The Log School-House on the Columbia

as a reading-book. Master Mann had adopted it because it was eas

t, on the Falls of the Missouri; and the incident seeme

day after this poetic part of Lewis

u mean?" as

e, and we go

ha

ck eagle

hy

t here. Please father. I

i at that time. The old chief would be glad to have Benjamin go with him and help hunt, and carry the canoe. They would follow the Salmon River out of the Columb

ectly happy. He had already been over a part of this terr

ouri Rivers is serene, and yet kindles, with a sort of

dition with a few Indians, who were to see the

ic soul, and he felt that he was trea

st plains might become overwhelmed him at times, and

, during most of the time on the Salmon River, and while passing through the mounta

e sudden changes of mood

you turn sad

tla

at is a

aw

not, Be

ves you; you love me and treat me well; he loves you, and want to treat you well-see. She make trouble. Ind

S OF THE

h grand traditions. Before we follow our young explorer to the place, let us give y

k eagle's nest over the plunging torrent of water-the nest famous, d

as claimed, came from this nest amid the mists and rainbows. The fall n

few miles distant. But it gathers the spell of poetic tradition about it, and strongly appeals to the sense of

lovely fountains in the wor

de the grea

kes its s

g of spark

ver broad

down into this fountain from a point near enough for him to touch his nose to the water, all the fairy-like scenes of the Silver Springs and the Waukulla Spring in Florida appear. The royal halls and chambers of Undine

Blackfeet Indians and other Indian tribes. It is related in the old traditions that the Piegans,

me the war

ay to figh

its verge,

mean the po

tain rose and fell and gurgled, as if in spasm

untain trouble

to the sun. It asks for offerings. We cast the spoils of war into it, and it car

as a medicine or sacred river in the tribal days, and it was in this region of gle

s height, gleaming arrows were shot into the air. Above them, in their poetic vision, sat the Sun in his tepee. They held that the thunder was caused by the wings of a great invisible bird. Often, at the close of the Sun-dance on the sultry days, the clouds would gather, and the thunder-bird would

A long stairway of two hundred or more steps conducts the tourist into their very mist-land of rocks and surges. Here one is alm

nearly a hundred feet, and has a roar like that of Niagar

tes (hills with level tops) rise like giant pyramids here and there, and one may almost imagine that he is in the land of the Pharaohs. Bench lands diversify the wide plains. Ranches and

t to be made a State park. Here one fancies one's self to be amid the ruins of castles, cathedrals, and fortresses, so fantastic are the shapes of the broken mountain-w

o, has its deli

ity as the State of Montana grows, and she se

n the 12th of May, 1744, this expedition visited the upper Missouri, and planted on an eminence, probably in the near region of Great Falls, a leaden plate bearing the arms of France, and

the arms of France that the explorers buried. The search for this hidden plate will one day begin, and the

ds, our young explorers came, now paddling in their airy c

ribes that they met on the way, but Benjamin's brigh

eat nest still was there. It was as is des

and, strangely enough, there were re

h a kind of religious awe. His e

e for me, one for father, and o

. The black eagles were yet there, though their nest was empty. He passed up th

was true

now called the Sun River, and

d warriors were arrayed in crystals, quartz, and every bright prod

butaries of the Columbia. Benjamin appeared before his father, on his return, with a crest of

ays," he said to his f

er, with a face that

ther," sai

her," repli

" said B

answered

rever, from that day, Umatilla or Young Eagle's Plume was seen, each wore the black feather fro

a school of poetry. The Potlatch was sentiment, and the Sun-dance was an actual poem. Many of the tents of

often wrote down her impressions, and read them to practical Mrs. Woods, who

ay, "but they don't amount to a

e schoolmaster, to whom he became daily more and more attached. In fact, the Indian boy came to follow his teacher about with a kind of jealous wat

d flocks passed in long processions overhead, honking in a trumpet-like manner. Som

" said Mr. Mann on

w known as Whidby, where there were great

r than the bushes there-the ponds are all aliv

ver for the fall we w

to the wonderful Falls. He would there show the master the great water cities of the

d watch them with a heart full of anticipation. It made him supremely happy to show the master the wonderful