Where the Falls of Minnehaha,
Flash and gleam among the oak-trees,
Laugh and leap into the valley.”
St. Paul, “the diadem1 city of the northwest,” situated2 on high bluffs4, at a bend of the river, looked very imposing5 in the light of a glowing sunset. The noisy cries of the hackmen and runners for the different hotels filled the air as the boat touched the wharf6. Fourteen of the passengers took the stage for St. Anthony’s Falls. Norman was seated on the top of the stage-coach. The glimmering7 twilight8 and the pale moonlight were not, however, very favorable for distant views of a new country. Companies of emigrants9 had pitched their tents and 101kindled their fire to cook their evening meal. The light played upon the faces of parents and children grouped around the fire, and fell upon the white cover of the prairie wagons10, near which the horses were tied.
There were glimpses of the Mississippi, of a large hotel and a high observatory11; and exclamations12 from sleepy children at the great musquetos lighting13 upon their faces in the darkness. There was a sound of waters in the air, and a great building loomed14 up in the dim light, and they were at the Winslow House. Great halls, large parlors15 richly furnished, and bed-rooms with velvet16 carpets and luxuriously17 stuffed chairs. Very grand for the northwest. It was past eleven o’clock, and the wearied travelers were glad to seek repose18.
At four o’clock in the morning Mrs. Lester was awakened19 by a knock at her door. It was from an untiring fellow-traveler, 102who wished to see all that was to be seen in time to return to the Grey Eagle at ten. Mrs. Lester thanked her, but said she could not get ready in time, and from her window she watched the lady, her brother, and her niece on their way to the falls and the bridge. Sightseeing seemed particularly unattractive in that grey morning twilight that clothes the landscape with a more sober livery than that of evening.
After some ineffectual attempts to arouse Norman, Mrs. Lester went to the observatory, at the top of the great hotel, to see the sun rise. It was a noble view; the town of St. Anthony immediately beneath the eye; the Mississippi, with its falls, suspension bridge, and wooded island above, and the rocky chasm20 below; Minneapolis, with its spires21 and fine hotels, on the opposite side of the river, and the boundless22 prairie meeting the sky in that encircling horizon.
103
No. 666.
FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY.
105At length Norman was awakened, and after sundry23 calls from his mother to hasten his movements, he sallied forth24 with her for a walk. Walking down the street for some distance, they crossed a little bridge leading past a large stone mill, and after scrambling25 over a stony26 path, they came to the edge of the river and in view of the falls. Norman’s disappointment was great. “Why, mother,” said he, “have we come all this distance to see these falls?”
In truth they were not very imposing. The stream above was filled with logs, floated down to be sawed in the mill, and many of them were lodged27 above and below the fall, while a shingle-machine was built in the center. Man’s work had taken away all the wild grace of nature.
The fall is only seventeen feet high, but the whole scene looks finely from the bridge below, and from the Minneapolis side, whence it was seen by the party that 106set out on their rambles28 at four o’clock in the morning.
It was a very warm morning, but near the river the air was cool and refreshing29, and Norman gathered wild roses and rose-buds in all their dewy freshness. The charm of early birds, too, was not wanting at Owah-Menah, the musical Indian name, changed by Father Hennepin, a French missionary30, who visited this spot in 1680, to St. Anthony’s Falls.
As the falls of a mighty31 river, they are worth seeing; and they are at the point of transition from the prairies of the Upper Mississippi, to the rugged32 limestone33 bluffs below; oaks growing above, and cedars34 and pines below.
On their way to the hotel Norman gathered some purple flowers growing in great profusion35, while his mother wandered to the suspension bridge so gracefully36 thrown over the river, looked at the 107pretty wooded island, and at the mass of drift logs collected in the boom.
After a nice and beautifully served breakfast, Norman and his mother got into a carriage to return to St. Paul and the Grey Eagle. They would have liked to spend the day at St. Paul, but Mrs. Lester was anxious to return home, as she thought she would be able to do, before the Sabbath. They crossed the suspension bridge, drove through Minneapolis, called to say good-by to Mrs. Lisle and the children, who had added so much to the pleasure of their river travel, and then rapidly over the broad prairie.
Their attention was attracted by a lonely tomb, deeply shaded with trees, on the banks of the Minnehaha, and the driver told them that it was the tomb of the young wife and child of an officer of the army, who, when stationed at Fort Snelling, buried his beloved ones on the banks of this romantic stream.
108The driver stopped; they were on the prairie, with nothing to excite expectation.
“The falls of Minnehaha[2]
Did not call them from a distance;
Did not cry to them afar off.”
2. See Frontispiece.
Then getting out of the carriage, and descending38 a narrow path, the fall was before them, perfectly39 satisfying in its beauty; a gem40 of a fall, at once stamping its image on the memory; “a thing of beauty” to be “a joy forever.”
The fall is sixty feet high, and makes one graceful37 leap over an amphitheater of rock, that recedes41 far enough to enable one to walk round behind the fall, beneath the overhanging cliff. One large tree grew on the steep bank on which they stood, sufficiently42 near to make a fine foreground to the picture, and throw its masses of foliage43 across the fall. There was nothing to mar44 the perfect loveliness 109of the scene. A stir in the branches of the great tree against which Norman leaned induced him to look up, and there, upon the bough45,
“With tail erected46
Sat the squirel, Adjidanmo;
In his fur the breeze of morning
Play’d as in the prairie grasses.”
Norman watched him leap surely from branch to branch, over the deep abyss below, and then gathered some pretty flowers within reach, and asked the guide to gather some graceful hare-bells that hung over the steep cliff.
