STEEP TRAILS 



Under certain conditions you may hear the 

 roar of the water rushing from the rock at a 

 distance of half a mile, or even more; or you 

 may not hear it until within a few rods. It 

 comes in a grand, eager gush from a horizontal 

 seam in the face of the wall of the river-gorge 

 in the form of a partially interrupted sheet 

 nearly seventy-five yards in width, and at a 

 height above the river-bed of about forty feet, 

 as nearly as I could make out without the 

 means of exact measurement. For about fifty 

 yards this flat current is in one unbroken sheet, 

 and flows in a lacework of plashing, upleaping 

 spray over boulders that are clad in green silky 

 algae and water-mosses to meet the smaller 

 part of the river, which takes its rise farther 

 up. Joining the river at right angles to its 

 course, it at once swells its volume to three 

 times its size above the spring. 



The vivid green of the boulders beneath the 

 water is very striking, and colors the entire 

 stream with the exception of the portions 

 broken into foam. The color is chiefly due to 

 a species of algae which seems common in 

 springs of this sort. That any kind of plant 

 can hold on and grow beneath the wear of so 

 boisterous a current seems truly wonderful, 

 even after taking into consideration the free- 

 dom of the water from cutting drift, and the 

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