Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/10

 which had never yet been seen by civilized man. . . . they sat down by the brink of that little rivulet, which yielded its distant and remotest tribute to the parent ocean," etc.

They then proceed to relate that:

"They left reluctantly this spot, and pursuing the Indian road through the interval of hills, arrived at the top of a ridge, from which they saw high mountains partially covered with snow still to the west of them. The ridge on which they stood formed the dividing line between the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans."

Let us tarry at this interesting place and view well the scenes before us. Standing with Mr. Lewis is John Shields, a blacksmith from Kentucky, and George Drewyer, the interpreter and hunter. It is recorded that they carried a United States flag which, at that time, consisted of fifteen stripes and a Union of fifteen stars in the blue field. The colors of our flag had first appeared in history some 3400 years before this time and, likewise, under dramatic surroundings. Bible readers will recall that, at the base of Mount Sinai, the Lord gave to Moses the Ten Commandments and the book of the law, and they were deposited in the Ark of the Covenant within the movable Tabernacle, before which four curtains were suspended, one of purple, one of red, one of white and one of blue. The first color, obtained by the ancients only with the greatest difficulty, was necessarily restricted in use and finally became the distinctive color of imperialism.

The three remaining colors have been handed down through the long centuries and during the last three have quite generally been used in flag making, more especially by countries inclined toward civil freedom. These colors, 3400 years in their coming, are now on the summit of the continental divide and the men who bore them hither look out over one of the most beautiful panoramic scenes in all the world. Down through the fathomless abyss of time that landscape had received from the winter's storms its mantles of snow, and with the breath of each succeeding spring it had burst forth into life again. But never before had a white man beheld its transcendent beauty nor had his feet trod the winding stairs and stately corridors