Wonderland or Alaska and the Inside Passage Part 4

Loading at its wharves, or riding at anchor on the broad bosom of the river, may be seen, not only river craft of all sorts and sizes, but ocean-going vessels of 3,000 tons. When the great wheat crop of Oregon is in course of shipment to Europe, there may be seen a fleet of as fine merchantmen as can be found in the world. The salmon exports alone, for the year ending August 1, 1885, required 120 large vessels, having a total capacity of about as many thousand tons. The total value of the exports to foreign countries for the year just mentioned, was $5,857,057, and that of domestic exports $6,699,776, making a grand total of $12,556,833. In addition to several hundred thousand tons of wheat, and the 120 ship loads of salmon already mentioned, the exports from the Columbia river included over eleven million pounds of wool, over two million pounds of hides, nearly five and one-half million pounds of hops, and twenty-nine million pounds of potatoes.

Portland is said to number among its merchant princes twenty-one millionaires, and certainly there are few cities whose private residences are more strikingly indicative of wealth and refinement. The picturesque surroundings of the city render it an exceedingly desirable place of residence. From the summit of Robinson's Hill a view that it is no extravagance to p.r.o.nounce one of the finest in the world may be obtained. At one's feet lies the city, nestled in rich foliage.

Stretching away, for many miles, from where their waters unite in one common flood, may be seen the Columbia and Willamette rivers. But above all, bounded only by the limits of the horizon, is the great Cascade Range, with all its glittering peaks. On the extreme right, seventy-eight miles distant, as the crow flies, is seen the snowy crown of Mount Jefferson; across the river, fifty-one miles distant, rises Mount Hood, one of the most beautiful mountains on the coast, and the pride and glory of Oregon; to the northeast stand out the crests of Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens, and in the same direction, but one hundred miles away, may be descried the great Tacoma, the grandest mountain on the Pacific slope. All these five peaks are radiant with eternal snow, and it may well be imagined that the effect of the uplifting of their giant forms against the clear blue sky is grand in the extreme.

Tourists coming northward from San Francisco have the choice of two routes and two modes of travel. They may either take one of the fine steamers of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, sailing every five days, and performing the voyage in from sixty to seventy-two hours, or they may travel overland by the Oregon & California Railroad, a line that traverses not only the most fruitful plains, but also the most beautiful valleys, of this rich State.

For the benefit of such travelers, and also in view of the possibility of there being those who, both coming and returning by the Northern Pacific Railroad, would like to visit the garden of Oregon, and, if possible, obtain a glimpse of Mount Shasta, it may not be out of place to give a brief description of the line extending southward from Portland to the southern boundary of the State.

For upward of one hundred miles our route lies along the Willamette valley. This is the largest valley in the State, being 150 miles in length, with an average width of fifty miles. Inclosed on the east side by the Cascade Mountains, and on the west by the Coast Range, it contains an area of about four and one-half million acres of rich and beautiful land. Some of the pleasantest towns in the Northwest are to be found in this valley.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FLOATING FISH WHEEL, ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER, OREGON.]

First comes Oregon City, sixteen miles from Portland; this is the oldest town in Oregon. It is situated just below the beautiful falls of the Willamette, amid highly picturesque scenery. Its chief interest for the tourist centres in the falls, which represent a force of over a million horse power, or about eight times that of the Falls of St. Anthony. They may be seen a few hundred yards south of the station, on the west side of the track. Hitherto there has been seen no considerable extent of fertile country; but in Barlow's prairie there appears a fine tract of agricultural land inclosed by tributaries of the Willamette. Others succeed it, and soon good homesteads, surrounded by shade trees and orchards, are seen in every direction. The next town of importance is Salem, the State capital, beautifully situated on the sloping banks of the river. The capitol, and other State buildings, may be seen from the train; and the entire city, with its broad streets and fine oak groves, presents a pleasing appearance.

The twenty-eight miles intervening between Salem and Albany afford some fine views of the Cascade Range, Mount Hood being visible at a distance of seventy miles, and the nearer southern peaks in still bolder outline. Eugene City, 123 miles from Portland, is also charmingly situated and finely laid out on the edge of a broad, rich prairie overlooked by a ridge of low hills. Its geographical position, at the head of navigation, commands for it the trade of a large section of country. It is also the seat of the State University, and is otherwise an educational centre of great importance.

In the course of the next seventy-four miles the railroad ascends about 2,000 feet to Roseburg, the judicial seat of Douglas county, traversed by another of the famous valleys of Oregon, that of the Umpqua. This was formerly a great stock country; but its pastures have gradually disappeared before the plow, and cattle have given way to grain. It is, moreover, a fine fruit growing region. The tourist is now approaching those intricate valleys which have made this line of railway from Roseburg to its terminus at Ashland at once so costly and so picturesque.

