CHAPTER XII. 

 AN INDIAN LEGEND. 



There is an Indian legend that many years 

 ago the Columbia was navigable for canoes 

 from the Chinook villages at the mouth of the 

 river to The Dalles; that voyagers on their 

 way up and down passed under a great nat- 

 ural bridge which spanned the river at the 

 present Cascades. The great falls of the river 

 in those days were a little above The Dalles 

 at the present falls of the Tumwater, where 

 the waters then descended perpendicularly 

 twelve to fifteen times the height of a tall 

 man. These falls prevented the salmon from 

 going above that place and the Indians of the 

 interior came there to purchase the fish for 

 which they gave buffalo and buffalo robes. 

 But after many years Mount Hood and 

 Mount St. Helens had a quarrel during which 

 these mountains threw out fire and smoke 



