The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1866-07-20


tho foot of which apparently unfathonable
abyss Snake River seems but like n narrow
silver ribbon. Down stream, about q half
mile distant a long monument Of mist walls
earth TO heaven hence, thinks no, there at
least, must be the satcty.valve OF foamiug
he'll and liquid thunder. After proceeding
along the edge Of the clil, down II graded
slope that permits us to see tho waters
edge just above the Falls, we leave them
aud descend stll farther, to obtain view
of the great waterfall. The silence here is
wonderful. 4 dull thump and a smothcred
roar alone are heard at intervals, but they
seom to be miles away, aud less loud than
they sounded fifteen miles before. Ascend.
ing to the top of cliff covered by groves
of jumpers, we turn around and see the
queen of cataracls fast marching on with
awful pomp, primcval peace and purity
prismatio. Soon the eye conceives tho
scenes great awe, the canyons enormous
depth, the rivers width and the tremendous
Tumble it takes into q canyon deeper still
DaZzed and wondor-struck, the observer
is obliged to turn away for few moments
only to gaze again with increased admira.
ton at tho sublime sight. Presently the
mind expands TO its immensity, and the eye
is educated to its exaltatiou. Surely there
with all its maiesty--who spread this
parched plain and bid this wuter-power
leap to lave them! Tho majesty and
NORGE of Nature stauds hero revealed, and
the mind made worshipful with an intensity
based on the strongest stratum of the soul
-devotion-is reminded of its immortality
and bows before the great unseen who
engineered all this with awful uniformity.
forcing tho most useful element of nature
from its cradle in tho mountan=-the play
ground of the Oregon aud Missouri-to thus
wheel south and form this Snake River, as
an epic of creation through these plains OF
prose mtuitivcly the merest inidel is
here obliged
"To look from nature up to natures Godl"
1t is from tho above spot that the best
view of the whole of these falls is obtained
Tho river, about two hundred yards in
width, coming slowly from the southeast
Overtowered by perpendicular walls OF
basaltic rock, over eight hundred feet
high, suddenly expands into basin OF twice
its width, and there is divided into a hall
dozen streams, 10y dark looking rocks that
| raise their gloomy crests above the spark.
/ ling surf of the maddeued waters. Every
stream rushos over fall of thirty feet and
|
fanciful aud tluctuating, yet physically fixed,
as they have ever been while centuries like
shadows have flown over them. Th
river resuming its course is again divided
and takes a second tumble of sixty feet still
further, but this time by Unly three differ.
ent streams. Three falls are the result
one on each side, unbroken aud falling in
solid sheets the central one being form Q
by seven fan-shape steppes of rock. From
the one of these benches to the other under
meath, the water falls in smooth, trans.
! parent sheet, forming a cascade unsurpassed
in the world, and contrasting strangely, by
its dark transparent color, with the rustling
rearing, foaming streams surrounding it
| both above and at the sides. The river
becomes once more smooth and dark in
color. Its banks suddenly jut out from
both sides, narrowing the channel to four
hundred feet and through this gap the
confined mass of water precipitAtes itself
in one whole volume, without break or
hndranoc, into an ominOus abyss almost
three hundred feet in depth. No pen can
describe this scene. This is in reality the
Great Fall" and ia well worthy it's name,
Ieaping as it does from the loom of nature
like colossal sheet of silver.
Forming slight horseshoe, it's central
waters appear blue until they meet the
spray that rises even heavenward from the
foot of the foaming cataract. The sides are
frayed into foam, and remind one of the
pictured avalanches in tho Alps. Right Oh
the edge of the fall stands lone pillar Of
gray sandstone on whose summit. unds-
turbed by the whz OF waters or the fear Of
fate fast yawning on their eyrie, a pair of
baldheaded eagles have built their nest
and are now rearing their young, secure in
sight of the sublinity and solitude surround.
irg. Tho cataract's sound--but slightly
heard above--is absolutely deaieniug as
you reach tho rivers base, the roar of the
falls confined, as it is, by the high walls of
the canyon, rushing down the chasm and
increasing in volume as it rolls, SO as to be
heard full thirty miles southwest Close to
the cataract is square.shaped cave Of
fifteen feet each side and twenty high,
whose walls are supported by basalter col
umns, the regularity of whose formation is
unsurpassed by anything in the lslG OF
Staffa or the Giants Caseway. Sliding out
of this cave and falling about eight feet
into grassy slope that leads to the waters
edge, within two hundred feet of the foot
of the falls, you are right in the middle Of
the mist, and wet through in an instant. 1t
is here that. by looking up. the enormous
altitude of the fall can be realized, and the
fret feeling is one of self-preservation, and
involuntary drawing back, for the whole
mass seems ready to drop aud crush you
where you stand. Never can the weird
beauty of this scene be forgotten by be-
holders. Rainbows of a thousand hues
seem 10 surround you, and their riscs to
arch you in the skies.
The white fOaming waters form a bril-
liant background to the magic prisms pic
tured by the spray. The dark, frownng
rocks, relieved by the bright green jumpers,
make fitting frame for this magnificent
sight second to none in point of volume as
it is second to none in savage grandeur.
As measured by officers of the LIST Oregon
infantry, encamped adjoining, the main fall
is 2l0 feet from the edge to the level Of the
water below. The upper falls have rot
yet been measured but the total fall of the
river, on the three distinct tumbles i takes
camnot be less than three hundred feet,
while the river itself is over four hundred
feet at it's narrowest width. The channel
of the stream below the falls is a chasm
|, 800 feet in width and / 600 in depth, with
perpendicuar walls Of rock inclosirg it.
Writers who have visited Niagara state
that it cannot compare with these of the
Snake River, Idaho. A volume might bo
written on this wonder of the West, and
withal not half exhaust lis interest The
outsttetched earth O'erlOoked by tho ever
I,s fin, n,ouutains miVhLv nVrumids of stona