STEEP TRAILS 



is now roughly settled in part and surveyed, 

 its rivers and mountain-ranges, lakes, valleys, 

 and plains have been traced and mapped in 

 a general way, civilization is beginning to take 

 root, towns are springing up and flourishing 

 vigorously like a crop adapted to the soil, and 

 the whole kindly wilderness lies invitingly 

 near with all its wealth open and ripe for use. 



In saiUng along the Oregon coast one sees 

 but few more signs of human occupation than 

 did Juan de Fuca three centuries ago. The 

 shore bluffs rise abruptly from the waves, 

 forming a wall apparently unbroken, though 

 many short rivers from the coast range of 

 mountains and two from the interior have 

 made narrow openings on their way to the 

 sea. At the mouths of these rivers good har- 

 bors have been discovered for coasting ves- 

 sels, which are of great importance to the 

 lumbermen, dairymen, and farmers of the coast 

 region. But httle or nothing of these appear 

 in general views, only a simple gray wall nearly 

 straight, green along the top, and the forest 

 stretching back into the mountains as far as 

 the eye can reach. 



Going ashore, we find few long reaches of 



sand where one may saunter, or meadows, 



save the brown and purple meadows of the 



sea, overgrown with slippeiy kelp, swashed and 



274 



