But then comes a fifth zone, the last, the zone of the Arctic. This is the zone of the snow-cap. The glaciers are now below. All life has ceased. The grade has ever steepened, till now it is forty degrees or more. The snow is hummocked and granulated. Here is where part of the climbers begin to stop. Legs and lungs fail. Camp looks exceedingly good down there at the verge of the forests. They feel as though they had lost nothing on the summit worth going up for. A nausea, mountain sickness, attacks some. Nosebleed attacks others. Things look serious. Icy mists sometimes begin to swirl around the presumptous climbers. Frost gathers on hair and mustache and eyebrows. The unaccustomed or the less ambitious or weaker lose heart and bid the rest go on, for they will turn toward a more summer-like clime. Generally about half an ordinary party drop out at this beginning of the Arctic zone. But the rest shout "Excelsior," take a firmer grasp of alpenstock, stamp feet more vehemently into the snow, and with dogged perseverance move step by step up the final height. Inch by inch, usually in the teeth of a biting gale, leaning forward, and panting heavily, they force the upward way. And victory at last! There comes a time when we are on the topmost pinnacle, and there is nothing above us but the storms and sun. And then what elation! Nothing seems quite to equal the pure delight of such a triumph of lungs and legs and heart and will. [Illustration: Rooster Rock, Columbia River--Looking Up. Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse, Portland.] CHAPTER VI The Lower River and the Ocean Tides Remarkable Change in Climate and Topography--Farms and Villages--First View of Mt. Hood on West Side--Vancouver and its Historic Interest--The North Bank Railroad--View at the Mouth of the Willamette--Sauvie's or Wapatoo Island--Beauty of the Willamette and its Tributaries--Simpson's Poem--Approach to Portland--Site of Portland--Transportation Facilities--Portland's Commerce--Homes and Public Buildings--Art in Portland--The Historical Society Museum--The _Oregonian_ and its Editor--Once more on the River--The Fishing and Lumbering Villages--Scenery of the Lower River--Astoria and the Outlook to the Ocean--Industries of Astoria--The Fisheries--The Fleet of Fishing Boats on the Bar--The Ocean Beaches and the Tourist Travel--Through the Outer Headlands to the Pacific.