The Most Unique Point yet on the River--River, Mountains, and Tide--The Only Place where the Cascade Range is Cleft--Distant View of Mt. Hood and Gradual Appearance of Lesser Heights--Limits of Region where River and Mountain Meet--Geological Character of this Region--Forces of Upheaval and Erosion and Volcano--We May Journey by Rail, by Steamboat, Horseback, Waggon, or Afoot, but we Prefer a Rowboat--Paha Cliffs--On the Track of Speelyei--Memaloose Island--Hood River and White Salmon Valleys and their Fruit--Beginnings of the Great Heights--The Sunken Forest--The Bridge of the Gods--Loowit, Wiyeast, and Klickitat--Difference in Climate between the East-of-the-Mountains and the West--Sheridan's Old Blockhouse--Passing the Locks--Petrified Trees--Fish-wheels--Castle Rock--Ascent of Castle Rock--Story of Wehatpolitan--St. Peter's Dome--Oneonta Gorge--Multnomah Falls--Cape Horn--Getting out of the Mountains--Cape Eternity and Rooster Rock--This Section of the Journey Ended--Comparison of the River with Other Great Scenes. In the long journey down our River we have had a panoramic view of towering mountains and broad plains, foaming cataracts and tranquil lakes, fruitful valleys and volcanic desolations, growing cities and lonely wastes. All illustrate that infinite variety of the River which imparts its unrivalled charm. But now we are approaching a point which is unique even in the midst of the unique, varied in never-ending variety, sublime even in almost continuous sublimity, singular even upon our most singular River. This place is where the mountains and the River meet. By mountains we mean the great chain of the Cascades, which under various names parallels the Pacific Coast all the way from Alaska to Southern California. But not only do mountains and River meet here, but the ocean sends his greetings, for at the lower end of the rapids which here mark the gateway of the mountains, the first pulse-beat of the Pacific, the first throb of the tide, is discernible, though it is a hundred and sixty miles farther to where the River is lost in that greatest of the oceans. River, Mountains, Ocean,--a very symposium of sublimities. [Illustration: Eagle Rock, just above Shoshone Falls in Snake River. Photo. by W. D. Lyman.] There is, too, another especially interesting feature of this spot, and that is, it is the only place for twelve hundred miles where the Cascade-Sierra Range is cleft asunder. In fact it is the only place in the entire extent of the range where it is cut squarely across. This fact imparts not only scenic interest, but commercial value. It is the only water-level route from the seacoast to the Inland Empire.