Cow Creek Canon, so winding that thirty-five miles of track had to be laid to attain twelve miles of actual distance, abounds with wild and beautiful scenery. From the valley of the Umpqua, the railroad pa.s.ses into that of the Rogue river, in Josephine county. This county is equally famed for its natural beauty, its healthful climate and the wonderful productiveness of its soil. Grains, fruits and vegetables of every description, yield prodigiously, and their quality is not to be surpa.s.sed.

The great attractions of the county for the tourist are the two limestone caves situated thirty miles south of Grant's Pa.s.s, and fifteen miles east of Kerbyville. There is said to be a good wagon road from the latter place to within five miles of these caves, and arrangements are in progress for the early completion of the road. According to an official publication of the county, there is another route, _via_ Williams Creek, by wagon road, to within eight miles of the caves, and thence, by a mountain trail, on horseback. The scenery along this route is stated to be grand beyond description, embracing many of the lovely valleys of this charming county, and, in the distance, the snow-capped mountains of the Cascade Range, terminating in the tremendous peak of Mount Shasta. The caves themselves consist each of a series of chambers, adorned with beautiful stalact.i.tes of prismatic colors, and other curious and delicate formations, presenting exquisite patterns, and sparkling with the l.u.s.tre of diamonds.

At Ashland, 341 miles from Portland, the tourist arrives at the southern terminus of the road. Connection is made with the California and Oregon Railroad, at Delta, California, by stage. This is an exceedingly enjoyable stage ride, the first twenty miles of the journey being over the Siskiyou Mountains, from whose summits the long Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range can be traced for nearly 200 miles.

No tourist should return East without first taking a trip down the

LOWER COLUMBIA

to Astoria, that city of most interesting historical a.s.sociations, and no little actual importance in these stirring days of trade and manufactures. Admirably appointed steamers, making fast time, run daily between Portland and Astoria. The trip need not, therefore, occupy more than two days. The distance from Portland to the point at which the Willamette discharges itself into the Columbia, is twelve miles, in the course of which opportunity is afforded for observing the progress being made by the city in its manufacturing and other enterprises. The busy wharves are also pa.s.sed, and the stately ships riding at anchor.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MOUNT TACOMA.]

After the first few miles of the Columbia the tourist may be surprised to find that the scenery of the lower river is far from being tame or monotonous. The river itself winds considerably for so great a body of water; the forest, too, is luxuriant, and the hillsides are covered with heavy fir; numerous islands occur at intervals, wooded and exceedingly pretty. Where the river has worked its way through the Coast Mountains, the scenery, though not so abrupt, stern or impressive as that of the middle Columbia, presents many fine effects, the lofty walls of the river being surmounted by hills of considerable alt.i.tude.

Not far from Columbia City, on the north or Washington bank of the stream, is an island rock known as Mount Coffin, and formerly an Indian place of sepulture. Here the tribes deposited the bodies of their noted chiefs and warriors. In his canoe, previously rendered useless, and with his bow and arrows, the dead hero was here laid to rest.

After pa.s.sing Kalama, the tourist comes upon some of the great canning establishments, which before long are pa.s.sed at such short intervals that they seem to line the north bank, on which most of them are situated.

The fisheries of the Columbia river are almost as famous as its scenery.

The canning industry, which was first established in 1866, has within the last few years attained great importance. Producing the first year some 4,000 cases, representing, at the high price they commanded, $16 per case, a total value of $64,000, it has steadily increased its product, until now it has reached upward of half a million cases. The catch of 1885, which was 524,530 cases, fell short of that of 1884 by 132,000 cases, in consequence of the markets of the world being temporarily overstocked. It is remarkable that the supply should at all exceed the demand, when the gigantic extent of the industry is taken into consideration. The great perfection to which the methods employed in capturing the salmon have been brought, is probably accountable for the recent glut in the market. Among the most effective contrivances for the purpose, is the floating fish-wheel, by means of which the fish are literally scooped up out of the water in shoals. The industry gives employment to 1,500 boats, 3,000 fishermen, and 1,000 factory hands, the latter princ.i.p.ally Chinese. The canning season is from April 1st to July 31st, when the lower Columbia is alive with fishing boats, and the canneries are in full operation.

As we approach Astoria, the river widens out into a broad estuary, some seven miles across. Here is Tongue Point, a bold headland running out into the river from the Oregon sh.o.r.e.

