Word Pictures of the Yellowstone Canyon

Word Pictures of the Yellowstone Canyon. BY ALFRED LAMBOURNE. I.—The Upper Falls. A scene of savage wildness, such as one sees in a dream! An overhanging, threatening cliff; a river bursting over it, white like an avalanche of snow. Around the cliff, screening out the sunlight, "a sweeping theater of hanging woods." At the foot of the fall a mighty rock against which the foam is driven fiercely and from thence up the opposite bank. Not a scene of beauty, but one stern and gloomy, low in the scale of color, yet impressive and a foil to the glories of its near rival. The foreground is a massive rock ledge, beyond it, is a void in the earth. The river, with its bright green water, clear, massy, thick, is seen drawing near to the fatal edge. Then it disappears from sight with hardly a fleck of foam, but the deafening roar and the clouds of spray tell of its madness below. Hanging over the brink is a conventional pine, from whence we can see the abyss. All is there confusion of writhing water and whirling mist; the rocks carved and polished by the endless beating of the falling stream.

II.—Pinnacles and Palace Gorge. Gothic spires and pinnacles, rising from the sloping sides of the canyon, in bewildering numbers, like those of Milan cathedral. Spires of blanched white; of creamy white, stained with yellow; of deep yellow, veined with ashen gray; of ochres; of carmine; of dun. Back of these, dark volcanic rock, and a glimpse caught of the falls, plunging into the blue, misty basin. On a crag below our feet, an eagle's nest filled with her young brood. Along the dizzy canyon edge a trail, winding onward mid wind-twisted trees. Sunlight and shadow playing among spires and dark-browed cliffs with magical effect. "Shifting shades that come and go Like apprehension's hurried glow.1' A. few feet further, and then we look into the Palace Gorge. The canyon deeper and narrower, and an even more magnificent display of gorgeous color. Nature, vain of her powers, pouring forth her treasures with unstinted hand. All harshness lost in dreamy haze of afternoon light. The far-sunken river sending up but a faint noise, although we see it bounding from ledge to ledge, hurrying away to tell its wondrous tale to the lowland rivers and to the sea.

III.—The Great Falls. Nowhere in the world is there a more striking view than the Grand Falls of the Yellowstone, as seen from Point Lookout. Sweeping lines lead the eye always to the center of the picture, where all the "barbaric splendor of color" and the light and shade are focussed. Even at this distance we can see the clearness of the water, as it glides ov£r the lip of the cliff. There it breaks into ripple curves of creamy foam, like delicate lace at a lady's throat. Broader and deeper they become as they fall, until they form festoons and points of exquisite grace, through the interstices of which, pale emerald and opalescent blue are for an instant revealed, yet all moving swiftly downward to become billowy gauze around the skirts of the falls. Then the river foams again in a dark green pool, and comes rushing forward whitened with foam. The basin of the falls is a wilderness of beautiful color; rocks and ledges covered with cushions of gold-brown moss. All this scene is soft and tender, full of unity. A sublime expression of the slow, everlasting working of nature's laws.