Show A VERY SINGULAR RIVER an anomaly in int dut little chan Chans geil cil silica thedac alio or of its birth I 1 As I 1 said I 1 know know not what to call this Sigu enay rivers have banks but it lias has none for lofty and precipitous cluiss clif fir mountains mountain of rock precipices diat rise 1000 feet sheer upward from the lie tide and beetling crags these ca cannot finot without misuse of language bo be called river banks nor is it fit to call it a stream ini for a stream is a line of flowing water ii liver veran and a the S ague nay is one from and a half to two miles wide and from to 1000 1 feet in depth and all this nion monstrous str depth of water is in motion nor kor is it an outlet nier merely kly for into it flows tile surplus water 0 lake st joint but this lake is shallow not deep mid and but little more kimn halt half the length of tile the nay and hence its flow age largo large as it is is i but atit a tithe lic pay nay only a hundredth part of what the latter holds and pours into the st Law lawrence daily hence if wo we call the 0 a river it is not bei cause that word ord describes it or is a proper i title to it W but because of its strange chari acle it stands an anomaly in nature and there is no better na nanto give it than to call it a liver its waters are colored nor is their color r like to any other river 1 I have ever seen they have been called black by many writers who have written of them but they are not blackbur black but rather a transparent brown like as common water is when ibi looked ed at through a smoked glass I 1 say transparent for they me lie very pure and clear and dark as they are tho the eye sees deeply and easily into them A white stone or piece or of tin can be perceived at j a great depth as deeply down as they might bo be in tho the waters of tile the horicon honicon Ho which I 1 have ofen afen thought t were the purest ard and tile the cleanest cleastic st in the world moreover the sunbeams penetrate its dark brown currents eaily ea ily and the ion long g lanes lanea of bigl light t shot into the brown depths by tho the solar lays look as the alie sunlight looks when shining through the stained windows of great cathedrals whence its waters get this strange quality this indescribably gloomy and I 1 sinister tinge none can say and savants savanis do not even pretend to guess for all the currents which flow fla v into it are mountain streams ind and crystalline and the contributions of thelca the sea the tidal lift pours into it are clear and blue of tint nor can it come from any coloring matter released by natures chemistry acting act ing upon its rocky walis walls and bottom for the nature of these is known and plain granite quartz and gneiss are the dominant wes but whatever be the cause of it I 1 the color of its mateis is as I 1 have described bed a brown with almost allnott a purple tinge and aad has to the eye seen from a distance a most grew somo some look gloomy and sinister as if it came from some other world than ours whose eliose wat waters unless up less discolored from f rom causes to us ire are pure and sparkling imagine now a vast blume of this strange coolon looking water two miles in width 1000 feet in depth pouring out between a monstrous opening between contiguous mountains mado made by some mighty throe of nature tr availing in agony to bring i forth an aw awful f ul birth an opening which 6 fc not simply a rent made through a lofty range but as if a long iong bagh ridge rid eaf of primeval rock rock old as the be beginning inn ing of the running north and south had been split apart along its entire length of forty miles exactly in the center and the two halves wedged violently apart until the jagged precipitous cas emous sides stood two miles asunder and through this thia tremendous opening through tho the very center of tins this huge ridge of rock a vast deep almost fathomless volume of gloomy colored water began to flow and you have in your mind a fairly good picture of what tho ilic nay was at its birth and what it is today for f all rivers on the globe this from necessity lias has changed the least hero and there tile tho frost and heat the snows and rains of years have worn down the sharp edges and rounded the flinty verge of overhanging precipices here and there the wash and wear of centuries have deposited so much of soil that trees can find a foothold but save this all is ig today on either liand hand as you sail up its darhl darkling ing tide as aa it was when first born in natures darkest dai kest hour and st ernest agony its gloomy currents lygan began to boil and whirl and flow every other river on the face of the tha earth has haa changed its banks and bed but this strange river has changed not cot 2 t all and cannot change until the alie end of time av W 11 II H murray in new york |