The new North-west., 1888-04-20
NATURES PICTURE.


NATURES PICTURE.
The Scenic Beauties that are Presented to
the Eye of the Traveller on the Mon
tana Central Railway.
Cor. Sunday Record.
Great FALLS. Mont, April 5, 1888.-Out
from annonz the unpicturesque heaps OF
'4tailings," which in the suburbs of Helena
still distinctly commemorate the era OF early |
placer mining, the Ne. 2 east-bound express i
Of the MsHtana Central sweeps down the !
gentle slope of the frowning mountain whose |
brown summit overshadows the city
The sleeping valley, with its winding,
willow-frineed streams, its yellow fields and
meadows and nestllng cottage homes, as it
lies bathed in tie radiant sunlight of per- |
feet April day, makes lovely and peaceful
picture in its frame of snow-tlpped azure
mountains, but this soon gives way to wide
expanse Of broken hills, shrough which the
road follows a sinnous course to the entrance
of the upper Prickly Pear cangon.
The title Of 1.-The Scenic Route could GER
tainly he most justly assumed by the Mon
tana Central railroad. Nowhere asaeng the
mountain lands of the earth is there SO nag
nificent blending of the weird, the grant
and the picturesque az is presented in the
mighty panorama of changing landscape
through which it has wrought its iron path,
and the most vivid descriptive portrayals
can shadow forth but dimly the majesty and
teauty which entrance the traveller from the
beginning to the end of his journey over this
mountain climbing. eAasm-leaping railroad
line.
It's rugged entrance from the wide valley
lands and fertile piateaux Of the Missouri,
through the mighty gorge at the head OF
which stand the cloud-swert portals OF the
Gate of the Mountains, and the deep-cleft
canyon of the Prickly Pear, is the most
fitting one to the Territory, whose purple
,6omes and sunny peaks are among the grand
.eat in the world, and should the tourist ex-
tend his wayfarings no farther he has wit
messed series of mountain views such as
none other of the deepest fecesses of the con-
| tinent can reveal.
The Prickly Pear Canyon is deep, some-
times preeipitous gorge through which the
little stream whence it derives its name
threads its way, a laughing, limpid. neun-
! tain brook, flowing over beds Of golden SANDS
and many tinted pebbles. Along its course
the road follows over grassy slopes and
across rocky clefts, in which the tiny flood is
lashed into torrents of Lilliputlan fury. Dim
heights between whose jutting crags only a
thin thread of blue sky glimmers like rib
bon Of light shadowing gloomy recesses
where dripping moss and fern.clad delis are
rarely gladdened by a ray of sunshine; rugged
slopes, rising terrace piled on terrace to the
lofty attitudes of the upper mountain re-
gions, and stupeedous ridges covered with
forests of waving Sines and feathery spruces,
open successively te the view from the flying
train.
Here Nature fingered in half sportive
mood, giving now and thea . fantastic touch
to the shadowy cliffs, or relieving the gloom
Of the towering heights with .sflashes Of
emerald meadow and sunny sylven hooks
before her hand was turned to- the tGyclopiau
task Of cleaving path through tie mighty
living rocks for the turbulent flood Of the
Missouri.
| In l742 two sons of the Chevaier Verendrye
passed down the Missouri from the Three
Forks to the Falls, the first of our race tt
behold the wonders Of its exit from the land
of perpetual snow, and sixty-three years
later, on the 10Th Of saly, the little fotilla o
Lewis and Clarke accomplished the marvel
Gus passage on their memorable voyage tt
the Pacific.
The language in which they recorded their
impressions of the mighty scene will hav'
lost none of its interest after the lapse
more than three.quarters Of q century.
ssNothing can be imagined more tremendou
than the frowning darkness of Skese rocks
!. which project over the river aud menace us
! with destruction, The river, 150 yards IL
width, seems to have forced its chaHne
{ down this solid mass, but SO reluctantly ha
it given way that during the whole distanc
| the water is very deep, even at the edges
and for the first three miles there is not
. SPOT. except one of a few yards, in which
q | man could stand between the water and tn
towering perpendicular of the mountain.
. The convulsions of the passage must havt
been terrible, since at Its outlet there ar
| vast columns of rock torn from the mouu
tain. which are strewed on both sides of tn
river, the trophies as it were, of its victory
4 This extraordinary range of rocks v
called the "Gates of the Mountains"
The pen falters as we to-day essay t
feebly describe this domain of grandeur an
awe, every feature of which is casting fror
= the most massive of Natures moulds an
dashed with her boldest coloring.
Pinuacled crags of granite, through whic
are caught glimpses of distant cloud-cappe
snow.peaks, deep black gorges, naked vo
u canic cones, swaying pines and frs an
" copses of gigantic cedars in sombre green o
purple heights, blend into one sublime view
y the whole resplendent with the weird al
:. mystic effect of sunlight and shadow
;a Here might the gods have labored on til
- talismanic eh;seljng of the rocks. In the
"a fantastic fashioning the shadowy wraiths {
~ every architectural device IN which man ha
:; sought to voice his story through the ag,
can be dimly traced, and dolnes, pyramid
pillars and monoliths pierce the sky, mon
ments of spectral ruins. Beneath sculpture
=, cliff and obelisk ghostly face appears, o'
- colossal dimensions suddenly stands fort
- the dim outlines of a mailed warrior, an
one is reminded of the accounts given /
- travellers of the storied Tyrian and Babylon
40 . i,h carvings of Phenicia and the Eupbrate
which are as crude aud scarcely less myste
ious than these weird tracings of the ell
5. ments.
=, =" The coloring of the rocks is sometimes
49, beautiful as is seen in the Grand Canyon
-.l the Yellowstone, and the loveliest tints
blues and reds and greens are strange
bo blended.
The river itself sometimes winds as placi
" beneath the frowning walls of the terrif
gorge as the gentle current of the Nile. i
sea.preen surface re fecting the magic pi
Y. lures VI ''Ao e 1' " :.
nd swift rushes of seething waves, lntenslfylr
,st in mad violence a. it leaps on, until in viii
90 90 caps it bursts over hidden reefs and dash
Id in fury against the unylelding shores.
=; Out from between the giant obelisks whie
sa mark the extreme outposts Of the monnta