STEEP TRAILS 



fifty-fourth parallel, and is the northmost of 

 all the Columbia waters. About thirty miles 

 above its confluence with the Columbia it 

 flows through a lake called the Punch-Bowl, 

 and thence it passes between Mounts Hooker 

 and Brown, said to be fifteen thousand and 

 sixteen thousand feet high, making magnifi- 

 cent scenery ; though the height of the moun- 

 tains thereabouts has been considerably over- 

 estimated. From Boat Encampment the river, 

 now a large, clear stream, said to be nearly 

 a third of a mile in width, doubles back on its 

 original course and flows southward as far 

 as its confluence with the Spokane in Wash- 

 ington, a distance of nearly three hundred 

 miles in a direct line, most of the way through 

 a wild, rocky, picturesque mass of mountains, 

 charmingly forested with pine and spruce — 

 though the trees seem strangely small, like 

 second growth saplings, to one familiar with 

 the western forests of Washington, Oregon, 

 and California. 



About forty-five miles below Boat Encamp- 

 ment are the Upper Dalles, or Dalles de Mort, 

 and thirty miles farther the Lower Dalles, 

 where the river makes a magnificent uproar 

 and interrupts navigation. About thirty miles 

 below the Lower Dalles the river expands into 

 Upper Arrow Lake, a beautiful sheet of water 



332 



