| Show u ean JAN T IL its old lake by albert R lynian lyman men ilea i are essentially vandals vanla ls the pi of so called civil civilization izat ton demolishes the lent temples ol of nature to erect on their sorry co rry ruins the feeble tom temples ples i ot of art AB B a virgin wilderness san juan held raire rare birds a and nd rare animals in the sacredness of her Ji shu maintained sanctuaries of shade and quiet where nothing broke into the silence burthe bu la 11 ahe voice of breezes and ai creams reanis and la happy appy creatures at the noisy tread of approaching men the birds birds flew away the animals ran to hide or lie die in ali the rocks and hungry sheep and cattle and horses gnawed theold sanctuaries down to the bare eart earah k of course the utes and their savage sak predecessors had been here a long jong time but they were vere naturalize ed be sure to get the meaning not simply recorded as citizens citizen s in some artificial government but initiated into the wonderous freed free masonry of all outdoors to live ani and let live in natures parks and amoda among the flora and fauna which made them hem beautiful old san juan maintained an uri unusual like lake it would be there still aa as p worthy ornament of the millennium had it been left to tile the naturalized red men but it has sur suffered fored tile the fate of the great auk the fate of the mighty herds of american bison the fate of a long lon train of natures a lures beau bea thac I 1 she world have preserved preserve 4 1 to the indefinite future wo we shall not undertake to describe natures Natu ies airet steps towards making tile the lake inke she no doubt had it on li ir blueprint blue print from the lazy hazy past in that remote past she carved out three canyons in the hard rand stone stona I 1 and brought them together tope lher at onu ono junction oil in the middle canyon above the junction she developed two sparkling spi ings and down thru the green valley where they ran shu she sent great floods to cut a channel fifty feet deep and indefinitely wide sometime la later ter a roaring torrent came down one of the side canyons end and built a great delta of sa sand i nd across the channel of the middle canyon conforming forming a reservoir of muddy water more than a mile long alien when the clouds pr pi that big storn storm cleared adiv away ay this muddy young lake stood there above a datu of sand thru which it could easily have lave er boded a channel and ripped off to the colorado river if bome fome young vandal lla had been there with a hoe for a minute to give it a start or it nature had forgotten lier ier blue i print and sent more rain right then down that middle canyon there would have been no lake instead of that she sprinkled a billion tiny seeds over that sand dam and withheld the till those seeds bea a billion plants with their hair like loots gripping the surface of the dam dama and making it into a tough sod when tile the flood of the next storm ran ian out ol of the lake over 01 er that dam the ilia veedy und and grass glass prevented pic vented it from cutting a channel but it if that dam was vas to carry cany ou on to tile the bipes tg es ii as it must bu be made wider alder and lilg higher lieF and I 1 trong pi still so the west vest wind put sand in lit gross grass nud and made it higher lil ghei aid ad li IL built the sod out 01 over er tile the water till it had made quite an area of nodland sod land 1 that was vas really resting on the lake hakea being spongy and light because of ifs its is thick network of roots A luxuriant fringe of rushes and cat falls alls waved along tile the s shore here and ving filing things found their heir way to it from all around that glittering water in the heart of a thirsting bir sting wild erness drew diew all tile the birds of the fie sky fis es a loadstone diaks or 11 ws steel the neild goose aimed his hs long neck to wards it as soon as it camp came in sight and lie he coasted down to its clear v waves aves arith all the flock flo ck at his tall moor hens and divers and a dozen species of ducks swarn over it ana nested in its forest of flags and wire grass enss wading birds great and andi binell prospected its shores in de delight if abi that spongy nodland growing out from the west vest shore shoie yielded to tile the swell and sink of the waves naves when the vand blew and some of it broke off in slices twenty five to fifty feet long and became floating islands to I 1 1089 and lecross the lake with each change of the ivind the sight of those rush covered cohered islands ii loftly before beffie the lie breeze was ft as a pic ure uie not to be forgotten for a memo memory sure suie to bring legretti reg retti when hen recalled called le in conne clon with the fate tint that befell them that tile the lake was vas fifty reet feet loop deep when nature hist first filled the newly made basin Is only a guess it may have wo been deeper for after the sediment of many floods hid had been spread over its bottom luring during an indefinite number of apes ages it was vas still more than forty feet deep when two boung cow cowpunchers punchers went out on a raft and teeing a stone on the end eld I 1 of iwo wo lasso ropes let it down to the distant bottom but dont think its first water was muddy that it cobit conten inu ed to be a muddy like lake on tile the ann roary it became crystal clear like tile the water of the two distal crystal always pouring into it the lalie lake bottom sloped down from the shore in very few places neatly neaily every where its sides dropped abruptly r t I 1 the ho water impi file and the great bonde wonderland r of its clear depths could be plainly seen from the shore 0 tho the aisles and arches aiches and bowers bois or green seaweed sea weed Al monster onster frogs plunged hoad first to hide amon adiong them and as they glided from sight their great legs straight out boli behind fild nud heir arms aims held close to their aides ides they inspired a jealous wish to be a frog with ability to dive into I 1 this is real fully fairy land in the shade of the trees and tho willows a chorus of gay birds everead it and 12 d c fear clear water rippling thru tanu the grass glass a mall man biad i jad but to tura tuia lifs eyes to the gray lint hat rocks all around to fell fei the tremendous contrast halt half a mile away amo among the smooth bald hills of solid rock one could fancy himself hopelessly dl seani distant from all water ater and lull hii life nud and ills his first glimpse odthe of the sur surface facet Is IB likely to impress lin him aia ah bathing but a cruel mirage milage it Is doubtful whether the united states lias has any other place it with ath so much of 0 the earth stark naked oi of any mantle of soil for miles ata at a stretch a seed might find no more chance to germinate gei minate than if it were on a root f of galvanized zd lion fron placing ris pils vonder lake with its teeming cifu in the lie jory voa 11 heart of such 14 ai region of despair Is but the antall ling justice of natures generous ger erous compan compensation alfon this was the lake that surp surprised risea tile d of filhe the sun son juan pioneers in the 66 winter of 1819 80 lie lake that Is no more moio when those eliose four special scouts from hole holc lii in the rock weary with ith the most lure dure landscape they had evely seen cabe came suddenly to view that oasis hasib hidden away avav in the very ver heart of it ij they no doubt felt a creat thrill tin oi of courier vo lider and thanksgiving and con ceedee arain that providence was still kind and after resting on its grassy sheile they pursued tile their ir perilous journey avith renewed le cour are arc but the old plute legend of the liu lake tile the reasons why it could not neure the presence pie sence of modern model n men and the unaccountable element clement of tery which to lov and other things must wait alt till til alio ll 11 3 nv dext issue |
