Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1888-02-28

4 Fostieai Deaerfpx,.,u %
| "enfsass IN America.
he great pines going mn
Soa see the religious dome OF Moun,
1"asta' Its SHOWS and flewps 40 nil,
mat mat one perceives it nearly with su,,er.
'nasta IL one Of the finest mounts,,s
america, naked dome OF rnck
Sravei and perpetual snow. made he :,
.o'cnho. and having two side pieces or
anseP's' the whole mass standing mn
whi1e and dun in crazy-quilt patc,,es
.riai gies OF snow and oyals Of rocts
a"a shoes OF loan and gravel. above
SKIRT OF Oregon pines, which arc -
,""ef green and seem the kirtIe ~ !.
"use' muscular. naked man, wearing a
c.out OF green as he kneels pnon H..
plateau and surveys his brood -
moundy peaks extending around h;n,
F" ah amphitheater of hundred miles
There is but one Shasta. and he l.
nierra-one OF the bold range beyond
me hockles. overlooking the Orient
Wos' lhere Ii the East, there ia
europe, says the statue Of r,o,oas
benton at 81 Louis. pointing at the
same time West a. ''e
=, mere Is a county Of California called
ohasta, and a range of mountains he-
tween Sacramento river and tic 90. :.
called the Shasta Range. 1t is only a
hisht ride or sleep of $40 miles be-
tween Ban Francisco and Mount Shasta
and in this ride you rise nearly 2 e0o
Ieet to Sisson, in Straw berry Valley
from which Mount Shasta's peak il
Sill lO.S85 feet higher, or above the
sea IA. 40 feet
1t is 10000 feet higher than the I;ct
observatory on Mount Hamilton.
| ms Is the power of Mount Shasta
| tnat II rises 50 grandly above every
thing else-not like Pixies or Gravis
reak' one OF large family of mount
ans sitting around the white Table
cloth OF the skies. 1t seems the biph.
| est when you are at it, and looks to be
| inaccessible. The railroad keeps wind
ing around its base as a wheelbarrow ia
guided around a cathedral's steeples.
AZ Is more than twice the height of
mount Washington,a and is seven-eighths
the height of Mont Blanc.
For 1000 feet the snow-slides dron
| uoWh us sides, frequently turning red.
Then for 1000 feet lower the Inorganic
mass stands like Vulcan among his
cinders. Next for 1000 feet encamn the
mrs. where once the lava licked the
| world.
Yet it is only twelve miles from Sis
son on the railroad to Shasta top. and
women have assembled it, and pant and
| grumble in the deed less than men.
In four days there was carried up by
white men and Indians copper monu-
ment weighing $500 pounds, which
can be seen 1870 miles away. But no
signal officer can live on Shasta's top.
Its pimples, 1900 feet high. are like
the warts on Cromwells head when
Warts like clouds that rise against the sun.
But make him greater seem-not greater grow
As L passed Shasta great white
| cloud was trailing from it like pen
| non, called the "Snow-banner of
Shasta" 1t really was palpitating,
cloud-like wild bird, failing for breath
as it flew, and holding tip-toe to the
peak. with its feet in snow-drifts, while
its plumage blew outward and away.
There is a butte, or mountain hump,
near Shasta, $500 feet high, but the
SHOWS, like virgin bellies at court. dis
dain TO coquette with it, and keep all
their flakes for Shasta. 1t, too, Is
fine and stuck-up thing quite solitary,
but the miners only call it Shasta
Butte. as the actors called Mr.. Greene,
when he compared himself to Shake
speare, Shakespeare call-boy.
Coming up to Shasta from the south
by the tortuous canyon of the Sacra-
mento. you see the great mountain
vaguely yet tremendous, as 10 saw
Jupiter in his cloudy passion, but, 60
ing from it northward, as the locomo-
tive turns often to see it. the god stands
out naked as before bold Juno in the
domesticity of the heavens; the pastur-
age plains of the klamath stretching
below him like coverlet pushed
away.
You see him to be volcano put out
by SHOWS, and our only worthy brother
of the Alps, like Monte Rosa dissected
out of them and spirited away in the
Gambols of the Titans.
The Alps too often hide in the reek-
ing dews of Lombardy, but Shasta is
set in sky that is limpid as the blues
in the eyes of babes.
How still it is. with that great, un-
mistakable scar of crater a mile and
half wide, telling were hell climbed up
and vomited its blood and flame to-
gether drunkenly for some momentary
spasms of thousands of years! We
have resolved that hell is not. but there
is Shasta, and somewhere must be fire.
Glorious relic of a time when man
was not, and Pan was playing with the
tools of Vulcan, the molten waste of
Shasta ran away, spilhng westward