Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1878-09-11

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more broken. Does It grow monot.
onous No. Its very sameness
yields . charm. Those towering
forest kings hold high and proud
their Lumber heads. Yes, up, up till
the eye grows uncertain, and the
head dizzy. The air is heavy with
their resinous breath. The western
zepbyrs caress their wavy locks, but
SO tangled are they that the old pine
kings dispute who has been blessed
with the holy thrill. Everlasting
tiaoer! Lonely woodsl Separate
world! Long, straight shafts Of
evergreens, one hundred feet above
the lap of mother earth without e
living limb. What an offspring |!
Just think Of it. Impenetrably COM
pact, beneath whose waving mantle
everlasting shades abide. Here dark
mes almost conquers light. Here
the morning rays appear the latest,
and yield to evening shades the
soonest. The steed rushes en-. We
pass two lone graves. Alone in che
wild, weird wilderness. Two endless
dreaming sleepers, undisturbed in
the vast unbroken silence save by
the rash of the passing train OF the
crashing fall Of some aged pine in
the awful stiffness of the long night
Who are tbey9 Where are they
now !? What is the condition Of their
thought 4? We glide on In oar rev.
erie. But what is this (! The thick
old woods have been swept low. All,
it is hurricane The massive logs
lay tangled and matted the shallow
rooted monsters hold in their fibrous
clutch wall of earth ten feet high.
But no human eye saw its whiriing
motion. We only know its results.
The old horse rushes on past square
rods of lumber, massive stacks OF
shingles, huge piles of cut logs-the
qaick work of ready hands-great
saw mills whose busy whirl is fast
cutting away the INDUSTRIOUS grove.
Oh, look quick Two black bears
make wilder yet the woody world.
Old bruin lives here. This is her lair.
The last fifty miles is broken seen
cry. We see great beds Of boulders,
tons weight, brought here probably
during the glacier period, several
years ago. Around these powders
the trees clutch their long, twining
roots, apparently in vain for no soil
appears. But now the rocks are
getting red. What means this I Why
this is Penokee Iron Range. Its many
iron solutions battle in varied colors
the surrounding rock and earth. We
pass streams called rivers, even Bad
river, on whose black, sluggish wa
ters we look down seventeen times,
from as many different bridges in
eight miles, as it flies over its rock
hewn beds.
Fire Fire The hungry flames
have stolen the soft green covering
from the once waving pines as far
the eye can strike. Thousands of
acres of blackened forms, standing
bare and bleak, with gaunt and shriv-
eled arms, ghost-like spectacle, in
the last agonies of struggling death.
We are startled by the stopping
train. All rush to the platform.
Oh, mighty bridge! The largest Of
its kind in the world, save one. Six
teen hundred feet long. Down
deep into the gorge below the stone
| throw cuts through one hundred
and ten feet of blue ether till it
splashes into the stream below. whose
misnomer is White river. Its gnf
made dark by the shadow of the
pines, their everlasting green halt
hiding the turbed waters, red with
pine and iron, dashed into yellow
foam as its gurgling waters splash
around the porphyry ou'ders of its
rocky bed. Does the great bridge
give! No; nota gipe. TIE nails of
its iron sides are ilchcd on either
side in rock, and over them are laid
the steel rails. On going over the
bridge a feeling overtales you SINH
lar to that on getting into a swing.
But the bridge don't give. 1t is
built of so'id iron in solid rock. The
The whistle sounds and we flash on.
We have passed pine, pine, incipient
lumber, Tamarock, oak, cherry, ma
pie and cedar. Yes, the white, aro-
matte cedar, whence comes the best
lead pencils. Here grow cedar buck
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