Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1899-07-13
ONE OF THE WONDERS OF NORTH
AMERICA Is THE GRAND
sHOsH0NE FALLS.
EQUAL TO THE GREAT NIAGARA,
Editor White Says the Crops in Oregon
Look Fine and That It Is a Great
Countrywide Climate Is Most
salubrious--An Enjoyable
Trip in Every Detail.


Editorial Correspondence of the Ledger.
ON UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD TRAIN
NEAR PORTLAND, ORE, July A.
Oregon lie one of the very best States
in the Union, judging from what you
can see from the railroads. The cli-
mate ,s delightful and the crops look
fine. There is some beautiful scenery
on the route.
One of the very greatest wonder
places in America 10 Shoshone Falls,
twenty-five miles south of Shoshone
station, on the Oregon Short Line.
Comparatively few Americans have
ever seen 1.-THE vast majority know
Europe far better. And yet the APP
preolatlve few who have visited this
awe-inspiring spot declare they have
never seen It's equal. Naturally COM
parisons with Niagara are instantly
made, and still Shoshone does not
suffer thereby. Lacking the volume
Of water In the better-known cata-
ract, Shoshone stands unequalled in
terrific grandeur; the semi-circle Of
the brink measures over 900 feet, with
a sheer fall Of 221 feet; below the
falls, from the waters edge to the top
Of the canyon, it is 1900 feet. Down
this awful gorge sweeps the grand
volume Of the Snake river, fathoms
deep between the ghostly lava walls,
and takes its final plunge into the
boiling cauldron below. The environ
ment Of Niagara is tame, the wild,
rugged surroundings Of the shoshone
resemble one Of Dore'a appalling
pictures OF the Inferno. And no
artist has yet been found cunning
enough Of brain and hand to paint
Shoshone Falls.
There are stiIl a great many Indians
in Oregon and they are quite study
to the excurslonists. Are the Fiji
pinos to 60 the way Of the Indians2
Among all the excursions that could
be planned or imagined, none would
ever surpass the trip up the Columbia
river.
From Portland the Oregon Railroad
and Navigation Co.'s Columbia river
line is the only direct and scenic
route and the trip over IL is glorious
and memorable one. The trains are
superb, the track smooth and solid,
and the scenery unsurpassed, II not
unequaled, In the same distance, on
any railway In the United States. It
combines all that Is wild, sublime and
beautiful In mountain and stream,
crag, cataract and cascade. For 200
miles, on one side the greatest river
Of Western North or South America,
and on the other giant peaks of the
Cascade range, that numbers Mount
Hood, Mount Adams and Mount st.
Helens among Its mighty jewels.
PrecIpIces towering above the clouds
on one hand, and huge falls or rapids
Of blue-green water roaring and
foaming on the other. Multnomah
Falls, $40 feet high, has been painted
and peneIled and sung throughout the
world, but IT ia only one OF more than
twenty catarncts that tumble, flashing
and nesplendently iridescent from the
mountain-tops along the route.
Cardinal 6atolli, recently the Pope's
chief REPRESENTATIVE In the United
States, says: "As we passed through
the Rockies we thought the scenery
could not be surpassed, but when We
descended into the valley of the CO.
lumbia and out Of that valley into the
Cascade mountains, we found the
scenery grander than that we had
just left"
After the long railroad journey
across the continent dusty and
wearisome, In spite Of all the grandeur
of scenery-an ocean voyage is rest
ful and invigorating, and here IL is
memorable, The Pacific ocean, with
it's area Of 70, 460, 900 square miles,
covers nearly half the globe, which
has a total area of but 1877 SOC, 900
square miles. As the whole land SUR
face Of the earth is only $4,000, 900
square miles, ii could be buried be-
meath the waves OF the Pacific and
leave a surplus of 94,4eo,OOo square