The Columbia River: Its History, Its Myths, Its Scenery, Its CommerceLyman, William Denison
History
The Columbia River: Its History, Its Myths, Its Scenery, Its Commerce
Lyman, William Denison
Columbia River; Columbia River -- Description and travel; Columbia River -- History
especially when the Chinook blows soft and damp up the river, and these
wailings have been thought by Indians to be the voice of the spirit of the
unhappy Wehatpolitan, because it could never descend to the happy hunting
grounds of the tribe.
Another native idea is to the effect that Castle Rock (which ought to be
called Wehatpolitan's gravestone) is hollow and is filled with the bodies
of former generations now turned to stone. As a matter of fact, the party
of 1901 found evidence of a great cave, but so far there has been found no
practical ingress. So the interior is still an unexplored mystery. Immense
quantities of spear-heads and arrow-heads are found along the river at
this point, and these are apparently of an earlier age than most of those
found in this country.
Loosing from the enchanted shore of Wehatpolitan's monument, we see for
several miles on the Oregon side a cordon of perpendicular cliffs, red and
purple in hue, streaked with spray, and touched here and there with the
deep green of firs which have rooted themselves with claw-like roots into
the crevices. Most symmetrical and beautiful, though not the highest of
this line of elevations, is St. Peter's Dome. Its summit is over two
thousand feet above the river. While in height it is surpassed by certain
crags of Chelan or Yosemite, as well as its brothers on the river, it has
no rival in beauty there, or elsewhere, so far as the author has seen,
among the wonders of the American continent. Every hour of the day, every
change of sky or season, reveals some new and unexpected beauty or
sublimity in this superb cliff.
[Illustration: Hunters on Lake Chelan, with their Spoils. Photo. by W. D.
Lyman.]
[Illustration: A Morning's Catch on the Touchet, near Dayton, Wash.
_Sunset Magazine._]
We are almost sated with sublimities by the time we pass on down below St.
Peter's Dome, but one of the most unique scenes of all is close at hand.
This is Oneonta Gorge. A swift stream issuing from the cliffs on the south
side of the River attracts our attention, and we moor our boat to the
roots of a tall cottonwood and make our way inward. The wall is cleft
asunder, its sides almost meeting above. At places the smooth sides of the
Gorge leave no space except for the passage of the pellucid stream, and we
have to wade hip deep to make our way. Showers of spray descend from the
towering roof above, and in places we are well-nigh in darkness. Then
there is a widening and through the broken wall the lances of sunshine
pierce the gloom with rainbow tints. Marvellous Oneonta with the
sweet-sounding name! It, too, has its wealth of native myth, of which our
narrowing limits forbid us to speak.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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