Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1888-04-21
CRAGS AND PEAKS.
eautie That Adorn mel Line 81
= Montana Central Railroad i'm liz
Run TO Great Falls.

scenic Beauties That Adorn the Lima !.
the Montana Central Railroad in Il
Run TO Great Falls.
DIR. A. II. Hersey, who ia one If tba has,
posted OF men on the lay of the land AND
one OF the best descriptive writers in thu
West, has contributed to the Sunday
RECORD, OF Helena, a graphic picture of a
trip over the Montana Central to Great
Falls. The letter, which is dated from the
Falls, gives an account OF the start from
Helena, and says:
The sleeping valley, with it's winding
Wlilow-frlnged streams, It's yellow fields and
and Nesting cottage homes, as it
hes bathed in the radiant sunlight OF a per-
Iect April day, makes a lovely and peaceful
picture in it's frame Of snow-tipped azure
mountains, but this soon gives way to a
Woe expanse OF broken hills, through which
the road follows a sinuous course to the en-
trance to h upper Tricky Pear canyon
The title oil 1.-The Scenic Route" could
certainly be most justly assumed by the
Montana Central railroad. Nowhere
among the mountain lands of the earth
Is there so magnificent a blending of the
weird, the grand and the picturesque, as is
presented in the mighty panorama OF
changing landscape through which it has
wrought it's iron path. and the most vivid
descriptive partrayal can shadow forth /
but dimly, the majesty and beauty which |
entrance the traveller, RON the beginning to |
the end OF his journey over the mountain !
climbing, chasm-leaping railroad line.
Its rugged entrance from the wide valley |
and fertile plateau of the Missouri, through |
the mighty gorge at thehead of which stand
the cloud-swept portals of the Gate OF the
and the deep cleftcanyon of the
Prickly Pear, is the most fitting one to the
Territory, whose purple domes and sunny
peaks are among the grandest of the world,
and should the tourist extend his wayfar-
Ings no farther, he has witnessed a series of
mountain views, such as none other OF the
deepest recesses OF the Continent can
In l742 two sons OF the Chevalier Ven
irye passed down the Missouri from the
Three Forks to the Falls, the first Of our
ace to behold the wonders OF its exit from
he land OF perpetual snow, and sixty
,hree years later, on the 18th of July, the
title f1otilla Of Lewis and Clark accom-
'lished the marvellous passage on their
memorable voyage to the Pacific. I,
Here might the gods have labored on the :
alismanic chiseling OF the rocks. In their !
a~ntastic fashioning, the shadowy wraiths !
i every architectural device in which man :
las sought to voice his story through the !
ges, can be dimly traced, and domes, pyr- :
,mids, pillars and monoliths pierce the sky, )
aonuments of spectral ruins. Beneath !
.culptured cliff and obelisk, a ghostly face
ppears, or in colossal dimensions suddenly
tands forth the dim outlines Of a mailed
-arrior, and one is reminded of the ac- Z
cunts given by travellers OF the STORED :
,yrian n Babylonish carvings OF Phenicia q
nd the E~uphrates, which are as crude and fl
;arcely less mysterious thar these weird q
OF the elements. 9.
Out from between The giant obelisks :.
hich mark the extreme outposts of the II
ountain battlements, the Missouri be- q
'mes the tamest OF streams for many q
lies, until itsiorcss again begin to gather y
I the mighty plunge OF the Black Eagle :,
I'd Rainbow falls. Here may be seen all .
e majesty and the poetry OF waters. .
Not Niagara OF Yellowstone with all :.
cir immensely and power, nor Minne- q
Iha or the Bridal Veil, with their serenity =,
I'd romantic beauty, can offer more won y,
attractions than here keep the ~ =.
holder spell-bound with the voice Of .
n the fairy tints of curling
dies and floating mists.
at hand is the Giant Spring, a won-
GUS caldron of bubbling waters of fathom-
Is depth, fairly described by Lewis and A
arke, unchanged to-day in the ceaseless
W of it's crystal stream, it's source as mys-
o u as that OF the geysers of Wonder
I'd. Ia
The tourist who crosses the Continent CO
d looks not upon the scenery of the Mon TO
IA Central. has failed to see some of the !,
hest glandeurs and beauties OF the -
stern hemisphere. On