The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1894-02-15

thing serious. Even If he should see
broken place ahead of him, where the
fiume had gone over a preciplce, he
could not stop, but must run into 1t and
take the consequences. Such a mishap
is not likely, but is possible. There are
passes over ground more nearly level
and the current is correspondingly slow,
and person can 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 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 hrst half mile
and is sweeping around a curve, which
opens to his vision sight not pleasant
to contemplate. The hume passes be-
tween two walls of rock and then along
the face of solid rock forming the
side of Stephenson Mountain IT one
can look down while speeding across
this giddy height he will see beneath
him-just how far he has no power to
estimate-the canon of the creek,
deep down in the shadow of the morn
ing, almost dark with the depths. The
boat seems to be flying through space.
1t is but moment until the giddy place
Is past, and the boat darts into a mass
of gloomy pines growing against the
side of the mountain. The place Just
behind is one of the most perilous on
the fiume. In building the structure
the workmen could not. find footing and
were let down by ropes from the brink
of the cliff above, and thus they hung
while with hammer and drill they cut
holes In the solid rock and made an.
corages In which to hang the fume
Now 1t rests there perhaps solid enough
and probably safe enough, but one has
strange feelings as he sits in a narrow
boat and makes the voyage in mid air
like bird, not knowing when some of
the cleats will snap and let the whole
structure plunge into the depths be-
meath.
On that morning there were many
and large icicles hanging under the
fume. They could be seen while the
boat passed around curves, thus bring
Ing, perhaps, half mile of the nume
in view. For several days the weather
had been cold, and as the fume leaks
all along large icicles are the result.
Some of them weighed not less thsn
100 pounds each and they covered all
the timhers b eneath the box, often Civ
ing the structure fantastic and fairy
like appearance. Sometimes the Ice
was piled up from the ground to the
fiume thirty feet In columns and arches,
having the appearance of marble of in
tense whiteness. If the water is per
mitted to flow all winter In the fume
there might be danger that the Ice
would accumulate till the weight on
some of the high trestles would be
'uH'SiShl W uha6 lhc cullIe stIuCLuIe
down.
After four hours run the boat sud
denly energies f, ON forest of pines
and frs, and those in the boat ex-
perience the feeling of a person in
balloon, when the world seems to drop
away from under him. The fiume runs
under the high trestle, and at first
glance nothing is visible underneath.
mere seems to he nothing but IN
fathomable space sheer down. This is
near the turn around the point of
Stephenson Mountain, and the vast
abyss beneath, which has seemed bot
tomless, Is the canyon of the San Joa-
quin river, like a narrow ribbon of
white In the vast depth of the canon.
Not sound is heard. The plunging of
the river over the sunken rocks that
fret its channel cannot send even a
murmur up to the summit of the cliff
from which the passenger In the fume
boat looks down as he hurries on.
Nearly everywhere In sight the canon
Is dark at that hour in the morning,
but at two or three places the sunlight
pours through gateways in the cliffs,
and the beams fall on the foaming
floods, silent in the distance, and gild
the blackness of granite cliffs, which
hang like walls thousand feet above
the river.
The passenger cannot look twice at
the scene. The next minute he has
passed again into the timber; then
comes curve after curve around a rocky
mountain, and after a little while the
canon which had seemed so nearly bot
tomless has been left behind The first
twelve miles of the journey brings the
traveller to the western face of Pine
Ridge, the last diff of snow disappears,
and the stately groves of sugar pine
and arbor vita begin to give place to
tangled thicket of manzanita and chap
arral, and the starved and stunted dig
ger pines and gnarled jack oaks take
the place of the tamaracks which grow
about the reservoir at the starting
place. Climate succeeds climate as the
boat PUSHES from ridge to ridge. Pass
Ing around the mountain at the head of
Dry Creek, Fresno city, As miles dis
tant, is seen, with the morning sun