In a beautiful bay between this point and Point Adams, is Astoria, built partly on piles, and partly on the shelving hills. For the story of its early history, of the arrival of John Jacob Astor's trading ship, "Tonquin," and of its subsequent British occupancy, the reader is referred to Washington Irving's delightful volume. It is sufficient to say that it is to-day an exceedingly interesting city to visit, not more on account of its being the oldest British settlement in the Northwest, and the central figure in the salmon fishing of the Columbia river, than for the novelty of its construction.

Its busy wharves and abundant shipping proclaim it a seaport of considerable importance, requiring only a railroad or the removal of the barriers to the navigation of the middle Columbia, to make it a great city.

Opposite Point Adams is Cape Hanc.o.c.k, formerly known as Cape Disappointment. On the sea-coast, both on the Washington side, north of Cape Hanc.o.c.k, and on the Oregon side, south of Point Adams, are various summer resorts attracting crowds of visitors during the season. On the Washington sh.o.r.e is Ilwaco, beautifully situated on the north sh.o.r.e of Baker's Bay, with a long, crescent-shaped beach of fine, white sand sloping to the water, and heavily wooded hills in the rear. This growing place, with its hotels, stores, church and school house, is rapidly growing in popularity. Steamers meet the Portland boat at Astoria, where pa.s.sengers are transferred without inconvenience or delay. They call, both going and returning, at Cape Hanc.o.c.k, affording tourists an opportunity of visiting Fort Canby, and the great lighthouse, from which there is one of the most extensive and magnificent views on the entire Pacific coast. On the Oregon sh.o.r.e of the ocean are Clatsop Beach, where there are good hotel accommodations and excellent hunting and fishing, and a popular resort known as Seaside, boasting a mult.i.tude of attractions, including a fine ocean beach and a trout creek. Should the tourist be unable to make a long stay at any of these places, he ought at least to pay them a brief visit, if only to cross the great bar of the river, and to see where its mighty flood discharges itself into the ocean at the rate of 1,000,000 gallons per second.

The climate of this section is exceedingly humid; but its summers are delightful. Its rainfall is mostly in winter, when it is both heavy and continuous. It is said, that, if a barrel, with the two ends taken out, be placed upon its side with the bung-hole uppermost, the rain will enter by that small aperture faster than it can run out at the two ends.

For this story, however, the writer can not vouch, any more than for that of the recent visitor to the National Park, who is said to have caught, in one of the lakes of that remarkable region, a fish so large that, upon his dragging it ash.o.r.e, the water of the lake fell six inches.

TO PUGET SOUND.

The tourist has now become more or less familiar with the natural features and resources of that great country lying between the Snake river and the Pacific Ocean, and between the Columbia river and the Siskiyou Mountains.

There remains only Western Washington, with its extensive forests, its rich coal mines, its hop gardens, and its far-famed inland sea, on which he is to embark on his voyage to the great land of the far North. The Pacific division of the Northern Pacific Railroad follows the Willamette river from Portland to its confluence with the Columbia, and the latter river from that point to Kalama, where trains are conveyed across the river by the finest transfer boat in the world, built expressly for the railroad company, and constructed to carry thirty cars at one time. From Kalama the track strikes almost directly northward for Puget Sound, pa.s.sing through long stretches of dense forest, but also intersecting a tract of country containing a larger area of fertile agricultural land than is contained in any other county in Western Washington.

The chief towns of this region are Chehalis and Centralia, and they give evidence of thrift and prosperity. But the attention of the tourist as he travels onward is largely occupied with the magnificent peaks of the Cascade Range, whose forms of dazzling whiteness const.i.tute, with their background of deepest blue and the dark forests which clothe their base, a picture of marvelous beauty. For more than one hundred miles after we leave Portland, there looms up behind us the graceful contour of Mount Hood, while to the east are seen at intervals the majestic forms of Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams.

But the grandest scene of all is yet to come. After leaving Tenino, there is a revelation of almost unequaled grandeur in the view of Mount Tacoma, the loftiest peak of the entire range. If Mount Hood can claim to be considered, as is generally admitted, the most graceful and beautiful mountain on the Pacific coast, Mount Tacoma can certainly claim to be the most majestic and sublime. Towering 14,444 feet above sea-level, and thus exceeding by more than 3,000 feet the height of any other mountain in Washington or Oregon, it seems to rear its ma.s.sive head close to the very battlements of heaven. No other mountain, even in the Yellowstone National Park or in the main range of the Rockies, will have produced so great an impression upon the traveler as will the mighty Tacoma. As he gazes at its majestic form, he is inclined to doubt whether there is in the whole world one that could establish a better claim to universal sovereignty. In lines that will live as long as the English language itself, Byron declared Mont Blanc the monarch of mountains. But Byron never saw the matchless Tacoma. It, too, has its throne of rocks, its diadem of snow, and, though less frequently than Mont Blanc, its robe of clouds, an adjunct of doubtful advantage except in the exigencies of versification.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "THE TACOMA" TACOMA. W. T.]

