The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1891-03-06
NlAGARA'S RIVAL.
WONDROUSLY BEAUTIFUL SHOSHoNe
AND SALMON FALLS.


A River Running In q Channel Which
| Looks Like tho Grave of q Volcano
Robbed of Its Dead - An Enhancing
Scene Politically Painted.
The lava beds of Idaho are a marked
feature of that territory. Starting near
the eastern boundary they extend south
westerly for long distance, and are from
abeut 800 to 900 feet in depth. This mass
was once river of molten fire, the
making of which must have succeeded
CONFUSION of. nature more terrible than
any ever witnessed by mortals, and long
years must have passed before the awful
fiery mass was cooled To the east of
river bursts out of the hills, becoming
almost at once a sovereign river. and
flowing at first southwesterly and then
bending westerly, cuts through the lava
fields nearly in the center of the terri
tory, reckoned from east to west, and
about forty miles north of its southern
border, and flowing thence with great
curves merges finally with the Columbia.
The two rivers combined make one of
the chief waterways of the continent,
and here and there taking on pictures of
great beauty. On the Snake there are
several falls The American falls. a few
miles west of Pocatello, are beaS. iful.
Some sixty miles below are the Twin
falls, where the river, divided into two
nearly equal parts, falls $50 feet. They
are grand. Three miles further on, and
nearly due south, and twenty-six miles
away from the town of Shoshone, on the
Oregon Short Line railroad, are the Sho-
shOne falls, and few miles further on
the Salmon falls.
THE BRIDAL VEIL AND TRAIN.
Never anywhere else was there such a
scene; never anywhere else was SO beauti-
full picture hung in so rude frame;
never anywhere else on background so
forbidding and weird were so many
glories clustered. Around and beyond
there is nothing but the desert, sere,
SILENT lifeless; as though desolation had
builded there everlasting thrones to Sor-
row and Despair
Away back in remote ages, over the
withered breast OF the desert, river of
fire 100 miles wide and 400 miles long
was turned. AS the fiery mass cooled,
its red waves became transfxed and
turned black, giving to the double
desert an indescribably blasted and for
bidding face. But while this river of
fire was in flow a river of water was
fighting its way across it, Or has since
made the war and forged out for itself a
channel through the mass This chan
mel looks like the grave of a volcano that
has been robbed Of its dead.
But right between it's crumbling and
repellant walls TRANSPORTATION appears.
And such pictured A river, as lordly
as the Hudson or the Ohio, springing
from the distant, SNOW crested Tetons,
with waters transparent as glass, but
green as emerald, with majestic flow
and ever increasing volume, sweeps on
until it reaches the point where the
grand display begins.
Suddenly, in different places in the
river bed, jagged, rocky reefs are up
raised, dividing the current into four
rivers, and these, in mighty plunge of
eighty feet downward, dash on their
way. Of course the waters are churned
into foam and roll over the precipice
white as are the garments of the morn
ing when no cloud obscures the sun.
The loveliest of these falls is called 1.-The
Bridal Veil" because it is made OF the
lace which is woven with warp of fall
ing waters and a wool of sunlight.
Above this and near the right bank is
long trail of foam, and this is called
'sThe Bridal Train" The other channels
are not so fair as the one called THE
Bridal VEIL" but they are more fierce
and wild and carry in their furious
sweep more power.
WREATHED IN RAINBOW EALO.
One OF the reefs which divides the
river in mid-channel runs up to peak,
and on this family of eagles have
through the years, may be through the
centuries, made their home and reared
their young, and on the verge OF the
abyss and amid the full echoes OF the re-
sounding roar of the falls. Surely the
eagle is fitting symbol of perfect fear
lessness and of that exultation which
comes with battle clamors.
But these first falls are but begin
ming. The greater splendor succeeds.
With swifter flow the startled waters
dash on and within few feet take their
second plunge in a solid crescent, over
sheer precipice, 21O feet to the abyss be-
low. On the brink there is a rolling
crest of white, dotted here and there IN
sharp contrast, with shining eddies OF
green, as might a necklace of emerald
Simmer on a throat OF snow, and then
the leap and fall
Here more than foam is made. Here
the waters are shivered into f1eecy spray,
whittier and finer than any miracle that
ever fell from an India loom, while from
the depths below an everlasting vapor
rises-the incense of the waters to the
waters God. Finally, through the
long unclouded days, the sun sends
down his beams and, to give the
startling scene its browning splen-
dor, wreaths the terror and the
glory in a rainbow halo. On either sui
len bank the extremities OF its arc are
anchored, and there in its many colored
robes of light it lies outstretched above
the abyss like wreaths of flowers above
a sepulcher Up through the glory and
the terror an everlasting roar ascends,
deep toned as the voice of fate, diapa-
son like that the rolling ocean chants
when his eager surges come rushing In
20 greet and fiercely WOO an irresponsible
promontory. -Salt Lake Tribune.
Two Ancient Tombs.
IT, Y1prICd