Under this shadow, during the cool centuries immediately
following the breaking-up of the Glacial Period, dwelt
a small residual glacier, one of the few that lingered
on this sun-beaten side of the Valley after the main
trunk glacier had vanished. It sent down a long
winding current through the narrow canyon on the west
side of the fall, and must have formed a striking
feature of the ancient scenery of the Valley; the
lofty fall of ice and fall of water side by side, yet
separate and distinct.
The coolness of the afternoon shadow and the abundant
dewy spray make a fine climate for the plateau ferns
and grasses, and for the beautiful azalea bushes that
grow here in profusion and bloom in September, long
after the warmer thickets down on the floor of the
Valley have withered and gone to seed. Even close
to the fall, and behind it at the base of the cliff,
a few venturesome plants may be found undisturbed by
the rock-shaking torrent.
The basin at the foot of the fall into which the current
directly pours, when it is not swayed by the wind,
is about ten feet deep and fifteen to twenty feet
in diameter. That it is not much deeper is surprising,
when the great height and force of the fall is considered.
But the rock where the water strikes probably suffers
less erosion than it would were the descent less than
half as great, since the current is outspread, and
much of its force is spent ere it reaches the bottom—being
received on the air as upon an elastic cushion, and
borne outward and dissipated over a surface more than
fifty yards wide.
This surface, easily examined when the water is low,
is in tensely clean and fresh looking. It is
the raw, quick flesh of then mountain wholly untouched
by the weather. In summer droughts when the snowfall
of the preceding winter has been light, the fall is
reduced to a mere shower of separate drops without
any obscuring spray. Then we may safely go back
of it and view the crystal shower from beneath, each
drop wavering and pulsing as it makes its way through
the air, and flashing off jets of colored light of
ravishing beauty. But all this is invisible from
the bottom of the Valley, like a thousand other interesting
things. One must labor for beauty as for bread,
here as elsewhere.
During the time of the spring floods the best near
view of the fall is obtained from Fern Ledge on the
east side above the blinding spray at a height of
about 400 feet above the base of the fall. A climb
of about 1400 feet from the Valley has to be made,
and there is no trail, but to any one fond of climbing
this will make the ascent all the more delightful.
A narrow part of the ledge extends to the side of the
fall and back of it, enabling us to approach it as
closely as we wish. When the afternoon sunshine
is streaming through the throng of comets, ever wasting,
ever renewed, fineness, firmness and variety of their
