This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1847 edition. Excerpt: ...order to give place to the new and beautiful verdure of the month of May, with its smiling and varied flowers--the thousand fountains which we could at one view behold, leaping out with soothing music from the shelves of perpendicular rocks bordering the river--all lent their aid to increase the beauty ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1847 edition. Excerpt: ...order to give place to the new and beautiful verdure of the month of May, with its smiling and varied flowers--the thousand fountains which we could at one view behold, leaping out with soothing music from the shelves of perpendicular rocks bordering the river--all lent their aid to increase the beauty of the scenery of Nature, which, in this region of the Columbia, seems to have put forth all her energy to display her grandeur and magnificence. After some hours of descent we came to Martin's rapid, where a Canadian, so called, together with his son, found a watery grave. Its roar is deafening, and the agitation of the water resembles that of a raging sea-storm. The whole bed of the river is here strewed with immense fragments of rocks. Guided by an expert Iroquois pilot, and aided with ten oars, the boat darted over its boisterous surface, dancing-like and leaping from wave to wave, with the rapidity of lightning. At sunset we were at the Dalle of the Dead. (Dalle is an old French word, meaning a trough, and the name is given by the Canadian voya-geurs to all contracted running waters, hemmed in by walls of rocks.) Here, in 1838, twelve unfortunate travellers were buried in the river. The waters are compressed between a range of perpendicular rocks, presenting innumerable crags, fissures and cliffs, through which the Columbia leaps with irrestible impetuosity, forming, as it dashes along, frightful whirlpools, where every passing object is swallowed and disappears. By means of two long ropes we dropped down our boat through the Dalle, and encamped for the night at its outlet On the 11th we continued our route at early dawn--the mountain scenery was hidden from our view wrapped up in dense mist and fog, which were seen ascending in dense...
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