River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1913-02-13
FROM OUT WEST
THE VISION or THE MOUNTAINS
BYE. S. REED

The vision of the mountains!
1t is a sight that impresses you
forever. 1t produces upon the
mind a lasting effect, an abiding
sense of the grandeur of Natures
works-a sense which one can
never lose. Some poet has said.
II am part of all 1 have met.
A mans xperience-w what he
has seen, heard and felt
constitutes his character-make
him what he is. Nothing of this
experience is lost. The everyday,
common events leave their
impressions ineffaceable on the
mind, but recalled sometimes
with difficulty when occasion
demands it or when an association
of ideas suggests it; but the great
things, the unusual, the unexpected
and startling seem to make deeper,
more permanent impressions,
impressions that stand out in bold
relief upon the landscape of
memory as do beacon lights on
prominent headlands to incoming
mariners.
The vision of great mountain,
or the sight of vast wall of noun
tains, standing out against the sky
and piercing the clouds. itself IN
moving and immovable while clouds
stream about it, impresses you with
an admiration and awe that is utter
ly indescribable. All trivial things
seem for the time to be effaced from
the mind to give room for the con-
temptation of this vastness that the
vision suggests; a bewildering and
tremendous vastness. Your gaze
is fixed, riveted to it; your mind
drawn to it unreSistingly; you are
attracted to it, held by it, never
satisfied in gazing at the enchant-
ing phenomenon. And when
regretfully you must turn away
so that your eyes behold it no more
you see it always, it is ever in your
mind, always there, just as grand,
as awe-inspiring as when first in
unspeakable wonder your eyes
feasted upon the astonishing exhibit
ton. In passing over the Rocky
mountains and the Cascades on any
of the transcontinental railways the
traveller will have an opportunity to
see some lofty peaks and at some
points continuous snow-enveloped
ranges of considerable extent. /
think that one is likely TO behold
grander scenery on the Great
Northern and the Canadian Pacific
than he will see on the Northern
Pacific, but upon any line the
majesty of mountain scenery will
be a revelation to one who makes
his first passage of the mountains.
A Yeiw that impressed me most
deeply was at Kalispel on the
Great Northern. Near that city
the main outline of the Rocky
mountains is seen along the highest
elevation of the whole range. To
the east of the city the mountains,
great white wall, stand up
against the sky, seeming, because
of the great elevation, to be quite
near. If you were asked how far
away you think the mountains are
you would say, perhaps, three or
four miles at the farthest A
resident of country astonishes
you by replying, forty miles!"
The deception in your mind of
distances in a mountain country
enhances the grandeur of the
mountains to you for you will
understand that if they appear so
great at such vast distances from
you their greatness must be far
more conspicuous at a near view.
After a fortnight of rain in the
Willamette valley, rain that came
gently with warm, balmy air, but
in quantity sufficient to raise the
water in the creeks pretty near to
the surface of the adjacent lands,
and making the fields soft and the
roads discouraging for travel, the
sun came up over the great white
wall of the Cascades, out of the
rosy east as bright as a new tin