feet, although on either side of the Dalles the width of the river
itself ranged from about 2,000 to much more than 2,500 feet.

As the volume of water is enormous at this point, especially after rain
and much melting of snow, there is often a rise of fifty feet in a few
hours in the narrow channel of the Dalles. Sometimes the rise exceeds
seventy feet, and an effect most extraordinary in character results.
From many points along the river banks, Mount Hood can be seen towering
away up into the clouds. The bluffs themselves are marvels of formation,
very difficult to explain or account for. When the water is low, there
is an exposure of almost vertical cliffs. The bluffs vary in height to a
remarkable extent, and the lower the water, the more grotesque the
appearance of the figures along them. When the water is very low, there
is a cascade, or waterfall, every few feet, presenting an appearance of
continuous uproar and froth, very attractive to the sightseer, but very
objectionable from the standpoint of navigation.

When the water is high, these cascades are lost sight of, and the rocks
which form them are covered with one raging torrent, which seems
inclined to dash everything to one side in its headlong course towards
the Pacific Ocean. Logging is a most important use to which the Columbia
River is put, and when immense masses of timber come thundering down the
Dalles, at a speed sometimes as great as fifty miles an hour, all
preconceived notions of order and safety are set at naught. There is one
timber shoot, more than 3,000 feet long, down which the logs rush so
rapidly that scarcely twenty seconds is occupied in the entire trip. The
Dalles generally may be described as a marvelous trough, and the name is
a French word, which well signifies this feature.

Farther down the river, and near the city of Portland, there are some