Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1890-01-16
NATURES RAREST GEM.
Ths Wonderful, Shoshone Falls in Ida
hos DESERT
A Cataract as Wonderful as Niagara Roaring
in the Heart Of Crater, Amid Lava Blocks,
Volcanic Ashes, Sage Bash and Coyotss-A
Grand Spectacle.

A splendid mountain trail leads from
the village OF Shoshone into the
desert The wagon runs smoothly over
the road for twenty miles or more
through rank growth of sage brush,
greasewood and tufts Of pink cactus.
There are no signs OF life anywhere.
There Is not even 80 much as the
Ghirp OF bird to break the terrible
stiffness. The dust that comes from
wheels is n mixture OF powdered lava
and alkali, and has an acid taste.
Bones so peculiarly white to an alkali
desert are scattered among the clumps
of sage brush and mark the ferocity of
the blizzard and sandstorms which
sweep over the waste in midwinter.
The next five miles of the ride is over
great blocks OF lava, whore explosions
have hurled them in heaps upon either
side of trail. Straight ahead blue
haze gives the horizon the appearance
OF a great sea out of which score of
snow-capped mountains, many of them
pyramidal in form and looking like
brigantines sailing along, with every
stitch OF snowy canvass set. poke their
hoary heads. The trail finally leads
into deep cut, into the rocks and
down an incline blasted from basaltic
and limestone walls. A moment later
the traveller has reached the grandest
bit OF scenery in the new world. He
stands in the center OF monster
crater-perhaps the giant crater from
which poured the fercest torrent OF
all the torrents OF molten lava that
swept over the country.
In other places in the towering walls
which surround this blighted hole the
flames OF that prehistoric upheaval
made caverns and Enthusiastically
ate their way into the rocks in their
wild fury to join in the devilish orgy
outside. Looking from the summit Of
the trail into the great basin 1000 feet
below-a basin OF circumference Of
at least ten thousand feet and walled
In by perpendicular volcanic palisades
/, 100 feet high-the spectacle is one Of
awful sublimity. The visitor instinct
lively feels as though he had entered
the theatre OF the devil. Above the
great hole Is the blue sky with hawk
soaring lazily. Moving sluggishly
through a narrow channel In the bot
tom OF the basin is the Snake river,
whose waters are as green as the
brightest emerald. These are the only
colors. All else is de ID and in disor-
der. Here is where you might expect
to see the evil one sitting astride n fire
scanned rock at midnight contemplate
ing the ruin below by the light of the
moon in its last quarter. A fash Of
blood red lightning and roar OF thun-
der are all that are necessary TO COM
plete the picture OF the Internal re-
gions. The grass is yellow and stunt
ed. The few blasted trees and bushes
growing upon the lodges look like
those pictured in the haunts OF sprites
and gnomes. All are white as the
shrouds of the dead.
The only noise heard in .nis cradle
OF chaos is a continuous and sullen
roar which comes from the bottom OF
the pit. Man can never know how in
fnitesimal he really is until he picks
his way over the fire-swept flooring OF
the basin in an effort to find the source
of the ceaseless roar. Around him is
stretched an amphitheatre OF walls so
great in their dimensions and so regu-
lar in their formation as TO instantly
give birth to visions OF multitude OF
insensate beings watching from their
circling seats the turmoil below.
Tracing the sluggish stream until it
begins TO boil in it's race over rocks and
through caverns, the stranger finally
creeps 10 the edge OF a mighty cataract
which tumbles in one broad, sheer fall
distance OF 210 feet. A cloud of spray
hangs over the boiling waters below
and through the white, pulsating veil
rainbow spanning the yeasty
maelstrom blazes with vivid bright
ness. Here is the jewel in this great
ring OF death. Niagara cannot be
compared with it in beauty or in
the grandeur OF its environments. The
volume of water pouring over the cata-
ract is not so great as that at
Niagara, but the fall is greater and far
more varied. From tip TO tip the foam
ing, roaring crescent at Shoshone is a
quarter of mile. Before the tumb-
! ling waters reach the brink they plunge
over rapids, over cataracts and through
lava powders which have been gnaw-
ed into caverns. Beginning at one end
OF the crescent. where the water falls in
a broad, thin, silver spray, the torrent
grows in volume until the main cata-
ract is reached. Here the water is OF
such solid green that it carries its coll
or half way down its tremendous fall.
! Nearer the other end Of the crescent
| the catar ct tumble5 over domes,
minarets and pulpits of. volcanic rock
and joins in the mighty roar below.
In the oppressive sublimity of all these
surroundings-the towering walls OF
the crater the laundering OF the twin
cataract of the new world, the waiting
OF the hungry coyote at the red sun
sinking behind the purple, white hood
ed mountains In the distance. and the
knowledge of the barren waste stretch
ing all about the great basin-the Wis.,
itor loses all sense of fear and sits like
one suddenly bereft OF the power Of
articulation.