

E-text prepared by David Garcia, Bryan Ness, Emmy, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)



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 <DW72> 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.

Accuracy has been my first aim. I have tried to avoid the exaggeration
employed in much current writing for the supposed edification of
tourists. It has seemed to me that simply and briefly to tell the truth
about the fascinating Columbia country would be the best service I could
render to those who love its splendid mountains and its noble river. A
mass of books, government documents and scientific essays has been
examined. This literature is more or less contradictory, and as I cannot
hope to have avoided all errors, I shall be grateful for any correction
of my text.

In choosing the illustrations, I have sought to show the individuality
of each peak. Mountains, like men, wear their history on their
faces,--none more so than Hood's sharp and finely scarred pyramid; or
Adams, with its wide, truncated dome and deeply carved <DW72>s; or St.
Helens, newest of all our extinct volcanoes--if, indeed, it be
extinct,--and least marred by the ice, its cone as perfect as
Fujiyama's. Each has its own wonderful story to tell of ancient and
often recent vulcanism. Let me again suggest that readers who would get
the full value of the more comprehensive illustrations will find a
reading glass very useful.

Thanks are due to many helpers. More than fifty photographers,
professional and amateur, are named in the table of illustrations.
Without their co-operation the book would have been impossible. I am
also indebted for valued information and assistance to the librarians at
the Portland and Tacoma public libraries, the officers and members of
the several mountaineering clubs in Portland, and the passenger
departments of the railways reaching that city; to Prof. Harry Fielding
Reid, the eminent geologist of Johns Hopkins University; Fred G.
Plummer, geographer of the United States forest service; Dr. George Otis
Smith, director of the United States geological survey; Judge Harrington
Putnam, of New York, president of the American Alpine Club; Messrs.
Rodney L. Glisan, William M