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摩特诺玛瀑布 , 位于哥伦比亚河峡谷俄勒冈州的 这边，俄勒冈州Troutdale东部， 科贝特和多德森 之间，along with 哥伦比亚河高速公路。 瀑布由两段组成， 上 fall 542英尺（165米）和 下fall 69英尺（21米）， 两 fall  之间有一个渐进的9英尺（3米）fall，所以传统的 认为瀑布总高度为620英尺（189米）。是俄勒冈州最高的瀑布。

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 来自落叶松山的地下泉水 是瀑布 year-round source of water，spring runoff from the mountain's snowpack 和 季节雨水径流 也都是瀑布壮观的重要组成部分 。

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在1995年9月美国的劳动节，一个400吨重的巨石， 因水侵蚀松动， 从瀑布正面下跌225英尺（69米） , 到upper cascade pool, above  本森桥。 溅起的水柱达70英尺（21米） , 顷刻之间水洗行人天桥， 不幸的是, 此刻的天桥 上一对新人正在wedding party ,当场导致二十名凑热闹的观 众受伤 。 试想 ,如果是在某国,长假 高速免费 再加婚礼,这样的风景点, 受伤人数会是怎样的数目...

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A Wasco Legend

The Big River, or Great River, in the stories of the Northwest Indians is the Columbia. The Big Shining Mountains are the Rockies.

"Long, long ago, when the world was young and people had not come out yet," said an elderly Indian years ago, "the animals and the birds were the people of this country. They talked to each other just as we do. And they married, too."

 狼Coyote (ki-o-ti) was the most powerful of the animal people, for he had been given special power by the Spirit Chief. For one thing, he changed the course of Big River, leaving Dry Falls behind. In some stories, he was an animal; in others he was a man, sometimes a handsome young man.

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In that long ago time before this time, when all the people and all the animals spoke the same language, 狼Coyote made one of his frequent trips along Great River. He stopped when he came to the place where the water flowed under the Great Bridge that joined the mountains on one side of the river with the mountains on the other side. There 狼Coyote changed himself into a handsome young hunter.

When traveling up the river the last time, 狼Coyote had seen a beautiful girl in a village not far from the bridge. He made up his mind that he would ask the girl's father if he might have her for his wife. The girl's father was a chief. When 狼Coyote the handsome young man went to the chief's lodge, he carried with him a choice gift for the father in return for his daughter.

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The gift was a pile of the hides and furs of many animals, as many skins as 狼Coyote could carry. 狼Coyote made the gift large and handsome because he had learned that the man who would become the husband of the girl would one day become the chief of the tribe.

The chief knew nothing about the young man except that 狼Coyote seemed to be a great hunter. The gift was pleasing in the father's eyes, but he wanted his daughter to be pleased.

"She is my only daughter," the chief said to the young hunter. "And she is very dear to my heart. I shall not be like other fathers and trade her for a pile of furs. You will have to win the heart of my daughter, for I want her to be happy."

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So 狼Coyote came to the chiefs lodge every day, bringing with him some small gift that he thought would please the girl. But 狼Coyote never seemed to bring the right thing. She would shyly accept his gift and the run away to the place where the women sat in the sun doing their work with deerskins or to the place where the children were playing games.

Every day 狼Coyote became more eager to win the beautiful girl. 狼Coyote thought and thought about what gifts to take to her. "Perhaps the prettiest flower hidden in the forest," he said to himself one day, "will be the gift that will make her want to marry me."

狼Coyote went to the forest beside Great River and searched for one whole day. Then he took to the chief's lodge the most beautiful flower he had found. He asked to see the chief.

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"I have looked all day for this flower for your daughter," said 狼Coyote to the chief. "If this does not touch her heart, what will? What gift can I bring that will win her heart?"

The chief was the wisest of all the chiefs of a great tribe. He answered, "Why don't you ask my daughter? Ask her, today, what gift will make her heart the happiest of all hearts."

