1898.] ESSAYS. 33 



the country, Niagarii alone excelling. The falls are capable of 

 furnishing 75,000 horse power. Already large power works are 

 constructed and furnish electric lighting and power service and 

 drive the machinery of many mills and factories. 



We climbed the steep sides of Mount Hood, the famous land- 

 mark which towers in the clear air fifty miles east of Portland, 

 although it seems much nearer. The crater is quiescent, but not 

 dead, for steam issues from the crevices of the rocks, and in places 

 it is hot enough, though far above the snow line, to cook on the 

 rocks. 



Returning to the great river the party ascended in steamers 

 and got a good insight into the vast salmon fisheries. Some of 

 the big fishwheels net their owners as much as $30,000 each year 

 by their catches. As the fish cannot make headway against the 

 mighty current, the machines are built along the banks, where 

 the stream turns the framework wheels armed with wire net 

 flanijes. 



The fish, swimming into the nets, are carried up and thrown 

 into a big pit, whence they are scooped out by machinery and 

 loaded for transportation to the canneries. Last year 15,000,000 

 cans of salmon w6re shipped out of Oregon for consumption in 

 nil parts of the world. The fish are so plentiful that Indians 

 with long poles armed with sharp hooks spear the fish and make 

 $4 and even $5 a day by selling the fish at two cents a pound to 

 the canneries. 



The scenery along the Columbia cannot be excelled by any 

 river scenery in the world. Its cliflfs dwarf those of the Hudson 

 and the Rhine, as the river rushes through great gorges of basal- 

 tic rock that have been worn into peculiar formations by the action 

 of the torrent for ages. The great falls of the Columbia through 

 the Cascade Mountain range are passed in canals and locks, and 

 the smaller steamers are thus enabled to mount high up the big 

 river. 



The Indian associations of the Columbia are plentiful and 

 interesting. The aborigines are long-lived, and it is not uncom- 

 mon to see men and women who have passed the century mark. 

 But their lodges and manner of life show no improvement from 



