEEP TRAILS 



According to an Indian tradition, the river 

 of the Cascades once flowed through the ba- 

 salt beneath a natural bridge that was broken 

 down during a mountain war, when the old 

 volcanoes, Hood and St. Helen's, on opposite 

 sides of the river, hurled rocks at each other, 

 thus forming a dam. That the river has been 

 dammed here to some extent, and within a 

 comparatively short period, seems probable, 

 to say the least, since great numbers of sub- 

 merged trees standing erect may be found 

 along both shores, while, as we have seen, the 

 whole river for thirty miles above the Cas- 

 cades looks like a lake or mill-pond. On the 

 other hand, it is held by some that the sub- 

 merged groves were carried into their places 

 by immense landslides. 



Much of interest in this connection must 

 necessarily be omitted for want of space. 

 About forty miles below the Cascades the 

 river receives the Willamette, the last of its 

 great tributaries. It is navigable for ocean 

 vessels as far as Portland, ten miles above its 

 mouth, and for river steamers a hundred 

 miles farther. The Falls of the Willamette 

 are fifteen miles above Portland, where the 

 river, coming out of dense woods, breaks its 

 way across a bar of black basalt and falls 

 forty feet in a passion of snowy foam, showing 



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