Black Lake

“ So your gentlemen in flannel shirt and foxed breeches would recommend, and they mean well. But if enthusiasm is pardonable at all, it may be overlooked in a man fresh from his books and his daily, dull routine, suddenly set down in the midst of such evidences of God’s handiwork as one finds here. The ordained discoverers of Black Lake did not, evidently, adopt the reticent method of expressing their veneration for the grand surroundings, and their delight at the beautiful lake so unexpectedly revealed to them. ”

“ Black Lake portage was now haunted. At daybreak he stuck a notice on the rough cabin wall that this was "Travellers' Rest" for those who wanted it, cut a pile of firewood, put fresh meadow hay in the bunks, loaded his own canoe, and, squatting Indian fashion in the middle, struck off down the Yukon. He did not yet know where he was going, but he would know soon.
A week later he decided that Ragged Creek was poor ground, and disappeared up country. The strength of the man, his wisdom in the wilderness, and the driving force that seemed to urge him on, made labour a thing of small account. ”

“ Perhaps our underworld is here, the dusk beneath the lake.
Through summer twilight once I gazed towards the hills
And saw, along the forest side, some figures strange
Like troops, descending to a cavern deep in rocks.
They seemed no human shapes but rather wisps of cloud,
Through trunks they moved, from branch to branch among the brake,
Before the eye could catch them, drawing near and low
And then, like greyish cloud, dissolving in the lake.
Each day death sends them forth, from living tables haled,
And night-time is too short for all to pass below. ”

“ The water was unusually high, full of melted snow and lumps of ice. The journey across the open lakes had been cold and dangerous, and the moment the boom headed into the narrow stream it started off in a wild rush, with a clumsy galloping motion of its great logs that filled the woods round with deep echoes. This headlong career down stream of an army of tree trunks has something uncanny, even horrible, about it. They seem almost alive, like some antediluvian monsters escaping from the lake in preconcerted onslaught, their ribs black and shining, snorting as they go, irresistible, terrific. ”

“ Finally an expansion of the stream brought them to Black lake. It was during this stretch that they came upon the only human beings they had so far encountered—five tents of Chepawyans, hunting and fishing in an otherwise deserted land.
They could afford but one day to enjoy the hospitality of the Indians. From Black lake, the river tumbles in two wild cascades to the level of Lake Athabaska. A series of rapids, cutting through a high hill, warned them that they were approaching the first of the falls. ”

“ This tree resists the action of air and water longer than any other, and, if not submerged throughout the whole year, will retain life for an extraordinary period. Lake Bistineau, as well as Black Lake, Cado Lake, Spanish Lake, Natchitoches Lake, and many others, have been formed, according to Darby, by the gradual elevation of the bed of Red River, in which the alluvial accumulations have been so great as to raise its channel, and cause its waters, during the flood season, to flow up the mouths of many tributaries, and to convert parts of their courses into lakes. ”

“ The summits of these mountains are of almost every figure, from the arch, to the bold, bluff, and sharp cone. In some instances, the loftier ones are bald, solemn, and forbidding; in others, they are clothed and crowned with verdure. It is the peculiarity of Lake George, that, while all the world agrees to speak only of its loveliness, it is surrounded by features of the highest grandeur and sublimity. The Black Mountain is one of these; and there is every variety of chasm, crag, promontory, and peak, which a painter would require for the noblest composition of mountain scenery. ”

“ Mary’s Lakes in October, 1882, in company with Charles Phemmister, James Rutherford, Charles Carter, and Oliver Sanderville, all old plainsmen, good company, and best of hunters. We outfitted for the trip at the Old Agency, on Badger Creek, Blackfeet Reservation, and started northward. There was no trail after leaving the crossing of Little or Milk River, and we struck up country toward the big gap in the mountains, in which we knew the lakes must lie, and that evening camped on the shore of a large prairie lake that was black with ducks. ”

“ Ti kdyby zaplakali pro národu hoře,
to černé jezero by vzrostlo v černé moře,
ti kdyby z živých prsou vzdechli, pozaštknuli,
svým vzdechem jezero by z břehů vymrsknuli!
Ach nekliden je asi pod vodami sen
a porván vzdechy těch, již spolu dole leží,
však jsou to umrlců již tiché vzdechy jen,
a povrchem to jako lehký mrazík běží.
(1834–1891)
THE BLACK LAKE
So silent lies the water, deep and deathly sad:
Around, the silent wood, like grieving myrtle dark,
The dreaming shore, and brown the moss that on it grows,
And any flower the moss reveals is pale as wax. ”

“ People feared to pass by this lake. The region had a bad repute for robbers, and travellers made up strong parties if they had to go this way. In fact the lake was commonly known as "Dakate Kaladighi", the Black Lake of the Dacoits. The solitary shopkeeper was suspected of being in league with thieves. As for me, I entertained no fears. There were
many attendants with me—sixteen bearers, four armed retainers, and others as well. ”

