[The Dalles, Extremes of High & Low Water, 92 ft.] / [Head of the Dalles, Columbia River, Oregon]

Carleton Watkins skillfully composed this picture around a line that begins near the middle of the rocks and continues along the water's surface to the right edge of the photograph. Varying tones left by shifting water levels create an echoing sequence of horizontal planes on the rock formation to the left. In the foreground, a gentleman and his rowboat provide a sense of scale.

Watkins may have made this photograph for the Oregon Steam Navigation Company as a means of documenting the Columbia River's fluctuating water levels.