Not long the scene remains. An August sun quickly disperses the gossamer clouds, unveiling for us the scene of yesterday in its morning sharpness of outline, with high lights and deep shadows in the foreground, and with a soft, illusory glimmer in the deep distance. We hardly wait for the full blaze of day on the picture, preferring to remember it in this more striking aspect.
Along the crests of the mountains are frequent lakes, some of which occupy old burnt-out craters; others may have been formed by the damming up of springs by lava overflows; others by a change in the elevation of certain districts, leaving depressions to be filled by the melting snows or by mountain springs and streams. These lakes occur generally where signs of recent volcanic action in the neighborhood are most numerous, as in the vicinity of Mount St. Helen, Mount Jefferson, the Three Sisters, and Diamond Peak.
Pumice, cinders, scoria, and volcanic glass, with other evidences of eruption comparatively recent, abound all along the eastern base of the Cascade Eange, and extend some distance through the central portion of East Oregon. The traveller must ever be amply repaid for the labor of exploration by the great and varied wonders which meet him at almost every step of his journey. It does not prejudice a country either, in a practical sense, that it is of volanic formation. Such have been the lands where civilization came to the greatest perfection. Probably the east slopes of the Cascades will yet be celebrated in song as “the land of the olive and vine.” It is certain that grapes and peaches raised upon this soil are of excellent flavor.
The lakes which are such a striking feature of the Cascade Range in both Washington and Oregon are not usually of much extent. Echo Lake, on Mount St. Helen, is three miles long by a quarter of a mile to a mite in width. It is filled with trout, and bordered by bold shores covered with evergreen forest. The character of the scenery here is of a gentler aspect than in some other parts of the mountains, tempting whole families every summer to encamp for two or three weeks in this vicinity.
On the contrary, Fish Lake, in the range east of R
