Frank's Ranche; Or, My Holiday in the Rockies: Being a Contribution to the Inquiry into What We Are to Do with Our BoysMarston, E. (Edward)
General
Frank's Ranche; Or, My Holiday in the Rockies: Being a Contribution to the Inquiry into What We Are to Do with Our Boys
Marston, E. (Edward)
Rocky Mountains -- Description and travel
Next morning we started off on a coach and four to view the Park. First
we came to "The Golden Gates," an immense cañon through which a small
stream runs between enormously high limestone rocks. The road, which is
here a splendid one, winds up along one side of the cañon; it is cut out
of the solid rock, and it gradually rises to such a height that to a
nervous person the look down into the gulch below must be rather
alarming, especially if one had not the fullest confidence in the
driver. Then we passed through an extraordinary forest of pines, all
dead, stripped entirely of their bark, even to the gnarled and curled
branches. There must be millions of these naked-burnt trees standing,
and the ground is also strewed with them in every direction. Here and
there the upturned roots present a very weird and curious appearance.
One made a strong impression on me from its marked resemblance to that
wonderful griffin which now commemorates the spot where once stood
Temple Bar.
[Illustration: "THE OBSIDIAN CLIFFS."]
We crossed the Gardener river, then passed below an extraordinary range
called "The Obsidian Cliffs." They are composed of glass—perpendicular
cliffs of solid glass; I picked up several small blocks for
paperweights, but unluckily lost them. The range extends for probably
1,500 feet, and the height may be 250 or 300 feet.
A little farther on we came to the "Lake of the Woods." On this lake is
a beaver-dam and house, and there are said to be a few beavers about
there, but I have met with no one who has seen them. On the lake were
large flocks of wild geese and ducks. The interest of this Park is
somewhat diminished by the distance one has to travel from one
remarkable point to another. After passing "The Lake of the Woods" we
must have travelled about fifteen miles or more, wholly through a green
pine forest, over hill and down dale, but all pine. Then we came to
"Norris Hot Springs and Geysers." Here we found a number of boiling and
bubbling hot springs; some send up small jets, others are great lakes of
boiling water. One, called "The Emerald," is a circular hole of perhaps
thirty feet in circumference. The water is of the clearest emerald
green, so transparent that one could see right down into it for many
yards. Within a few feet was another hot spring of quite a different
character. In this the stuff that bubbled up was of a thick leaden
colour; others were pouring forth streams of red, green, and yellow, all
pervaded with a strong smell of sulphur. A spring called "The Paint Pot"
is a great cauldron of perhaps 150 feet in circumference. On one side
the deposit thrown out is of a bright salmon colour. This is a lake of
pure creamy boiling paint, like liquid plaster of Paris.
[Illustration: "THE FAIRY FALLS."]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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