44 
THROUGH WONDERLAND. 
importance in these stirring days of trade and manufactures. Admirably 
appointed steamers, making fast time, run daily between Portland and Astoria. 
The trip need not, therefore, occupy more than two days. The distance from 
Portland to the point at which the Willamette discharges itself into the Colum¬ 
bia, is twelve miles, in the course of which opportunity is afforded for observ¬ 
ing the progress being made by the city in its manufacturing and other 
enterprises. The busy wharves are also passed, and the stately ships riding 
at anchor. 
After the first few miles of the Columbia the tourist may be surprised to find 
MOUNT TACOMA. 
that the scenery of the lower river is far from being tame or monotonous. The 
river itself winds considerably for so great a body of water ; the forest, too, is 
luxuriant, and the hillsides are covered with heavy fir; numerous islands occur 
at intervals, wooded and exceedingly pretty. Where the river has worked its 
way through the Coast Mountains, the scenery, though not so abrupt, stern or 
impressive as that of the middle Columbia, presents many fine effects, the lofty 
walls of the river being surmounted by hills of considerable altitude. 
Not far from Columbia City, on the north or Washington bank of the stream, 
is an island rock known as Mount Coffin, and formerly an Indian place of 
sepulture. Here the tribes deposited the bodies of their noted chiefs and 
