The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1905-07-06

winds farther from the river, and you
catch a glimpse for the first time of
the rolling hills of Maryland, with
their rich farm lands. Wider and
wider grows the canal until it spreads
out into a beautiful lake fenced in by
a gorgeous fringe of green. Little
islands appear, and one wonders why
the beauty of this spot is so little
known. Gradually the canal grows
narrow once more, and we head again
towards the river, and when we q
little later catch glimpse of it we
find that it is far below us, and we
realize for the first time what those
locks really meant, and how steep the
hills have been that we have been
climbing by their aid. The turns and
twists in the canal became more
abrupt, and instead of the banks of
foliage, we are now passing along the
base OF rocky hiilsides, whose
immense sides have been hewn to
admit the passing of the canal Now
the shadows in the water are no
longer a riot of vivid green and
crimson blossom, out are rIch in
royal puppies, lavenders and gray.
1t is the first chord in symphony of
beauty that gives the keynote of the
grandeur of the scene beyond
The approach to these famous falls
of the Potomac by way of the canal
is poetical in the extreme, from
picturesque surroundings and pretty
vistas you enter the beautiful and
broader roadway of the lakes, with it's
subtle charm of placid water, then
comes these rocky gateways of what
scientists say was once the coast line
of the Atlantic shore. Far below, we
see the high water-woven purple
rocks, around whose base the Potomac
still chews, cheWs and gnaws it's
attuned to the magnifience of the
sene around us as the boat nears it's
end Of the Journey. At the lock at.
Great Falls we 'leave the boat. The
LIGHTHOUSE here is an old stone tavern
long famous for its dinners, but we
do not tarry here. We are too anxious
for sight of the mighty falls beyond,
whose rush and roar has reached us
from affair."
The city of Washington obtains it's
water supply from this part of the
river, and there has been a dam built
here In recent years to regulate and
centralize the supply, and to prevent
floods, from which the lower part of
the city so often suffered. This dam
has diverted much of the water that
formally passed over the falls, thus
lessening somewhat the grandeur of
the waters.
After passing over a swinging bridge
over the water from the dam, you pass
through tract of dense wooded
land, and come out upon high bank,
and see before you a series of bold
cascades forming drop of eighty
feet within few hundred yards dis
lance.
At your feet, stretching away right
and left, are rugged purple rocks,
holding back the foaming waters from
the falls above, water that winds and
twists, tumbles and turns, rushes and
roars in fury of watery magnificence
not often equaled, now coming over a
broad ledge of rock in one magni-
ficent sweep, now futtering down
little way off in thin stream like
bridal veil, now humping, jumping,
from ledge to ledge in mighty haste
to join its companion drops from the
placid flow above the falls, turning
pale in anger at the rocky obstacles
in their way it leaps down between
some riven rock forcing it farther and
farther asunder. Opposite the sleeper
and more precipitous banks of the
Virginia side of the river with it's
thick foliage is to be seen, while down
the river as far as the eye can see is
the mighty rush of the water between
the ever resisting rocks, which have
grown old and SCARED and wrinkled
in their terrible contest With the
strength and vigor of the ever YOUTH
full water. In vain the contest, the
cuts and cliffs, of the purple, defiant,
solid earth tells the result of the
struggle against the united efforts of
little drops of water.