Omaha daily bee., 1890-07-27

took turns working at the windlass as we did
also in speculatin what would be
our fate If the ferry's cables should
break! Once, while in mid-river, the current
struck us with unusual force and all the male
hands were required at the rope, while the
women clasped each other in corner and re-
maned speechless until the bank was reached.
There is little pleasure in travelling in the
dark and there is little to reassure the trav-
eler when he encounters dan gers the magni-
tude of which must be determined by conjec-
ture. For this reason, when the ascent of
the opposite bank was undertaken, there was
not member of the party who did not feel
that he or she had accomplished an heroic
deed which would bear recounting after the
return home.
As we climbed the hill, again in the densest
darkness, everybody simultaneously re-
marked that it had begun TO rain. "A heavy
mist struck us, rendering wraps necessary.
This, the driver explained, was the spray
from the falls, which the wind was scatter
ing around with lavish generosity, In this
mist. we reached the hotel, in which not
light burned, and in which every occupant
must have fallen into the sleep of the just
which even the crash of the falling water be-
meath was unable to disturb.
The hostelry stands on height almost over
the south end of the falls and was enveloped
in cloud of spray which, finding temporary
lOdgmcnt on the roof of the porch, dropped in
rain to the floor below. The landlord was
aroused and the party slowed away for the
night.
My apartment was the nearest to the falls
and, despite the mist without, ] left the win
dow open to listen to the deep base voice of
the falls which had not sounded unmuscal
from the first moment it reached my
ear, The pitch was even and the
volume was maintained with but the
slightest variation, save when the sound
waves were waited to the opposite side of the
canon. 1t then rose and fell with mastery
sympathy and expression in soloo natures
oratorio to natures God.
had heard that those whose sense of hear
ing was most acute or whose ears had been
attuned to the closest harmonies, could dis
tinguish variety of sounds amid the rush of
waters over the falls. l lay, for time, and
made an attempt TO catch the various sounds,
with but Indifferent success. Some people
say they have been able to distinguish eight :;
others, ten different sounds. But L am not
one of those so musiCally constituted.
thought, however, that could family note
four or five distinct intonations some of a
comparatively high treble, and then discon-
tinued the Investigation. | let the imagna-
tion have full play and there was no move
ment in music, mechanics or human agency,
to which that of the falls did not keep accom-
paniment. | heard, again, the first school bell
which sounded in my ears; the chime of the
little church in the wood in which rare and
radiant maidens were early and Sweetly at
tuned TO carol the praises of their maker; the
booming of the guns which proclaimed,
throughout the land, the surrender of Lee
and the close of the rebellion and, with the
imagination reveling in several of PATHS
choicest arias | fell asleep with the ceaseless
volume of sound in my ears and sensible TO
the pulsations of the fall which rocked the
hostelry like cradle
When | arose in the morning, the mist was
sweeping in great clouds over the hotel and
falling in rain from the porch 1t promised
10 be bad day for sight seeing because it
was almost impossible to stand upon the
brink Of the precpice or within several hun
dred feet OF the falls without being drenched.
The falls also, We're enveloped in the mist
only the crest being in any manner visible.
About 10 O'Clock, however the wind vecred
| 10 the south and the sun came out in all his
| glory, and the work of sight seeing was un-
| dertakCn.
The hotel stands about fifty feet from the
| brink of the chasm. The latter is lined with
dark pine trees while the bank is covered
with rich mating of grass. This is about
! the only departure from the reign of sage
brush and is effected by the fruitful libation
of the mist from the abyss.
From these pines, a rough walk leads
! almost from opposite the door of the hotel
| down hundred feet to ledge from which d
| full view of the falls may be had. But this