Mount Tacoma has, embedded in its mighty bosom, no fewer than fifteen glaciers, three of which have been rendered accessible to visitors.

Comparing them with the glaciers of the Alps, Senator Edmunds, of Vermont, declares that the finest effects he witnessed during the course of a long tour in Switzerland, fell far short of what he saw on his visit to Mount Tacoma. At the great hotel, at Tacoma City, guides and camping outfits are always obtainable. Excursion parties are frequently made up during the summer season, the trip being entirely free from difficulty or danger, even to ladies.

It is at the city of Tacoma that the tourist first looks over the blue waters of Puget Sound. This is the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Occupying a commanding position upon a high plateau overlooking Admiralty Inlet, Tacoma has an excellent harbor, capable of receiving the largest ocean-going vessels. It has also some fine public buildings, among them being the Anna Wright Seminary for girls, a monument of the beneficence of Mr. C. B. Wright, of Philadelphia. Its luxuriously furnished hotel, the Tacoma, erected at a cost of $200,000, occupies one of the finest sites in the world, overlooking, as it does, the picturesque sh.o.r.es of the bay, and commanding a magnificent view of the imperial mountain.

A few miles northward is Seattle, also with an excellent harbor, and the promise of becoming a city of great importance, an extensive section of rich country being naturally tributary to it.

There is no more delightful climate than that of Puget Sound. The summers are cool, the maximum temperature at Tacoma in the summer of 1884 being eighty-nine degrees, and in that of 1885, eighty-five degrees only.

The Cascade division of the railroad, extending eastward from Tacoma, is developing a very rich bituminous coal country, and great quant.i.ties of the mineral are being shipped from Tacoma, where immense bunkers have been erected to facilitate its exportation. This line also reaches the fine hop growing country of the Puyallup valley, whose product has steadily risen in Eastern markets, until now it commands as high a price as that of the State of New York.

But never was the tourist less disposed than now to concern himself with agricultural or commercial statistics. With eager expectation, impatient of delay, he is hastening toward that veritable Wonderland of the World that const.i.tutes the Mecca of his pilgrimage. He is about to enter upon the final stage of his long journey, in that far-famed Inland Pa.s.sage, whose incomparable scenery, extending in one unbroken chain for more than a thousand miles, alone surpa.s.ses those stupendous works of Nature upon which he has so recently gazed.

JOHN HYDE.

ALASKA AND THE INLAND Pa.s.sAGE.

Man travels for business and pleasure. The former can be easily described, by a slight interpolation in a well-known mathematical definition, as "the shortest distance and quickest time between two points." The latter bears to this mathematical rectilinear exactness the relation of the curves,--Hogarth's "line of beauty," the rotund circle and graceful sweep of the Archimedean spiral, and bends of beauty beyond computation; and, as any of these are more pleasing to the eye than the stiff straight line, so any tourist's jaunt is more pleasing to all the senses than the business man's travels. But, as all straight lines are alike, and all curves are different, so are their equivalents in travel, to which we have alluded. One tourist, as a Nimrod, dons his hunting shirt and high-topped boots, and, seeking the solemn recesses of the Rockies, slays the grizzly and mountain lion, and thus has his "good time;" another drives through the grand old gorges of the Yellowstone Park, and the deep impressions left by a lofty nature are his ample rewards; and yet again, where physical exertion is to be avoided by delicate ones or those averse to its peculiarities, one may float down the distant Columbia, with its colossal contours, and, without even lifting a finger to aid one's progress, view as vast and stupendous scenery as the world can produce. Thus each place suits each varying disposition, from the most roystering "roughing it," developing the muscles in mighty knots, to where the most ponderous panorama of nature may be enjoyed from a moving mansion, as it were. Could we conceive a place where all these advantages would be united into one, or where one after the other might be indulged at pleasure, we would certainly have a tourists' paradise, an ever-to-be-sought and never-to-be-forgotten nook of creation. Such a tour is to be encountered on "the inland pa.s.sage to Alaska," as it is called by those knowing it best.

