The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1894-02-17


giant pines were touched with the gold
of the rising sun almost before one on
the ground knew day had come.
The guns, traps and equipage were
placed in the boat, and when all things
were ready the boat was lifted into the
fiume, and was held there unlil the two
passengers could get aboard. The
sides of the hume were covered with
ice, caused by the cold night and the
splashing water. Scarcely had the boat
touched the current before it's edges
also were slippery with ice. That was
no matter, and in a second or so the
boat, with its passengers, was sweeping
down the trough of water, and trees
were spinning past so rapidly that they
seemed like the spokes of swift wheel
The passenger does not realize just
how he gets in the boat, nor how he
makes the start. 1t is all over before
he has time to think. He has an I'M
governable desire 10 clutch at things,
but before he can do so he is gone, and
the speed makes him catch his breath,
and that is all he can do. The start has
been made, and it is a race to the finish.
If one should attempt to stop when the
speed is so great it would result in some
thing serious. Even if he should see
\ hume had gone over a precipice, he
could not stop, but must run into it and
take the consequences, Such a mishap
is not likely, but is possible. There are
places here and there where the 1ume
passes over ground more nearly level
and the current Is correspondingly slow,
and person cao spring out and let the
boat go; or he might, when safely out,
run along the foot plank and, by hold
ing the boat, bring that to a stop also.
But in the steepest places man could
not run fast enough to keep up with the
boat.
Before the passenger has time to
look back or forward, or to ask any
question, he has run the first half mile
and is sweeping around curve, which
opens to his vision sight not pleasant
to contemplate. The fume passes be
tween two walls of rock and then along
the face of a solid rock forming the
can look down while speeding acros:
this glddy height he will see beneath
him-gust how far he has no power t
estimate-the canon Of the creek
deep down in the shadow of the morn
ing, almost dark with the depths. Tn,
boat seems 10 be flying through space
1t is but moment until the .giddy plac,
is past, and the boat darts into a mas
of gloomy pines growing against tn
side of the mountain. The place JUS
behind is one of the most perilous Of
the fiume. In building the structur
, the workmen could not find footing an,
: were let down by ropes from the brin'
, of the cliff above, aud thus they hun
: while with hammer and drill they Gu
holes in the solid rock and made ar
r corages in which to hang the fume
Now it rests there perhaps solid enoug
! and Frobablv safe enough, but one ha
r strange feelings as he sits in a narroV
: boat and makes the voyage in mid al
D like bird, not knowing when some o
= the cleats will snap and let the Who'll
a structure plunge into the depths be
. meath.
E On that morning there were man
t and large icicles hanging under tn
: flume. They could be seen while tn
t boat passed around curves, thus brinf
ing, perhaps, half mile of the fun
in view. For several days the weathe
a had beer cold, and as the flume leak
! all along large icicles are the result
e Some of them weighed not less this
100 pounds each and they covered a
I the timbers beneath the box, often civ
: ing the structure fantastic and fairl
/. like appearance. Sometimes the ic
f was piled up from the ground to tn
i fume thirty feet in columns and arches
!. having the appearance of marble of
! tense Wilderness. If the water is pc
!. mitted to flow ali winter in the FUN
E there might be danger that the ic
t would accumulate till the weight o
e some of the high trestles would b
5 sufficient to drag the entire structur
down.
e After four hours run the boat SUI
t denly emerges from a forest of pine