Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/75



extending as far as the eye can reach to the North and South, the Cascades, in one lofty, unbroken range, rise mountain upon mountain, and forest over forest, until their highest peaks, wrapped in eternal snow, and white as the unsillied flake in the storm of Winter, stand high and giddy, far above the clouds. At your feet you can see the Willammette, meandering down the wide fertile Valley, and can trace afar, the course of the broad Columbia, winding through its forest-crested hills; and further away to the North, St. Helens shows her towering crater of eternal fire; and further still, the eye is lost in the wide labrynth of dark and clustering heights, in distance indistinct. Away to the South, the peering summits of some lofty chain, are dimly drawn upon the sky. To the West, you hear the distant Ocean's sullen roar, as its waves, with crash tremendous, break upon its rock bound shores. The bright clear blue above is cloudless; all beneath, seems hushed in deep repose; even the loud Cataract's thunders, wake not so far the circling waves of air; and save, perchance, the carol of a mountain bird, the breeze sighing to the leaves, and the heavy murmuring of the distant deep, all else is silent, as it was upon the morn, when God created it. Here may the imagination lift the veil which hides the future, and peer into the destinies of this fair land: As it runs over the wide prospect, it peoples it with thousands and thousands of busy inhabitants, sees every plain checkered with fields, and even the steep and rugged Mountain-side, made to yield to the hand of the husbandman; every where, houses, gardens, orchards, and vinyards, scattered in countless multitudes, over hill and valley; flocks and herds feeding, on every hand; the broad highways coursing the valley, or winding away over the hills, thronged with a busy concourse, all moving hurriedly to and fro, engaged in the avocations of a civilized life; sees villages, towns, and cities, with massive walls and glittering spires, which have risen above the mouldered huts of a departed race. It looks forward to the time when, where now the Indian, upon his jaded horse, is winding along the narrow and solitary trail, the powerful locomotive, with its heavy train, will fly along the rattling railway; when, instead of yon frail canoe, the proud steamer will dash along the majestic river; when that Ocean, now idly breaking on its cragged shores, shall be whitened with the sails of Commerce; and when, amid the flags of a hundred nations, its own proud motto and device, resting on folds gemmed with images, whose bright originals bestud her skies, shall float proudly superior to them all; when,