Page:Columbia - America's Great Highway.djvu/21

 ANY men have sought to know the Truth, of how this Mountain Range was parted hke a curtain, permitting the mighty Columbia River to pass through, almost at the level of the sea. The story of the uplift and the Inland Sea is writ so plain that all may read. Primitive man understood: his legends tell the story. The Inland Sea found one great outlet through the Gorge of the Columbia.

With some there is a question as to whether the Gorge is the result of a gradual uplift and slow erosion, or of the sudden breaking away, of a great rock wall that was first cracked, or faulted, by a movement of the mountain range, due to some fearful convulsion of nature; after which a wall of water from this Inland Sea, almost a mile in height, tore away the sides, and widened the chasm into its present magnificent proportions.

The mind can only wonder at this mighty work of God, done in His own way. on a scale so great that man's best efforts appear but as the work of pigmies—the Panama Canal, a toy for children.

Standing at the margin of the river and looking up along the sky line, one sees the rim rock of the mountain, in many places, thousands of feet above. The crystal waterfalls, the great trees, the fresh green moss— the rocks themselves, speak of eternal youth, and it seems but yesterday that the hand of God fashioned it all.

The talus at the base of the cliffs tells a different story. We read in these masses of broken stone, that centuries on centuries have passed since they began to form, for every particle contained in them, when loosened by frost, heat or cold, fell from dizzy heights piece by piece. Striking the base of the cliffs, they sound like the ticking of the master clock, with centuries for hours. The rich growth of vegetation, almost tropical, always hastening to hide nature's secrets, soon covers them. and out of this mouldering mass provides food and shelter for both man and beast.