Glimpses of America: A Pictorial and Descriptive History of Our Country's Scenic MarvelsBuel, James W. (James William)
History
Glimpses of America: A Pictorial and Descriptive History of Our Country's Scenic Marvels
Buel, James W. (James William)
United States -- Pictorial works
THE DEVIL’S SLIDE, WEBER CAÑON.—This great natural curiosity is in
Weber Cañon, about forty miles north of Salt Lake City. It is
composed of two parallel walls of white sandstone, thrown up by some
ancient convulsion of the earth, which stand out in bold contrast
with the dark red sandstone of the hill. The “Slide” is nearly 800
feet in length, the walls rising to a varying height of twenty to
forty feet above the general surface of the hill. A few feet to the
left of the “Slide” there is another wall of similar formation, but
almost covered by the accumulated washings of centuries. It is a
pity that so remarkable a curiosity should have received so profane
an appellation; but we presume there would be no regrets if the
devil should be required to take a hasty run down the top of the
ragged and jutting walls of his famous slide.
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[Illustration: TEA-POT ROCK, GREEN RIVER.]
It is a little more than one hundred miles from Pocatello to Shoshone
Station, at which point we left the train, and by private conveyance
struck across the lava fields, a distance of twenty-five miles due
south, over the dustiest wagon-road that mortal ever traveled. The way
is like a switch-back, up and down over sharp waves of lava, with
desolation and discomfort obtrusive companions, and nothing rising above
the dull undulations except a purplish tint in the horizon, marking with
faint intimation a range of mountains one hundred miles away in Utah.
For more than four hours we traversed this wearying stretch of parched
and begrimed desert, without a sign of the river, until at length
turning the base of a higher ridge we came suddenly upon the brink of a
tremendous chasm, and there, 1,200 feet below our feet, was the river
which we had journeyed so far to view. Long before reaching this
objective point, we had heard a deep, rumbling noise that seemed to
emanate from the earth’s internals, but now, with astounded sense of the
awful, we beheld the cause. There before us was the vexed waters of a
large river pouring over two precipices, the first 82 feet and the
second 210 feet high, producing by the final plunge a colossal caldron,
from which the mists rose up in boiling clouds that ever and anon hid
the falls from sight.
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[Illustration:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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