Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/214

 1T6 THE TOURIST'S CALIFORNIA as Goose Lake in the northeast corner of California (Chat- Pine Creek, 186 miles). Feather River Canyon. This regal chasm, whose arch springs from Oro- ville (due north by the Western Pacific from Sac- ramento) to Portola, near Hawley, is one of the supreme sights of the Wonder State. Its winding bed is companioned by the rails of the Western Pacific. The triumphant blast of the engine sounds at last against the mighty sides which for so long knew only the bellow of waters, hurrying to their end. As already indicated, the Canyon is accessible by way of Boca on the Southern Pacific, or over the Western Pacific trunk line, San Francisco - Stockton - Sacramento Oroville - Keddie - Hawley Doyle Winnemucca - Salt Lake City. At Oroville, in the heart of a great tract of olive orchards, the altitude is little more than 200 feet. Steadily the line mounts by an easy grade to Las Plumas, where the power plant is located which generates electricity for the lighting of San Fran- cisco, over 200 miles away. At Merlin (1756 ft.) the river is constricted by the shelving bank of the railroad to the width of a brook. Frequently the contortions of the track are so abrupt that the engine's nose seems about to plough through cross barriers formed by the mountains. Chis-