Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1914-01-23

iiNei III lAlucHdIllet runs 70 q pcc1N,
and on this family Of eagles have
through the years, maybe through cen
turtles, made their home and reared
their young, on the very verge Of the
abyss and amid the full echoes Of the
resounding boom of the falls. Surely.
the eagle is a fitting symbol of perfect
fearlessness and Of that exultatiom
which comes of battle clamors.
But these first falls are but be-
ginning. The greatest splendor sue
ceeds. With swifter flow the startled
waters dash on, and within few feet
take their second plunge in a solid
crescent over a precipice, 210 feet
to the abyss below. On the brink there
is a rolling crest of white, dotted here
and there, in sharp contrast, with
necklace of emerald simmer on
throat of snow and then leap and fall.
Here more than foam is made.
Here the waters are shivered into
fleecy spray, whittier and finer than
any miracle that ever fell from India
loom, while from the depths below an
everlasting vapor arises-the incense
of the waters to the waters God. Fin
ally, through the long. unclouded days,
the sun sends down his beams, and to
give the startling scene Its browning
splendor wreathes the terror and the
glory in rainbow halo. On either
sullen bank the extremities of its arch
are anchored, and there in its many
colored robes of light it stands out
stretched above the abyss like wreaths
of flowers above a sepulcher. Up
through the glory and the terror an
everlasting roar ascends, deep-toned
as is the voice of fate; diapason like
the rolling ocean, chants when his
eager surges come rushing in to greet
and fercely WOO in irresponsible pro-
montary.
But 10 feel all the awe and to mark
all the splendor and power that comes
of the mighty display one must climb
down the steep descent to the rivers
brink below, and, pressing up as nearly
as possible to the falls, contem-
plate the tremendous picture. There
something of the energy that creates
that endlss panorama is compre-
hended; all the deep throbbings of
the mighty rivers pulse are felt; all
the magnificence is seen.
In the reverberations that come of
the war of waters one hears some
thing like Gods voice, something like
the splendor of God is before the eyes,
something akin to Gods power is
manifesting itself before him; and his
soul shrinks within itself, conscious
as never before in the presence of the
working of natures unreasonable
forces.
Not quite so massive is the picture
as is Niagara, but it has more lights
and shades and loneliness, as though a
hand more divinely skilled had mixed
the tints and with more delicate art
had transfixed them upon that picture
suspended there in it's rugged and
sombre frame.
AS one watches it is not difficult
to fancy that away back in the imme-
mortal and unrecorded past the angle
of love bewailed the fact that mortals
were to be given an existence in a
spot so forbidding, a spot that appar-
emily was never to be warmed with
Gods smile, which was never to make
a sign through which Gods mercy
was to be discerned; and then onip-
offence was touched; that with his
hand ne smote the hills and started
the great river on its flow; that with
his finger he traced out the channel
across the corpse of that other river
that had been fire, mingled the sun
beams with the raging waters, and
made it possible in that fire-blasted
frame of scoria to swing picture
and later to the pale faces, certain
sign of the existence. the power, and
the unapproachable splendor of the
great first cause.
And as the red man through the
centuries watched the spectacle, COM
pretending nothing except that an in
finite voice was shifting his ears, and
inefferable glories were blazed be-
fore his eyes, so through the centuries
to come the pale faces will stand upon
the shuddering shore and watch, ex-
mighty impulse to put off
the sandals from the feet, under an
overmastering consciousness that the
spot on which you are standing is
holy ground.
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