. The Pacific tourist . rs, a rare fer-tility is developed in the ravines opening uponthe shore of the canon. A luxuriance of fernsand mosses, an almost tropical wealth of greenleaves and velvety carpeting line the are no rocks at the base of the fall. Thesheet of foam plunges almost vertically into adark, beryl-green, lake-like expanse of the volumes of foam roll up from the cata-ract-base, and. whirling about in tl hiving winds, rise often a thousand feet into the air. When the wind blows down the canon. ;i vi;i\ lui-i obscures the river for half a mile; andwhen, as
. The Pacific tourist . rs, a rare fer-tility is developed in the ravines opening uponthe shore of the canon. A luxuriance of fernsand mosses, an almost tropical wealth of greenleaves and velvety carpeting line the are no rocks at the base of the fall. Thesheet of foam plunges almost vertically into adark, beryl-green, lake-like expanse of the volumes of foam roll up from the cata-ract-base, and. whirling about in tl hiving winds, rise often a thousand feet into the air. When the wind blows down the canon. ;i vi;i\ lui-i obscures the river for half a mile; andwhen, as is usually the case in the after) n, the breezes blow eastward, the foam-cloud curls overthe brink- of the fall, and hangs like a veil overthe upper river. The incessant roar, reinforced by ;i thousand echoes, fills the canon. Froi I this monotone, from time to time, rise strange,wild sounds, anil now and then may be heard aslow, measured beat, not unlike the recurring fallof breakers. From the white front of the cata-. 170 tme Sterne ract the eye constantly wanders up to the black,frowning parapet of lava. The actual edge isusually formed of irregular blocks and prisms oflava, poised upon their ends in an unstable equi-librium, ready to be tumbled over at the firstleverage of the frost. Hardly an hour passes without the sudden 1 m of one of those rock- inasses falling upon the ragged debris piled below. After sleeping on the nightmareish brink ofthe falls, it was no small satisfaction to climbout of the Dantean gulf and find myself oncemore upon a pleasantly prosaic foreground ofsage. Nothing more effectually banishes themelotragic state of the mind than the obtrusiveugliness ami abominable smell of this my feet a hundred miles of it stretchedeastward. A half-hours walk took me out ofsight of the canon, and as the wind blew west-ward, only occasional, indistinct pulsations of thefall could be heard. I walked for an hour, following an old Indiantrail which
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookidpacifictouri, bookyear1876
