The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1899-07-29
VOL. XXXIV.--NO. 40.

uafh Tue OI the Gay ueudS, IOlIhS d IHou-
sand feet below me, as if | were looking
through a thousand centuries of time
verify man is as grass. In the morning
it springeth up and in the evening it Is cut
down and withereth Below me flowed
the two great rivers, the one wide and
playful and sunlighted as in life, the other
narrow, dark and motionless as death
Their two tides met and contended for
mastery, but | noted that after a short,
fierce struggle, the deep and dark one
Yielded to and was covered up forever by
the wide and sunny one, and said Lo,
here beneath me are the two symbols
which represent what men most think Of
and what they most love and hate-life
and death-and death is swallowed up in
victory
No LIFE IN THE RIVER.
Another peculiarity of the Saguenay,
which adds to its impressiyeness is the alb
sence-the almost total absence-of life
upon it. For forty miles the yacht sailed
on between the mountainous sides, and
from the mouth to Cape Eternity, save the
white porpoises near the entrance, | never
saw bird or fish or animal Of any kind.
1t was in truth IA solemn sail. The pilot
said scarcely word during the entire pas
sase. and | sat at the helm and steered,
silently looking. The wind was strong,
blowing straight up behind the lofty sides
as through a funnel with the force of
half gale, and the yacht raced through
the black water, leaving 4 long wake Of
white froth astern but being sharp at the
stem aud narrow in her lines, she cut the
dark current ike knife, noiselessl ".
Once thought saw Il seals head, but 1t
vanished and was not sure, and in all
that forty miles of fight, wind driven, with
the August sun shining brightly in the
sky, saw no gull flying overhead, no
loon upon the water, no hawk or eagle cir
cling above the lofty cliffs, not any animal,
whether small or great, moving along the
shores Surely it was a strange sail, aud
| could only look aud marvel NJ the soil
tude through which was 50 noiselessly
passing
And As | thus went sailing up this IN
dcscribable river, mile after mile, in 81
leuce, the Yacht with every sail Swelled
taut cleaving the black water at racing
speed the mighty walls Of rock on either
hand no living thing in sight. the wide
space ahead As silent as if | were steering
into a silent world. my wonder grew, foT
it was not until we had sailed on, in this
strange fashion for fifty miles and had
come in view Of Cape Eternity and Cape
Trinity, that the climax Of this most ex-
traordinary and, | may truly say, most
impressive passage was reached.
Cape Eternity-who named it thus |
know not-stands on the left side Of the riv-
er, going up II is a mighty ridge of -olid
rosk. SCARED aud scanned BY TO- 600 years
Of frost. By 10. GOO years of storm; q
cautic mile post, which marked in the be
ginning. marks today and will mark for
ever the earliest progress of earthly time
Its substances Is primeyal, having eternity
for it, parent, and hence rightly named
Sheer upward it lifts is moustrous bulk
from the black water for | 500 feet; and
sheer downward it sinks, as plummet
proves below the black water, TO its invis-
ible foundation What power save God ;
could heaye il up, what power save His
could level and adjust its immovable base?
Some writers have pictured it as bare, bald
ruck Il Is not 81. Life finds roofing in
It's seams aud creyices and level places
mosses aud vines, here and there a wild
wood flower, lchens also, and its dome,
otherwise terrible, Is diyinely soitened
with forests that wither not in foliage, but
are forever green and full of pungent
smells that sweeten the gales which blow
around it
Directly opposite, half a mile perhaps
in distance, stands Cape Trinity another
monstrous cliff Of equal height, more alb
rupt in form, divided along It's awful front
into threefcld shape suggesting It's name.
lts front is yerdureleSs Its rigid lines are
unsoftened by flower, OF shrub or root, or
gnarled bunch Of stunted life Austere, i'm
penetrable. strong, it stands facing Eternity
giving no sign or hint of what it means,
yoiceless. heartless, impenetrable mys-
tery. ike that doctrine which human in
genuity has invented and framed in the
structure of modern theology to explain
what is inexplainable-the status and
functions Of Deity, whose nature, because
Of the feebleness Of human understanding,
l. and must forever be to n, save in Its
mercies and rectitudes, beyond our under
standing. who by searching can find
out God2
Between these two majestic and awful
formations of nature the waters Of the
Saguenay flow inward for half mile OF
more, until they meet the mountain slope
again and this recess or curvature Is called
Eternity bay, and never before in all my
wandering. on river or lake, or in the deep
loneliness of unfrequented woods, did
fud a spot too lonely to camp it. But
here. even in daytime the soul Is OPP
pressed and weighed down by the solemn
surroundings and where the moon comes
up above the far cliffs across the mourn
fully colored stream, and on the one hand
you behold the majestic symbol Of eternity
and on the other the awful embodiment OF
the mind -racking mystery called Trinity
both looming up above the black expanse
of water flowing ON forever, deep, strong,
and resistless as death, both revealed as
sure and awful facts, but dim to the eye
as is our knowledge of the hereafter-the
soul is overwhelmed and the mind shrinks
within he enclosure of its mortal cells as
the blood, in fright, shrinks within the
creeping veins Surely only the highest
human levity or piety rapt in holy medita-
ton, could camp week in the awful cur
vature of Eternity bay.
Nerves and Fortitude.
Il don known, said an army surgeon
who recently returned from Cuba, to a
New York Press reporter, whether it ;