Then, Rowing Across A Belt Of Back-Flowing Water, We
Found Ourselves On A Smooth Mirror Reach Between Granite Walls Of The
Very Wildest And Most Exciting Description, Surpassing In Some Ways
Those Of The Far-Famed Yosemite Valley.
As we drifted silent and awe-stricken beneath the shadows of the
mighty cliffs, which, in their tremendous height
And abruptness,
seemed to overhang at the top, the Indians gazing intently, as if
they, too, were impressed with the strange, awe-inspiring grandeur
that shut them in, one of them at length broke the silence by saying,
"This must be a good place for woodchucks; I hear them calling."
When I asked them, further on, how they thought this gorge was made,
they gave up the question, but offered an opinion as to the formation
of rain and soil. The rain, they said, was produced by the rapid
whirling of the earth by a stout mythical being called Yek. The water
of the ocean was thus thrown up, to descend again in showers, just as
it is thrown off a wet grindstone. They did not, however, understand
why the ocean water should be salt, while the rain from it is fresh.
The soil, they said, for the plants to grow on is formed by the
washing of the rain on the rocks and gradually accumulating. The
grinding action of ice in this connection they had not recognized.
Gliding on and on, the scenery seemed at every turn to become
more lavishly fruitful in forms as well as more sublime in
dimensions - snowy falls booming in splendid dress; colossal domes and
battle meets and sculptured arches of a fine neutral-gray tint, their
bases raved by the blue fiord water; green ferny dells; bits of
flower-bloom on ledges; fringes of willow and birch; and glaciers
above all.
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