Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1877-07-25

one thousand two hundred to two thou
sand five hundred feet (and perhaps more
in height, for no one has measured the |
lower part of the canon), walls, wonderful
for their stupendous height and the fan
tastic and picturesque forms into which
the cliffs have weathered, but far more
wonderful for the gorgeous magnifcence,
the unequalled brilliancy of their coloring;
and brown, and orange, and pink, and
green, and black and gray, and white,
fascinatcs and bewilders every beholder,
seeming to reproduce before his admirirg
gaze all the vanished splendors of every
gorgeous sunset, whose charms, no longer
evanescent, are here not painted on, but
dyed through and through these mighty
cliffs, and made us eternal as the eVerlast-
ing mountains that they buttress. The
falls without the canon would be sublime
but the canon without the falls would be
magnificent beyond comparison, and would
present scene of transcendent loneliness
at which a Raphael or an Angelo would
throw down the brush in despair, and the
falls and canon combined arc, beyond
doubt, the most wonderfully lovely piece
of cataract and canon scenery in the
known world.
Fifth-The Mammoth Hot Springs on
Gardner River, whose steaming waters
Qhough seemingly clear as cEystaD carry
in solution great quantities of calclte
which deposits in forms of most exquisite
deicacy and beauty, building up on the
steep sides of the mountain terrace above
terrace of curved pools of glistening stone,
mostly white, but often colored yellow,
and green, and orange, and pink, and
brown, looking like so many marble bath
tubs set with Jewels and adorned with
rarest mosaics, which, us the water flows
over their edges and the sun crowns their
vapory veil with the glory of the rainbow,
present bcauleOus spectacle, unrVaIled
by anything of like character in the world,
unless it be by the less extensive Ielarata
group in New Zealand.
Besides these great wonders there are
countless lesser ones; dozens of cascades
and cataracts, which, if they were in Eu-
rope instead of America, would be account
ed among the wonders Of the world and
deemed worthy of pages of elaborate
prose and cantos Of polished verse. scores
of gorges and canons, gloomily grand Oh
charmingly picturesque, sombre forests
and pleasant meadows, shady dells and
sunny glades, numerous lakes, hidden in
the woods and among the mountains, anc
known only to the wild fowl which sport
upon their surfaces, and to the hunters
and trappers who, alone, have explored
the country off the regular trails, hun
drcds of mountains whose bases are above
the level of the loftest peaks OF the ALE
ghanies, and from whose craggy sides and
cloud-capped tops may be viewed magniti
cent panoramas of Rocky Mountain scene
ry which few have ever yet beheld, ant
countless other charms which, with the dc
licious, health-giving air, the abundance
Of game and fish, and the freedom IRON
all the impostions of private ownership
will make this favorite resort of the loV
ers of the sublime and beautiful when it
attractions are more generally known ant
the means of access to it improved.
1t is, at present, and for some years It
come will continue to be, inaccessible
save to those who can afford to spend SOM
= hundreds of dollars, and who are willin!
to endure the triling discomforts of camp
ing out, and the fatiguas of three hundre'
miles of horseback riding, and twice n
much staging; but to those who cam ther
., is no other way of spending the SIX week
from the middle of August to the first q
: October with so much delight to the eyes
u profit to the mind and benefit to tn
health, us II trip through this wonder-l Ian
5 Of the world. Nor are the hardshlps g
the trip very formidable My wife an
= my daughter, not yet ten years ola, at
J companied me on both trips, and som
II dozens Of ladies make the trip each yea
= from the settlements of Montana, and
VI few have made it from the states east
Il the Mississippi.
t The best route is by the Union Pacii
! railroad Tor the Cehtral Iaclnc II lIo'
ii the Pacific slope) to Corinne or Ogdel