In this rough, rocky region, Nature has been prodigal of both land and water,--making the former high and picturesque, and the latter deep and navigable, and running in all directions through the other, apparently for the purpose that it might be easily viewed. From the northwest corner of Washington Territory, through all of the coast line of British Columbia, and along Alaska's sh.o.r.es to the long-cast shadows of Mount St. Elias, stretches for nearly two thousand miles a picturesque panorama that seems as if the Yellowstone, the Yosemite, Colorado, and Switzerland and the Alps, were pa.s.sing in review before the spectator; and, when the greatest northing is gained, Greenland and Norway have added their glacier-crowned and iceberg-bearing vistas to the view. It looks as if the Yellowstone National Park had sunk into the sea until the valleys were waterways, and the feet of the high mountains had been converted into sh.o.r.es. A grand salt-water river it is that stretches from Puget Sound, itself a beautiful sheet of water, to our distant colony of Alaska, a good round thousand miles, and whose waters are as quiet as an Alpine lake, even though a fierce gale rage on the broad Pacific outside.

Beyond the parallel of Sitka, though the grand scenery may be no more imposing than that through which the tourist will have pa.s.sed in coming from Washington Territory, he will find some of the curiosities of nature which are to be found only in the dreaded frigid zones,--icebergs and glaciers. Before the waters of Northwestern Washington Territory are out of sight, great patches of snow are to be seen on the highest of the grand mountains bordering the inland pa.s.sage. These little white blotches in the northern gullies become larger and larger as the excursion steamer wends her way northward, until the loftiest peaks are crowned with snow. Then, across connecting ridges, they join their white mantles; and, in a few more miles, the blue ice of glaciers peeps from out the lower edges of the deep snow. Lower and lower they descend as the steamer crawls northward, until the upper parts of the pa.s.sage are essayed, when they have come to the ocean's level, and, plunging into the sea, snap off at intervals, and float away as icebergs, some of them higher than the masts of the large, commodious steamers that bear tourists to this fairy-land of the frigid zones, if one can be allowed such an expression. Glacier Bay, which the excursion steamers visit on their summer trips, has a great number of these frozen rivers of ice debouching into it; and its clear, quiet waters, reflecting the Alpine scenery of its sh.o.r.es, are ruffled only by the breaking of the icebergs from the terminal fronts of the glacier, that send waves across its whole breadth, and with a noise like the firing of a sea-coast cannon.

Muir Glacier is the greatest of this grand group, and surpa.s.ses anything nearer than the polar zones themselves. There is no use in going into mathematical measurements,--its two and three hundred feet in height and its breadth of several miles; for they but feebly represent its grandeur, the deep impressions that figures can not measure when viewing this frozen Niagara of the North. Not until the blue Adriatic has pierced its way into the heart of the high Alps, or some ocean inlet has invaded the valleys of the vast Yellowstone Park, will we ever have an equivalent to this display of Nature's n.o.blest efforts in scenic effects. Were the other scenery as monotonous as the ceaseless plains, a visit to the Alaskan glaciers and icebergs would well repay any one's time and effort; but, when the tourist travels through the greatest Wonderland of the wide West to reach these curious sights, he or she will be paid over and over tenfold.

So far everything may be seen from the decks of an elegant steamer; but, should the tourist want a little "roughing it," let him stop over in Glacier Bay, from one steamer's visit to another, two weeks to a month apart, and clamber over the glaciers and row around among the icebergs to his heart's content, and until he almost imagines he is an arctic explorer. He will descend from the tumbled surface of the frozen seas of ice on the glacier's surface, only to wade through gra.s.s up to his waist, that waves in the light winds like the pretty pampas fields of South America. In these fields of gra.s.ses he may pitch his tent, which, with a cook stove and a month's rations for each person, is all that is needed, beyond the baggage of the other tourists. Hunting is found in the mountains back of the bay, fish in the waters, and small game in the woods near by.

Or, if longer and rougher jaunts are wanted, ascend the Lynn Channel, and then the Chilkat, or Chilkoot, Inlet, hiring two or three Indians to carry one's camping effects on their backs to the lakes at the source of the great Yukon river of the British Northwest Territory and Alaska,--the third river of America. Going by the Chilkoot trail, over the Alaskan coast range of mountains, which will furnish Alpine climbing enough to suit the most eager, on snow and glacier ice, one comes to a series of lakes aggregating 150 miles in extent; and along these he may paddle and return, shooting an occasional brown or black bear, moose, caribou or mountain goat, while aquatic life is everywhere on these pretty Alpine lakes.

Throughout the whole inland pa.s.sage, one is pa.s.sing now and then some Indian village, of more or less imposing appearance and numbers. In Alaska they all belong to a single great tribe, the T'linkit, bound together by a common language, but by no stronger ties, for each village, or cl.u.s.ter of villages, makes a sub-tribe, having no sympathies with the other, and they often war against one another.