The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1881-05-04

to be shut 40 here for a day or two in the
midst of all these visionary dainties, whose
stony surface would defy his teeth while their
delusive richness attracted bis eyes, The
next instant the scene changes again, and we
are standing amid the tuted columns Of an
ancient temple, whose massive roof bends
over US in a perfect grove Of splendid natural
carving, such as no sculptor On earth could
initiate. Over q recess in the far end of it
hangs q spotless white curtain with a deep
crimson border, forty-dVe feet in length. So
transparent is it that the light Of the candle
can be plainly seen through the thickest part,
and it requires the evidence Of actual touch
to assure me that this marvellous tapestry is
really stone like the rest. From behind it,
as if the last of the Muses. still fingered here
unseen, comes q soft strain OF music, faint
and sweet as an Kolian harp; but it is only
the echo Of our tread, reverbrated from the
hollow within.
And now, from the depths Of this tremen-
dous solitude, we burst all at once into what
dDpkaIS dU l1St SiSA @ oSSAS IA DISj SAI
populous life. In a wide amphitheatre of
irregular shape cluster together several scores
Of human figures, in such deceptively atti-
tudes Of life and motion that at the first
| glimpse it is absolutely impossible to realize
that they are nothing more than statues.
Turbaned Arabs, hooded monks, helmeted
| men-at-arms, yelled ladies with long trailing
dresses. dark-robed councillors, and! richly
attired lackeys crowd the massive throne
that projects from the rock above them, upon
which it needs little stretch of fancy to i'm
agine some giant monarch OF the elder world
ID all his terrors. But right in the midst CT
the obsequious throng rises from the earth q
colossal hand Qarger by far than any of the
surrounding fgures), with the foreinger
pointing solemnly upward, as if to remind
these fawning c%ourtiers Of Him before whom
the mightiest kings of earth are as nothing.
But the most startling tableau Of all is yet
to come. One stride through the magnificent
gateway that opens before us, and we pass al
once into the sternest solitudes Of the Polar
Sea. Huge ice columns shoot up to a meas.
ureless height on every si2e, losing them.
selves at length in the spectral gloom
overhead. Ice grottoes, pillared, vaulted
fretted, %sculptured into every fantastic extra
vagance Of architecture, rise around us in al
their chill and ~lifeless beauty, filed with the
damp and sunless GOODNESS of the grave
Vast caverns, curtained with many pendant
of solid ice, yawn, tomb-like, on every side
Ice temples, glittering in all the splendor 0
an adornment which the utmost efforts 0
human skill can but feebly initiate, blaze be
fore US as the light catches them, in one rain
bow of eneralds, eapphires, rubies, diamonds
like the enchanted palaces Of Arabian legend
Slender streams, freezing as they fall, han
wells of silver gauze over the mysteries O
this sanctuary of eternal silence. And tha
nothing may be wanting to complete thi
wonderful panorama, we suddenly espy be
meath the central arch q shadoWy mass il
which the CLEAN Of our guides candle reveal
the next moment the huge unwieldy body
short, massive limbs, sharp, narrow muZzle
and small, cunning, cruel eyes Of the pola
bear. Nor does this lifeless palace lack il
habitants Of its own kind. All along eithe
side Of the black tunnel-like cavern int
which the river disappears, and which, as th
guide tells me in a ghostly whisper, no on
has"ever yet dared to penetrate, start sudden
y out of the gloom a long line of unearthl
figures, tall, white, spectral, sWathed i
shrouds of ice, yet still retaining just suthcj
ent likeness to the human form to make Their
doubly CHASTITY. There they stand, dea
s%entinels at the gate of death, defendin
against mans presumption what the eye Q
man must never see, Such q spectacle is
fitting climax to this long march through til
shadows, and it is not without q secret feelin
Of relief that we at length turn away from il
and begin to retrace our steps towards tn
upper air.