Page:Cathlamet On the Columbia.djvu/56

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36
CATHLAMET ON THE COLUMBIA

ed millions of feet of lumber have been cut from this forest and fires have in places ravaged it and yet so immense is its extent and so vigorous is its power of renewal that it is today to the casual sightseer the same unbroken forest that it has been from the beginning.

This was the home and the hunting ground of the Indian of the Lower Columbia. Some parts of it he knew well but into other parts he would not go, and it was curious to see how the places where game and food were plentiful became familiar ground while the other places were invested with superstitious terrors. Along the rivers where canoes could go the Indian was at home, and along some of the prairies and smaller streams of the Willamette Valley, Indian villages and homes were established, but the forest itself was untouched and except where it was36