The Columbia River: Its History, Its Myths, Its Scenery, Its Commerce — John Shaqi
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
As we journey on delightedly through these glades, rising, terrace after
terrace, we can read the history of the mountain in the rock beneath our
feet and the expanding plains and hills below. All within the ancient
amphitheatre is volcanic. There are four main summits, a central dome,
vast, symmetrical, majestic, pure-white against the blue-black sky of its
unsullied height. The three other peaks are broken crags of basalt,
leaning as for support against the mighty mass at the centre. Around the
snow-line of the mountain many minor cones have been blown up. These have
the most gaudy and brilliant colouring, mainly yellow and vermilion. One
on the south-east is especially noticeable. From a deep canyon it rises
two thousand feet as steep as broken scoriae can lie. The main part is
bright red, surmounted by a circular cliff of black rock. Probably the old
funnel of the crater became filled with black rock, which, cooling, formed
a solid core. The older material around it having crumbled away, it
remains a solid shaft.
But fire has not wrought all the wonders of the mighty peak. Ice has been
most active. The mountain was once completely girdled with glaciers. Rocks
are scratched and grooved five miles below the present snow-line. The
ridges are strewn with planed rocks and glacial shavings and coarse sand.
Some of the monticules on the flanks of the mountain have been partially
cut away. Many have been entirely obliterated. But the ice has now greatly
receded. Instead of a complete enswathement of ice there are some six or
seven distinct glaciers, separated by sharp ridges, while the region
formerly the chief home of the ice is now a series of Alpine meadows. Like
most of the snow peaks, Mt. Adams is rudely terraced, and the terraces are
separated into compartments by ridges, forming scores and hundreds of
glades and meads. In some of these are circular ponds, from a few square
rods to several acres in area. These lakes are found by the hundred around
the mountain and in the region north of it. They are one of the charms and
wonders of the country. About most of them tall grass crowds to the very
edge of the water. Scattered trees diversify the scene. Throughout these
glades flow innumerable streams, descending from level to level in
picturesque cascades, and composed of water so cold and sparkling that the
very memory of it cools the after thirst. Sometimes the tough turf grows
clear over, making a verdant tunnel through which "the tinkling waters
slip." Here and there streams spout full-grown from frowning precipices.
[Illustration: Birch-Tree Channel; Upper Columbia, Near Golden, B. C.
Photo. by C. F. Yates, Golden.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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