Morning journal and courier., 1894-02-03
| TALES OF TEN TRAVELLERS.
BABA SY'RA'S QUEST
BY EDGAR L. wAKKMAN.

[Copyright, 1884, All rights reserved.l
 Just within the western boundaries of the noble old city of Philadelphia winds the lovely Wissahickon, fairsst and most entrsncing stream yet undefled by man. Retaining it's Indian name of Wisauck- sicksn, or the yellow colored stream, 1t has its source miles away among the fer tile Dutch meadows and witching hills of Bucks and Montgomery counties. It springs from a region full of quaint su- perstitions, and every rivulet feeding 1t or homes'ead or hamlet 1t passes, furnishes | an added fancy, legend or weird old tale; until, reaching the gorge through which for twelve miles 1t winds in fantastic abandon before emptying into the Schuyl- | kill, 1t becomes a very witch nest of phsp- tasm, hobgoblin and myth.
 For seven or eight miles above It's mouth the channel is strangely terturous between | banks of rocks of mica schist, rising In every imaginable fantastic form to pictur- esque and noble heights. These banks are bewilderingly multiform, clothed in the rsrest and most varied foliage, while as cending and crowning the heights on either eide are the noblsst of American forest trees, ranging singularly from the magnolia to the cedar and the oak, ever set in majestic beauty within the came narrow confines. Scarcely more than rivulet as it enters the gorge, the stream increases in volume from upland to the last deep pool where the Schuylkill gulps 1t down at swallow, and stream and bank. shadow and shine, rock and forest, water below and sky above, blend In one mstchless and perfect dream of reet.
 There is not 8 spot upon which you may stand your feet, place your hand or rest your eye which does not tnrob and pulse
 back to your own, instantly accorded sy m
 pathy. The sense of genial solitude and
 of loving restfulness is almost startling.
 It is as 6 soothing dream set in @ siillnees
 so calm and hushed that 1t Is palpably
 felt. At the very spot where the entrance
 to this wonderland shudderingly faces the
 crowded avenues to the great city, and
 shrinks aghsst at the thunderipgs of tho
 flaming forges along the Schuylkill, 6 few
 rods only will bring you to such solttud.
 that the sound of your own voice seems { dissertation. Here reaches long, lake like tsrn, rippleless, dark as sbon, bu shining like burnished silver. Beyond
 there is 6 wall of green and bloom Thil seems all-all but silercs. Breaking th, , spell, you come to this wall of green ana , ! bloom to find an abrupt winding of tn,
 channel; aud here in a glesmipg circle like the fluttering wings of myriad pois ing butterflies. the stream Is whisperinsl, } | breaking away from smother tarn above but 90 softly that all is silent still.
 Then another deep pool on whose eur face the overarching trees rim dark shsd
 ows like black onyx fringipg 6 bed of esp
 phire where is mirrored the blue sky above
 This voiceless spot, msyhap, is frd b,
 swiftly speeding water, level and even fo
 little, by thread of trembling flashing
 where all the elfins' songs are sung, or b
 e feecy cascade white and spumy as
 shower of thistledowp; but there Is neve
 tumult nor turbulence here.
 Again appears a little lake, or e wid
 swirl of waters where the spirits of tn
 stream seem in wild bacchanalisn chase i
 or witche.y, or prite-madness Is In vii
 turmoil revealed only in 6 shimmer an glint and motion. Lake or tsrn again sn fl again, open and white to the sky, or folde in gloaming-like shadows; century-ol dam where the moes is almost blende 2 with the rocks and the outreaching root z of great treee; rivulets trickling dow from countless springs, or shsdowy creei
 creeping into the greater stream throug
 where tie sunshine filtered through th b tree branches darts and quivsTs over mo d tied splsshes of shade; whirling edd n where leaf of tree or feather of passin d bird is dancing lively minust to ceaselei rs rythm of unhesrd tune; murmurous sha h lows In besuteous windings for gleamin y distances, but hesitant and soft as vhi se psred lullaby rhyme; deep and dark bacl ,e water, where the rounded rocks poll
 straight to heaven; stealthy outlets wbe ST the waters einuously weave in and O, y around the polished bases of great bow re defs, like threads of silyer Rlssmir