THE RIVERS OF OREGON 



still called the Columbia, extends through 

 Washington far into British territory, its high- 

 est tributaries reaching back through long 

 parallel spurs of the Rockies between and 

 beyond the headwaters of the Eraser, Atha- 

 basca, and Saskatchewan. Each of these main 

 branches, dividing again and again, spreads 

 a network of channels over the vast compli- 

 cated mass of the great range throughout a 

 section nearly a thousand miles in length, 

 searching every fountain, however small or 

 great, and gathering a glorious harvest of crys- 

 tal water to be rolled through forest and plain 

 in one majestic flood to the sea, reinforced on 

 the way by tributaries that drain the Blue 

 Mountains and more than two hundred miles 

 of the Cascade and Coast Ranges. Though 

 less than half as long as the Mississippi, it is 

 said to carry as much water. The amount of 

 its discharge at different seasons, however, has 

 never been exactly measured, but in time of 

 flood its current is sufficiently massive and 

 powerful to penetrate the sea to a distance of 

 fifty or sixty miles from shore, its waters being 

 easily recognized by the difference in color 

 and by the drift of leaves, berries, pine cones, 

 branches, and trunks of trees that they carry. 

 That so large a river as the Columbia, mak- 

 ing a telling current so far from shore, should 



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