The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1889-11-09
Edwin Arnold Describes E;arara


London Telegraph.
Before the balcony in which this is
written the great cataract of America is
laundering, giltteriDg with green and
white rollers and ra pids, hurting the
waters of Il whole continent in splendor
| and speed over the sharp lodges of the
long brown rock by which Erie "the
Broad steps proudly down to Ontario
| ''the Beautiful" Close at hand on our
lett-not ineed further than some 600 or
700 yards-the smaller, but very impos-
ing, American Fall speaks with the loud.
er voice of the two, because its cOiling
spiras of twisted and furious flood crash
Ill full impulse of descent upon the talus
of massive powders heaped up at its foot.
The resonndi1 g impact of water on rock,
the clouds of water smoke which rise high
in the air while the river below is
churned into whirlipg cream of eddy
and surge and backwater, unite in COM
posite effect, at once magnificent and be-
wilderiug. But If you listen attcntively
you will always bear the profound diapa-
son OF the great Fall-that surnamed the
Notwithstanding superbly amid the
loudest clamOr and tumuit of its sister, a
deeper and grander note; and whenever
Tor time the gaze rests with ineXhaus
tlble wonder upon that fierce and tumult-
uary American Fall, THIS mightler and
still more marvellous Horseshoe steals its
way again with irresistible fascination.
Full in front lies that wholly indescr,ba-
bic spectacle at this instant. It's solemn
volce-an octave lower than the excited.
leaping. almost angry cry of feIv,d life
from the lesser cataract-resounds
through the golden summer morning air
like the distant roar from the streets of
hfty LondoDs all in full activity. Far
away, between the dark gray trees of
Goat Island and the fir woods of the Ca
madam shore, the Niagara River Is seen
winding eagerly to Its prodigious leap.
You can discern, even from this balcony,
the liue of the first breakers, where the
Niagara River feels, across Its whole
breadth, the fateful draw of the cataracts,
where Its current seems suddenly to leap
forward, stimulated by mad desire.
hidden spell, dreadful and irresistible
doom. You can note far back along
the gilded surface of the upper stream
how these lines of dancing, tossing, eager,
anxious and fate Impellcd breakers and
pillows multiply their white ranks and
spread and close together their leaping
ridges into wild chaos of racing waves
as the brink is approached. And then,
at the brink there is curious pause-the
momentary peace of the irrevocabie.
Those mad upper waters reaching the
great leap-are suddenly all quiet and
CLASSY and rounded and green as the bor-
der of field of rye. white they turn the
angle of the dreadful ledge ard hurl
themselves into the snow white gull of
noise and mist and mystery underneath
There is nothing more translucently green
nor more perennialiy still and lovely thsn
Niagara the greater. At this her awful
brink the whole architrave of the main
abyss CLEANS like fixed and glorious
work wrought In polished aquamarine or
emerald. This exquisitely colored cor
nice OF the enormous waterfall-thls brim
OF bright tranquility between fervor of
rush and fury OF plunge-is its principal
feature, and stamps it as far more besuti-
full than terrible. Indeed the whole spec
tacle of the famous catsracts is one of de-
lightful and of deepest charm, not by any
means of horror or of awe: since nowhere
are the measureless forces of nature more
tenderlv revealed, more softly and spien-
didIy clad, more demurely constrained
and docile between its steep confines.
Even the heart of the abyss, in the recess
of the Horseshoe, where the waters of Erie
and Superior clash together in tremen
dous conflict, the inner madness and
miracle of which no eye can See or ever
will see, by reason of the wells of milky
spray and of the rolling clouds of water
drift which forever hide it-even this
central solemnity and shudder-iraught
miracle of the monstrous uproar and glory
is rendered exquisite, reposeful and sooth-
Ing by the lovely rainbows hanging over
the turmoil and clamor. From its crest
of chrysoprase and silver, indeed, to its
broad foot of milky foam and of white
stunned waves, too broken and too dazed
TO begin at first to float away, Niagara
appears not terrible, but dlvinely and de-
liciously graceful, glad and lovely-a
specimen OF the splendor of water at Its
tinest-a sight to dwell and linger in the
mind with inelfaceable images of happy
and grateful thought. by no means to af-
feet it either in act or seeing, OF to haunt
it in future days of memory, with any
wild reminiscence of terror or of gloom. |