The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-10-02
In tho Inland Sea Of Japan.

of scenery far SURPRISING Lake George;
still water often almost entirely land
locked, mountains rising from the
waters edge, green and tree-covered;
islands cultivated in terraces; fishing
villages nesting on the green shore or
back among the trees, everywhere but
on the most barren mountains, whose
ribs defy flesh, most tropical green
ness, mountains far away, hidden by
morning cloud, velled with the forenoon
mist, blue in the moons distance, and
fading in the twilight; tropical sunsets
toned with delicaey of color and tint
that will ever defy the greatest artist to
copy sky, mountain, water, all chang
ing as on you sail; old volcanoes of any
height from two to six thousand feet;
hillsides fecked with sunlight straying
through the cling!ng clouds junks, with
their great, huge, unwieldly-looking
sterns, and great mat-sails hanging idly
on their single masts; natives putting
their olive faces out of pink windows, or
thronging on the decks to see the nine
years wonder, steamship ploughing
through their, beautiful lakes; clouds,
without which mountain scenery is only
half finished climate delightful; tenn
Piles and palaces; forts battered down,
and forts defiant; messy lawns between
the mountains foot and the sea; bays
crowded with junks at anchor; but
mountalns-always mountains. of every
shape and color; hills like the chalk
hills of Old England, hills like the
sandstone of the Connecticut, hills like
the rounded coast hills OF Massachu-
setts; and hills ribbed and gabled like
the Sierras-all are in profusion. Take
your choice of beauty shouldered up
from the ocean depths into the sun
light. Fancy Lake George and Cham
plain scenery for two hundred and fifty
miles, and you have the nearest simile,
| though inadequate to express it. My
English friend, in admiration, exclaims,
as we round point, and find a narrow
exit from an apparently land locked
bay, "Where's your Lake George now?"
The water turns green. the shores mar
row down the entrance to few cable
lengths. Yonder, ahead, is a reef of
rocks, leaving only two cables for our
passage, and through this we must pass.
The tide is rushing us along toward
the danger. We have come seven miles
in twenty five minutes, railroad speed.
| Our safety is in our speed, and all the
pressure bottled up in the boiler for
an hour back is given to the engine now.
The reef that was SO far ahead three
minutes ago is on our beam. Seething
waters rush over the sunken rocks
abreast. We dart through the narrow
passage left us, and are at the beginning
of the worst whirlpool on the coast, if
not in the world. Everybody has been
screwing up his courage for it, but it is
no wonder our faces blanch little when
| we are once in, without return; we must
go through this whirling tide, capped
with white foam from the maddening
rocks below The captain gives the
orders from the bridge, in q steady but
excited voice, and you feel that prompt
ness and the steering qualities of the
ship are her only salvation: Little cares
s he for the native pilot in this wfirl
forty times worse than He'll Gate and
far worse than the rapids of the
St. Lawrence. Now the ship strikes
the outer rush of the whirlpool
"Port! Hard a-port!" and the ech
oes as it is passed forward, thunder
"Port! Hard a-port!" The three
men tug at the wheel, and the
rudder, almost immovab.e against the
force Of water aft, slowly obeys. Little
hope for the ship now were the steering
apparatus to be at fault for second
She careens heavily to starboard, the
wheels make their ten revolutions, do
ing all they KNOW" and slowly the ship
getting wholly into the wbirl, where
stern and bow drift equally to port, an
swers her rudder, and her nose Is agar
for the center of the pool. And nov
, she enters the comparatively still wate
of the centre. Hard a-starboard J!
The nervous voices echo, ~Starboard
board, sir!" and we are through on
circumference "Steady, as she goes !!
, "As she goes, sir!" and we paddle, pad
/ die, paddlel You had not noticed tn
|, wheels were moving moment ago
The buoyant native boats yonde
turn out their crews, they hold Vi
their arms and utter yell of alarm
They never saw ship take thi
!, passage before. They will tell
, to their children and grandchildren
$ as they troll herring with pin
/ knots, and spear them over the side
3 '.Now be very careful )" and the mat
i answered "Ay, ay. sir!" and we are i
J, the outer whirl again. "Hard a-star
: board!' and the ech pes answer, and tn
4 noble ship-vou feel like patting he
4 and saying. Good fellow good fellow
$ answers; and, fairly in the current
k we are carried like child. The shi
: is as quiet as closed church. To on
e nervousness the paddle wheels seer
4 dull and slow. And now for the las
Y and worst Wemeet the counter, out
t side current. The stern is in z rapi
n whirl to the right, and our bow catcht
e the counter-ring outside, and swings I
i rapidly to the left, just where the rocl
V stare us in the face. The orders ha,
a gone laundering forward correctl
k enough, and Hard a-port she is sir 7
It returned. Yet she does not answe
o Her rudder was made for prompt So
: work, but not to fight tive rivers, OF
n at her port quarter and the oth'
e baitering at her rstarboard bow, then ha
II turning her on her centre. Now v
,f are right for the rocks, and the ma
d jumps forward to let the anchor g.
$. But no; we drag wholly into the coul
n ter-current; and though we drag t.
d ward The rOcA, GHe snip I'll cafeeAeu
N starboard as she is, yet begins to al
L. swer. and we hope again. Did you n
: tice how white every one was? B
IL now. Never mind the anchor, NJ
,s -" says the captain, in husl
a. voice. Our paddles drive us into t
a tide beyond, and we are through Il
at whirl and out of danger. Steady
!" she goes!' and the captain comes do,
from the paddle box, and, lion as he
SAYS. in a voice not altogether clear,
x did Shy, gentlemen, I'd never try
is again the last time [ went through, ca