Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/20

 12 ELLEN CONDON McCoRNACK Let us imagine one of these primitive men standing on some eminence and looking out over our beautiful Willamette Sound. He sees the long, graceful shore line as it winds in and out of the many harbors formed by the submerged valleys of the smaller streams. He sees the broad expanse of waters with its many picturesque islands. He sees the stately evergreens, the great oaks and beautiful flowering shrubs upon the sunny hillsides. He sees the grand Cascade Mountains crowned with their lofty snowpeaks. But does he see all this as the Mammoth sees it, or does its beauty touch his soul ? When the earth trembles, as it often does, and loud rumblings come from the mountains, what does he think? He looks to- ward Mt. Hood in its pure majestic beauty, does he worship the mountain, or does his mind rise above and worship its creator ? Suddenly he sees white clouds of steam pouring from the mountain top, then with violent earthquake and loud explosions, he sees showers of glowing cinders and stones and jets of fiery liquid hurled far upward into the dense black cloud now spread- ing above the mountain. Why does he turn suddenly away from the awful grandeur of the scene and throw out his long bare arms and lift his eyes to the pure blue sky, where only one white cloud is drifting? Is it the dawn of prayer? When later on an iceberg comes gliding slowly across the waters, its beautiful icy pinnacles glistening in the moonlight, perhaps it seems to him the wandering spirit of that snowpeak driven out by the wild demon of fire. Sometime while digging an excavation through the, rich, deep soil the old Willamette Sound has left us, some one may find the bones and large grinding teeth of the Mammoth elephant, and mingled with them may be human bones or human imple- ments of chipped flint and a fragment of carving, perhaps even a picture of the long-haired Mammoth drawn with flint upon a piece of ivory. This discovery would be of great interest to scientific men, although it would not surprise them, for it has long been considered among the possibilities. But to us who are interested in Oregon's history it would open a rich and very ancient chapter of human life.