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
“Away back in remote ages, over the withered breast of the desert, a
river of fire, 100 miles wide and 400 miles long, was turned. As the
fiery mass cooled, its red waves became transfixed, and turned black,
giving to the double-desert an indescribably blasted and forbidding
face.
“But while this river of fire was in flow, a river of water was fighting
its way across it, or has since made war and forged out for itself a
channel through the mass. This channel looks like the grave of a volcano
that had been robbed of its dead. But right between its crumbling and
repellent walls, transfiguration appears. And such a picture! A river as
lordly as the Hudson or Ohio, springing from the distant snow-crested
Tetons, with waters transparent as glass, but green as emerald, with
majestic flow and ever-increasing volume, sweeps on until it reaches
this point where the display begins.
“Suddenly, in different places in the river-bed, jagged rocky reefs are
upheaved, dividing the current into four rivers, and these, in a mighty
plunge of eighty feet downward, dash on their way. Of course the waters
are churned into foam, and roll over the precipice white as are the
garments of the morning when no cloud obscures the sun. The loveliest of
these falls is called “The Bridal Veil,” because it is made of the lace
which is woven with a warp of falling waters and a woof of sunlight.
Above this and near the right bank, is a long trail of foam, and this is
called “The Bridal Trail.” The other channels are not so fair as the one
called “The Bridal Veil,” but they are more fierce and wild, and carry
in their ferocious sweep more power.
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[Illustration:
WEBER VALLEY, AND TUNNEL THROUGH GRANITE WALLS, UTAH.—We have a
beautiful landscape and a grand mountain view combined in this fine
photograph. The rugged wall of granite, through which the railroad
tunnel has been cut, forms an appropriate frame for the picture of
the peaceful valley and the winding river. The place has a restful
look, inviting to the weary worker who seeks rest and health away
from the noise and hustle of city life. Here, shut in by the
surrounding walls, and with rod in hand, one could sit upon the
banks of the mirror-like stream and imagine himself out of the world
and away from all its cares and worries. It seems almost a pity that
the demands of modern commerce should require the cutting of the
hill and the breaking of the solitude by the screaming of the
rushing locomotive.
]
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[Illustration: PETRIFIED TREES OF THE BAD LANDS.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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