Another look from the head of the falls, and a few more flowers gathered, which they pressed, together with the rose-buds from Owah-Menah, and they got into the carriage.
Soon they reached Fort Snelling, in which Norman was very much interested. They drove round the deserted47 barracks, no longer astir with “the pomp and circumstance 110of war.” Norman would have enjoyed seeing the sentinel on duty and the soldiers on parade. His mother thought of the lonely lives the officers and their families must have led on that frontier post, far, far as it then was from the center of civilized48 life.
The fort commands a noble view, placed as it is on a commanding bluff3 at the junction49 of the Mississippi and the St. Peters rivers. The valley of the St. Peters, sloping upward, with its sunny fields, its aromatic50 grasses, and noble groves51, stretches onward52 in its beauty as far as the eye can reach. In this valley is found the fine red stone of which the Indians make the bowls of their pipes; the red paint the Sioux use so much, and the blue and green clay used in painting, are also found here. This lovely valley had recently been the scene of a bloody53 battle between the Sioux and Chippewas, and the driver told Norman that he had seen 111some of wounded Indians carried through St. Anthony by some of their tribe.
From the earliest times these two nations have been at war; a feud54 transmitted from generation to generation.
How few of these Indians have learned the great lessons of loving kindness which the white men ought to have taught them. Steadily55 retreating from their broad prairies, their great lakes and rivers, before the advancing tread of the white man, they have not, as they gave up their beautiful homes, got a title to a grander and more glorious inheritance in the spirit land. How many have received firewater and fire-arms, at the hand of the white man! how few have taken from him the cup of salvation56! Some of the customs of the Sioux seem to indicate that they have come from Asia, across the narrow straits that divide the two continents. They offer sacrifices and prayers to an unknown God; they have 112feasts of thanksgiving after deliverance from danger; they offer meat and burnt-offerings; they burn incense57. These customs, together with their peculiar58 countenances59 and utterances60, their own traditions, and the testimony61 of other nations, have convinced careful observers that they are descendants of a race of Asiatics.[3]
3. Pike’s Expedition.
The road winds around the hill on which the fort is built, and Norman saw many swallows flying into nests excavated62 in the banks of white sand-stone.
Crossing the river by a rope ferry, they ascended63 the opposite bank, and drove rapidly onward till they stopped to visit Carver’s Cave.
There are several large rooms rounded in the white sand-stone, which crumbles64 at the touch. The floor was of pure white fine sand, powdered, while through the cave flowed a stream clear as crystal. 113Norman stooped and drank freely of the cool refreshing water. He was delighted. “How beautiful these arched walls are,” he exclaimed; “how curious to have such rooms hollowed out of the earth.”
There were other apartments to be reached, through a narrow passage, but the driver had no torch with him, and it was not advisable to venture in the darkness. Norman broke off a piece of the sand-stone as a memorial of the cave, and then hastened to the carriage.
Over the prairie, with its abundant blossoms; along the high bluffs upon which St. Paul is built; through a long busy street; a pause at the door of a gentleman whom Mrs. Lester had known in her old home in the East, and they were once more on the Grey Eagle.
And there was the lady whom they had left at the Winslow House, just getting out of the stage. Her face brightened as she heard of Fort Snelling, the lovely 114Minnehaha, and Carver’s Cave; but then she had had a very satisfactory view of St. Anthony’s Falls, and had been able to verify, in the truth-telling daylight, the vague and indistinct impressions of a moonlight drive.
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1
diadem
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| n.王冠，冕 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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bluffs
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| 恐吓( bluff的名词复数 )； 悬崖； 峭壁 | |
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imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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wharf
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| n.码头，停泊处 | |
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glimmering
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| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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emigrants
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| n.（从本国移往他国的）移民( emigrant的名词复数 ) | |
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10
wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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11
observatory
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| n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台 | |
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exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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13
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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14
loomed
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| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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15
parlors
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| 客厅( parlor的名词复数 )； 起居室； （旅馆中的）休息室； （通常用来构成合成词）店 | |
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16
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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17
luxuriously
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| adv.奢侈地，豪华地 | |
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18
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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19
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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20
chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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21
spires
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| n.（教堂的） 塔尖，尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
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22
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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23
sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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24
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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25
scrambling
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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26
stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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27
lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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28
rambles
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| （无目的地）漫游( ramble的第三人称单数 )； （喻）漫谈； 扯淡； 长篇大论 | |
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29
refreshing
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| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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30
missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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31
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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33
limestone
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| n.石灰石 | |
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34
cedars
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| 雪松，西洋杉( cedar的名词复数 ) | |
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35
profusion
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| n.挥霍；丰富 | |
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36
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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37
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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38
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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39
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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40
gem
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| n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
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41
recedes
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| v.逐渐远离( recede的第三人称单数 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
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42
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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43
foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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44
mar
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| vt.破坏，毁坏，弄糟 | |
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45
bough
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| n.大树枝，主枝 | |
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46
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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47
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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48
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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49
junction
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| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
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aromatic
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| adj.芳香的，有香味的 | |
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51
groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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52
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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53
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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54
feud
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| n.长期不和；世仇；v.长期争斗；世代结仇 | |
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55
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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56
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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57
incense
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| v.激怒；n.香，焚香时的烟，香气 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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countenances
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| n.面容( countenance的名词复数 )；表情；镇静；道义支持 | |
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utterances
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| n.发声( utterance的名词复数 )；说话方式；语调；言论 | |
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61
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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62
excavated
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| v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘 | |
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63
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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64
crumbles
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| 酥皮水果甜点( crumble的名词复数 ) | |
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