[Illustration: Scenes in the canyon of the North Fork of Lewis River, fed by the glaciers of Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens.] [Illustration: COPYRIGHT, B. A. GIFFORD Columbia River and Mount Adams, seen from Hood River, Oregon. "And forests ranged like armies, round and round At feet of mountains of eternal snow; And valleys all alive with happy sound,-- The song of birds; swift streams' delicious flow; The mystic hum of million things that grow."--Helen Hunt Jackson.] The first volcanic dust from the uneasy crater of St. Helens had no sooner lodged in some cleft opened by the contraction of cooling than a spore or seed carried by the wind or dropped by a bird made a start toward vegetation. Failing moisture, and checked by lack of soil, the lichen or grass or tiny shrub quickly yielded its feeble existence in preparation for its successor. The procession of rain and sun encouraged other futile efforts to find rootage. Each of these growths lengthened by its decay the life of the next. With winter came frost, scaling flakes from the hard surface, or penetrating the joints and opening fissures in the basalt. Further refuge was thus made ready for the dust and seeds and moisture of another season. The moss and plants were promoters as well as beneficiaries of this disintegration. Their smallest rootlets found the water in the heart of the rocks, and growing strong upon it, shattered their benefactors. [Illustration: COPYRIGHT, KISER PHOTO CO. Southwest side of Mount Adams, reflected in Trout Lake, twelve miles south of the mountain.] [Illustration: Scenes on great lava field south of Mount St. Helens. The lodgepole pine thicket above shows struggle of forest to gain a foothold on the rich soil slowly forming over new volcanic rock. The peak itself, with stunted forest at its base, is seen next; and below, one of many "tree tunnels," formed when the lava flowed over or around a tree, taking a perfect cast of its bark.]