Page:Columbia - America's Great Highway.djvu/22



E KNOW that the first garden that God planted eastward in Eden and the River which went out of it were beautiful beyond compare. We also know that the one planted here, and the River called by men Columbia, which goes out of it, were formed by the same hand. How long it was before He brought the living creatures after their kind and placed them in this new-made garden, we know not. Nor can we tell how long a time elapsed before He brought the several roving tribes of men into this earthly Paradise in quest of food.

A few miles west of Celilo Falls the trees begin. The landscape changes rapidly as one goes toward the sea, descending the river or ascending the Cascade Range.

Ever higher these mountains lift their heads, until fve great peaks are seen at once above the timber line, "their craters healed with snow" which never leaves them.

The Indian legends and our early history tell of plenty. Great herds of antelope and buffalo without number roamed the plains on the head waters of this kingly river. They browsed on the rich bunch grass which grew knee high over the thousands of square miles in that treeless region, which is the basin left by the ancient Inland Sea, to the east of the Cascade Range.

The Indian tribes, who loved the chase and lived for the greater part of the year on plain and mountain top were athletes, while the tribes on the western