Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1873-10-04

mindful even of her humblest creatures,
| for the frost sets in very early here, and
but for this protection, the rattiesnake' s
summer holidays would be very brief in
deed.
"Always rising with the sun, we kept
| journeying onward into the recesses OF
| this astonishing region, ever finding
new difficulties and new surprises as we
| went. We had been painfully toiling
round the base of an inaccessible noun
| tain one day, when, on rounding bar
ricade of rocks, we came suddenly upon
| little plain, which at first we took for
| beaver meadow, as beavers are numer-
| ous in this wilderness. AS we ap-
| preached nearer to it, however, we
| were satisfied that it was a community
| of prairie-dogs, or some such burrow-
| ing animals, for the little plain was dot
ted all over with small mounds like
those of a prairie-dog village. A still
closer inspection showed that these
| mounds were formed of hard baked
earth, and that each of them had an ap-
eture in the centre of it. Pondering
over these curious formations, l had
gone little way forward in company
with the two Crees. leaving La Tour
seated upon one of the mounds, lighting
| his pipe. Suddenly loud whizzing
noise. mingled with a sharp cry of DIS
tress. caused us to turn quickly round.
What sight met our view! immense
| spouts of steaming water were jetting
up from the mounds to the height OF
thirty or forty feet, spreading out at the
| top like the acanthus capitals of Ionic
| columns. On the top of one of these
water-jets La Tour was seen spinning g
| and tossing about, exactly like one OF
those hollow brass balls often to be seen
supported in air by the jets of the foun-
| tains i'm German beer-gardens. The
geyser had carried him up with it, and,
as it would fall as quickly as it rose, no
| time was to be lost in doing something
to save the poor fellows life. Quickly
unfolding a blanket, made the two In
| dians each grasp a corner of it, while
| held it with both hands at the other end.
| Then we stood by the column of water,
which Immediately began to descend,
and with it down came the luckless Ca
madam, who must inevitably have had
all his bones broken had not his fall been
eased by the outstretched blanket. Al
though not scalded, as the water of the
| geysers was not quite at the boiling
| point, he was utterly senseless from the
| giddy motion and the action of the steam
and it was nearly an hour before he re-
covered consciousness. These geysers
were peculiar from the smallness of the
apertures through which the water was
discharged, as well as from the strong
birthstone odor exhaled by them, with
| the fumes of which La Tour was COM
pletely saturated, impelling him to offer
up many vows to his patron saint in
gratitude for his having escaped from
being hurried down to the eternal place,
from which he maintained that the water
must have come.
| "We were out of provisions now, as
animal life is scarce in geyser districts
and we had not fallen in with any crea.
lures for three days. Proceeding in q
| southeasterly direction by compass, we
| arrived at a ravine, on the sides of which
some thick bushes grew. We walked in
Indian file, and the Cree who was lead.
| ing suddenly made a gesture to halt,
pointing to a ledge in the ravine, on
which we saw large cinnamon bear
| enjoying his morning meal on some
thing which we could not clearly make
out. A bullet from my rifle sent the
bear to the bottom of the chasm. Then
we descended to the ledge, where we
on which the bear had just commenced
feeding. Here was providential sup
ply of meat; gladly ayailing ourselves
of which we kindled fire with splin.
| ters of a lightning-struck hemlOck tree
| that lay hard by, and made a hearty
meal. For the carcass of the bear we
did not search, because the ravine, like
nearly everything else here, appeared te
extend away to all eternity.
| "Four days after this incident we
found ourselves travelling through d
deep canyon. which, about mile wide
where we entered it, kept growing mar
1 coll II.
mysterious course. On the second day
from entering this immense ravine, We
found it contracting to narrow gorge
blocked about mile ahead of us by d
wall of blue rock that went sheer uI
800 feet. On arriving at this wall, we
saw a thick tangle of bushes and briars
| growing at the loot of it,; and here, be
ing fatigued and hungry, we lit a fire,
and made preparations for cooking some
of the meat OF a mountain goat shot by
the Canadian in the morning. While
engaged at our repast, cracking sound
caused us to look towards the rock. The
cracking proceeded from the bushes,
| which had caught fire from brand
carelessly thrown among them by one
of the men. Up the face OF the rOcL
tall flames were leaping, Frightening
birds and small animals out of its crev.
ices, and sending column of smoke
high into the air. About sixty feet uI
the face of the wall were numbers Of
small apertures like pigeOn-hOles, and
/ from these. as the smoke entered them,
myriads of bats came Tapping out with
pitiful squeaks.
Gin about an hour the bushes were all
burned, and the fire subsidized, leaving
nothing but a debris of black ashes.-
Then, ut the foot of the wall, we dis
cerned small opening, sort of natural
tunnel about large enough to admit the
passage of a man creeping on all fours
| There was no use in attempting the pas
sage now, however, as the rock was
nearly red hot from the action of the
fire.
''And so we arranged to wait where
we were until evening, and meanwhile
[ set the Indians to work at making 8
number of torches from the bark of the
birch-trees that grew sparsely here and
there on the banks of the ravine.
SIT was near nightfall when we wen,
to enter the tunnel, the biggest Indian
going first, to test the capacity of the
passage. After a short interval the
word was passed by him that all was
right, and we followed him at once
The passage extended to distance o.
about forty feet, growing wider ant
higher as we advanced, until at last We
could stand upright, and found our
selves in total darkness. Then with my
flint and steel struck light, and in
moment we had the torches all ablaZe.
''Then sight never to be forgotten
flashed upon us. We were i'm q cavern
about eighty feet long by sixty wide
with high vaulted roof, the altitude o
which we could not estimate i'm the flick
ering light. Stalactites OF dazzling
whiteness and most grotesque forms
projected from the roof and walls, pre-
senting, in the strong light and shade
. exaggerated resemblances to things ia
miliar and things rare. My first i'm
preston was that stood i'm the hall o
! an old baronial mansion, whose acces-
sories had all been turned to marbl,
| by the touch of a magician's wand.-
Yonder huge pair of elk horns-o
what seemed like elk horns-protrude,
, from the wall, white and sparkling In
the light of the torches. Stalagmites oI
| the floor took the form Of knights in ar
NOR, ranged as they are seen in the hall
of ancient European castles. Some O
the knights appeared mounted OH horse
back, while Others lay supine OH wha
seemed to be white marble tombs. /
, near approach to these objects dispelle,