The Cascade Mountains are in general parallel with the shore of the Pacific, and rise as a prominent barrier athwart the path of the prevailing westerly winds. Precipitation on their seaward slopes is copious, but their landward sides overlooking the arid plains of central Washington are far less humid. The westward, or rainy slope, is clothed with a magnificent forest of giant trees, while the eastward, or sunny side, is largely without forests, but abounds in natural meadows and pastures. Large portions of the mountains are still almost entirely unknown, and retain their primitive wildness, except that forest fires, particularly near the international boundary, have in places made desolate the once beautiful valleys and precipitous slopes. Elk, deer, bear, the mountain-goat, and mountain-sheep still roam the forests. The large streams abound in salmon, and each cool, clear brook and rushing creek is a favourite haunt of the trout. No more delightful camping-ground for lovers of nature and searchers for recreation can be found than the grassy, park-like valleys on the sunny side of these magnificent mountains.
Many of the details in the scenery of the Cascades are due to the work of ancient glaciers. Numerous lakes, held in rock-basins in the higher portions of the mountains, and many still larger sheets of water retained by morainal dams in the lower valleys, give a superlative charm to many a wild and rugged landscape. The largest and most interesting lake in the entire Cascade region is Lake Chelan, situated in a deep valley on the eastern side of the mountains in north-central Washington. This beautiful sheet of water, a mile or two wide, extending like a placid river for some 70 miles into the mountains, resembles in many of its features the far-famed lakes of northern Italy. The mountains inclosing this hidden gem of the Cascades rise abruptly from the water's edge to great heights, and with one exception are unbroken by deep side-valleys. For fully 50 miles the blue plain of water is overshadowed on each side by crags and precipices from 5,000 to 6,000 or more feet in height. The lower slopes are dark with forests of pine and fir, and the bare serrate spires above are white with snow
long after the spring flowers have faded in the lower vales. The water of the lake is clear and sparkling, and has the deep-blue colour of the open ocean. The sounding-line has shown a depth of 1,400 feet, and the bottom is about 300 feet below sea-level. This wonderful lake, clasped in the embrace of the eastward extended arms of the Cascades, is but 2 or 3 miles from the Columbia River, into which it discharges its surplus waters through Chelan River, and may be easily reached from Wenachee, on the Great Northern Railroad, by steamers on the Columbia. Although at present scarcely known to the world of tourists, Lake Chelan is destined to take as an important place in the lives of those who seek rest and recreation as does Lake George in northern New York at the present day.
Before attempting to trace the Pacific mountains northward through Canada and Alaska, let us glance at the leading geographical features to the west of the Sierra Nevada-Cascade uplift.
THE GREAT VALLEY OF CALIFORNIA AND THE PUGET SOUND BASIN
To the west of the Sierra Nevada-Cascade Mountains, and bordered on the west by another and very nearly parallel series of elevations, known in a general way as the Coast Mountains, there is a succession of long, relatively narrow basins, situated end to end, and constituting what may be termed a valley-chain. This series of basins extends from southern California northward far into Canada, and includes, in their order from south to north, the great Valley of California, the Willamette and Cowlitz Valleys in Oregon and Washington, and the Puget Sound basin, together with its great but indefinitely defined northward extension.
The Great Valley of California has a length of about 500 miles and an average width of approximately 40 miles, and is greater in area than either Belgium, Denmark, or Switzerland. It is divided in reference to drainage into two portions, the San Joaquin Valley at the south and the Sacramento Valley at the north, named respectively after the
rivers that drain them. These two streams unite and discharge into San Francisco Bay, the outlet of which is through the Golden Gate to the Pacific. This central basin of California has a generally flat bottom composed of a great depth of unconsolidated gravel, sand, and clay, which are believed to owe their deposition mainly to the streams flowing from the bordering mountains, although in part they may have been deposited when the land was more depressed than now and the basin was a great sound, connected with the ocean by a single narrow opening. The rock-waste swept into the valley served not only to add to the accumulations forming its floor, but to give the bottom some irregularities. A portion of its southern end, shut off by alluvial deposits brought down from the Sierra Nevada, is occupied by the shallow alkaline waters of Tulare Lake. When the great valley was first visited by white men it was without trees, except along the immediate borders of some of the streams, and for the most part was a luxuriant meadow of wild grasses and flowers. On the uplands oak-trees grew in scattered park-like groves with gorgeously flower-decked hills and vales between. This favoured land, clothed in its natural beauties, came as near being an Eden as perhaps any portion of the continent. The changes that have followed the settlement and cultivation of this great mountain-inclosed basin are simply marvellous. Cities and villages have been built, orchards and vineyards planted which yield most bountiful harvests, and the once grass-covered plains are now seemingly boundless wheat-fields. The unkept natural garden of half a century ago has become a granary not only for the people of America, but for those of Asia as well.
To the north of the Klamath Mountains, which shut in the central Valley of California at the north, lies the beautiful Willamette Valley, about 150 miles long, drained by the northward-flowing river of the same name, which joins the Columbia where the thriving city of Portland now stands. The depression between the mountains of which the Valley of the Willamette forms a part, extends north of the Columbia, and is there drained by the southward-flowing
Cowlitz River. The relation of these two valleys is much the same, although on a smaller scale, as that existing between the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys, except that the Columbia, after passing through the Cascade Mountains, receives the Willamette and Cowlitz rivers as tributaries, one from each side of its course. This Willamette-Cowlitz depression is surrounded by densely forested hills and the snow-capped summits of ancient volcanoes. The soil was originally highly fertile, and although now somewhat impoverished, still furnishes a substantial basis for agriculture, and renders the region one of the most productive as well as most beautiful in the United States.