rowboats, racing shells, rafts, were loaded with gayly
dressed people, and here and there some adventurous man or boy might be
seen as a merry sailor on a single plank or spar, apparently as deep in
enjoyment as were any on the water. It seemed as if all the town
were coming to the river, renouncing the cares and toils of the day,
determined to take the evening breeze into their pulses, and be cool and
tranquil ere going to bed.

Absorbed in the happy scene, given up to dreamy, random observation
of what lay immediately before me, I was not conscious of anything
occurring on the outer rim of the landscape. Forest, mountain, and sky
were forgotten, when my companion suddenly directed my attention to the
eastward, shouting, "Oh, look! look!" in so loud and excited a tone
of voice that passers-by, saunterers like ourselves, were startled and
looked over the bridge as if expecting to see some boat upset. Looking
across the forest, over which the mellow light of the sunset was
streaming, I soon discovered the source of my friend's excitement. There
stood Mount Hood in all the glory of the alpenglow, looming immensely
high, beaming with intelligence, and so impressive that one was overawed
as if suddenly brought before some superior being newly arrived from the
sky.

The atmosphere was somewhat hazy, but the mountain seemed neither
near nor far. Its glaciers flashed in the divine light. The rugged,
storm-worn ridges between them and the snowfields of the summit, these
perhaps might have been traced as far as they were in sight, and the
blending zones of color about the base. But so profound was the general
impression, partial analysis did not come into play. The whole mountain
appeared as one glorious manifestation of divine power, enthusiastic and
benevolent, glowing like a countenance with ineffable repose and beauty,
before which we could only gaze in devout and lowly admiration.

The far-famed Oregon forests cover all the western section of the State,
the mountains as well as the lowlands, with the exception of a few
gravelly spots and open spaces in the central portions of the great
cultivated valleys. Beginning on the coast, where their outer ranks are
drenched and buffeted by wind-driven scud from the sea, they press on in
close, majestic ranks over the coast mountains, across the broad central
valleys, and over the Cascade Range, broken and halted only by the few
great peaks that rise like islands above the sea of e