As the two finished talking, they saw the girl come out of the forest. Again 狼Coyote was pleased and excited by her beauty and her youth. 狼Coyote stepped up to her and asked, "Oh, beautiful one, what does your heart want most of all? I will get for you anything that you name. This flower that I found for you in a hidden spot in the woods is my pledge."

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Surprised, or seeming to be surprised, the girl looked at 狼Coyote ,the young hunter and at the rare white flower he was offering her.

"I want a pool," she answered shyly. "A pool where I may bathe every day hidden from all eyes that might see."

Then, without accepting the flower that 狼Coyote had searched for so many hours, she ran away. As before, she hurried to play with her young friends.

狼Coyote turned to her father. "It is well. In seven suns I will come for you and your daughter. I will take you to the pool she asked for. The pool will be for her alone."

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For seven suns 狼Coyote worked to build the pool that would win the heart of the girl he wished to marry. First 狼Coyote cut a great gash in the hills on the south side of Great River. Then 狼Coyote lined that gash with trees and shrubs and ferns to the very top of a high wall that looked toward the river.

Then 狼Coyote went to the bottom of the rock wall and slanted it back a long way, far enough to hollow out a wide pool. He climbed up the wall again and went far back into the hills. There 狼Coyote made a stream come out of the earth, and he sent it down the big gash he had made, to fall over the slanting rock wall. From the edge of that wall the water dropped with spray and mist. And so the water made, at the bottom, a big screen that hid the pool from all eyes.

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When 狼Coyote had finished his work, 狼Coyote went to the village to invite the chief and his daughter to see what he had made. When they had admired the new waterfall, 狼Coyote showed them the pool that lay behind it and the spray. He watched the eyes of the girl.

She looked with smiling eyes, first at the pool and the waterfall in front of it, and then at the young hunter who had made them for her. 狼Coyote could see that she was pleased. 狼Coyote could see that at last he had won her heart. She told her father that she was willing to become the wife of 狼Coyote, the young hunter.

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In that long ago time before this time, two old grandmothers sat all day on top of the highest mountains. One sat on the top of the highest mountain north of Great River. The other sat on the highest mountain south of it. When the one on the north side talked, she could be heard eastward as far as the Big Shining Mountains, westward as far as the big water where the sun hides every night, and northward to the top of the world.

The grandmother on the south side of the river also could be heard as far west as the big water and as far south as anyone lived. The two old women saw everything that was done, and every day they told all the people on both sides of the river.

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Now they saw the chief's daughter go every morning to bathe in the pool, and they saw 狼Coyote wait for her outside the screen of waterfall and spray. The old grandmothers heard the two sing to each other and laugh together. The grandmothers laughed at the pair, raised their voices, and told all the people what they saw and heard.


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Soon the chief's daughter knew that all the people were laughing at her--all the people from the big water to the Big Shining Mountains, all the people from the top of the world to as far south as anyone lived.

She was no longer happy. She no longer sang with joy. One day she asked 狼Coyote to allow her to go alone to the pool. The old grandmothers watched her go behind the waterfall. Then they saw her walk from the pool and go down into Great River. Her people never saw her again.

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狼Coyote, in a swift canoe, went down Great River in search of her. 狼Coyote saw her floating and swimming ahead of him, and 狼Coyote paddled as fast as he could. 狼Coyote reached her just before she was carried out into the big water where the sun hides at night.

There the two of them, 狼Coyote and the girl, were turned into little ducks, little summer ducks, floating on the water.

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That was a long, long time ago. But even today, when the sun takes its last look at the high cliff south of Great River, two summer ducks swim out to look back at the series of waterfalls that dash down the high mountain. They look longest at the lowest cascade and the spray that hides the tree-fringed pool behind them.

If those who want to understand will be silent and listen, they will hear the little song that the chief's daughter and 狼Coyote used to sing to each other every morning after she had bathed in the pool. The song begins very soft and low, lifts sharply to a high note, and then fades gently away.

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