Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the more than 200 original illustrations. See 42893-h.htm or 42893-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42893/42893-h/42893-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42893/42893-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/guardiansofcolu00willrich Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA * * * * * THE MOUNTAIN I hold above a careless land The menace of the skies; Within the hollow of my hand The sleeping tempest lies. Mine are the promise of the morn, The triumph of the day; And parting sunset's beams forlorn Upon my heights delay. --Edward Sydney Tylee * * * * * [Illustration: COPYRIGHT DR. U. M. LAUMAN Dawn on Spirit Lake, north side of Mt. St. Helens. "Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops." Shakespeare.] THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA Mount Hood, Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens by JOHN H. WILLIAMS Author of "The Mountain That Was 'God'" _And mountains that like giants stand To sentinel enchanted land._ SCOTT: "The Lady of the Lake." With More Than Two Hundred Illustrations Including Eight in Colors Tacoma John H. Williams 1912 [Illustration: COPYRIGHT, G. M. WEISTER Climbing the last steep slope on Mount Hood, from Cooper's Spur, with ropes anchored on summit.] Copyright, 1912, by John H. Williams [Illustration: Willamette River at Portland, with ships loading wheat and lumber for foreign ports.] FOREWORD In offering this second volume of a proposed series on Western mountain scenery, I am fortunate in having a subject as unhackneyed as was that of "The Mountain that Was 'God.'" The Columbia River has been described in many publications about the Northwest, but the three fine snow-peaks guarding its great canyon have received scant attention, and that mainly from periodicals of local circulation. These peaks are vitally a part of the vast Cascade-Columbia scene to which they give a climax. Hence the story here told by text and picture has necessarily included the stage upon which they were built up. And since the great forests of this mountain and river district are a factor of its beauty as well as its wealth, I am glad to be able to present a brief chapter about them from the competent hand of Mr. H. D. Langille, formerly of the United States forest service. A short bibliography, with notes on transportation routes, hotels, guides and other matters of interest to travelers and students, will be found at the end.