“ The man who loves the breath of the storm and the glow of excitement will loose his boat from Tallac when the clouds swing down the canyon and speed forth borne, as it were, on the wings of the waves toward the distant foot of the Lake—past the black water wall where the waves of Emerald Bay sweep into Tahoe, through the frothy waters where the wind shifts and whips around Rubicon Point, over the white caps of Meek's Bay until by skillful maneuvering the jutting cape is weathered and quieter water is found in McKinney Bay. ”

“ Deep silence fell about the little camp, planted there so audaciously in the jaws of the wilderness. The lake gleamed like a sheet of black glass beneath the stars. The cold air pricked. In the draughts of night that poured their silent tide from the depths of the forest, with messages from distant ridges and from lakes just beginning to freeze, there lay already the faint, bleak odors of coming winter. ”

“ On the eastern shore, Black Mountain rises above any other height on the lake, and the view which we beheld as we passed from Fourteen Mile Island down the Narrows is one of the finest in the world. Now we were drifting under the cliffs at the base of the mountain, and, looking up its abrupt sides—a series of rocky spurs covered principally with hemlocks and cedar—we saw two eagles soaring above the thin clouds which floated half-way up. Throughout this portion the lake varies from one to two miles in width. ”

“ We shall see." His return to Red River on this occasion was one that even he confessed to be "tedious and toilsome." He actually took forty-nine days to reach his destination, starting from Galena, on the Mississippi river. On his northward journey he reached the establishment of the Presbyterian missionaries at Red Lake, in Minnesota. Supplied by these kind friends with pemican, bread, and flour, Mr. Black and his voyageur, about the end of October, pushed through Red Lake in their birch bark canoe, the missionary having to paddle as well as the boatman. ”

“ The flanks of the Purple Mountain have been planed down by the moving ice, and the rocky amphitheatre which the guides choose for the production of echoes has been scooped and polished by the same agency. Near the point where the road from the Gap joins that up the Black Valley is a slab of rock, which rivals the famous Höllen Platte in Haslithal. The Black Valley, indeed, was the mould through which a great glacier from the adjacent mountains moved, ‘unhasting, unresting,’ grinding the rocks right and left, and filling the entire basin now occupied by the waters of the Upper Lake. ”

“ The road sometimes descends to the margin of the lake, and again rises to a high shelf, winding round and up very steep masses of projecting rock, blown up for the purpose of making the road, whose towering fragments, huge and solid, hang over the narrow way just the width of a carriage. At about fifteen miles from Inverness, I came within sight of the Black Rock, and it seemed as if it were impossible to pass by it; In truth, it does require courage and steady horses to perform it, it being a narrow shelf blown out of the rocks ”

“ Long, Black, Thunder, Ouzel, and Poudre Lakes have charms peculiar to each, and each is well worth a visit. Lake Mills, in the lower end of Glacier Gorge, is one of the largest lakes in the Park. The largest lake that I know of in the Rocky Mountain National Park is Lake Nanita. This is about one mile long and half as wide, and reposes in that wilderness of wild topography about midway between Grand Lake and Long's Peak. There are mountain people living within eight or ten miles of this lake who have never even heard of its existence. ”

“ Left the aspiring village of Black River or "Lorraine," as the inhabitants are disposed to call it, at nine o'clock, stopping at the Lake House, Vermillion, for dinner. The scenery is very attractive along the Lake Shore Road between Black River and Huron, and I followed it all day and for two or three hours after nightfall, covering a distance of twenty miles. My sense of the beautiful was somewhat dimmed, however, by the cloud of mosquitoes which beset my path, and which were hardly persuaded to part company at the hotel. ”

“ Playa-lakes, that form in the wet season and vanish again during the summer months, occur in a great number of the desert valleys and small inclosed basins to be found in the arid region between the Sierra Nevadas and the Wahsatch range. Some of these annual lakes are of considerable dimensions. On the northern part of the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, where Quin's River enters the desert from the northeast, a shallow lake is formed during the rainy season that is reported to be from ten to fifteen miles broad and as much as forty or fifty miles in length. ”

“ The winter had been one of great blessing to the newly-founded church. There had, however, been a great fall of snow and the swamps and streams had been filled with water in the autumn. The Red and Assiniboine rivers run through flat prairie lands, and an overflow in time of high water is very possible. In 1826 the valley of the Red River had been flooded, the water reaching in a [Pg 72] great lake for miles across the country. The fathers of Kildonan remembered that former date when in 130 tents they had dwelt on Stony Mountain and the higher lands back from the river. ”

“ At this place is very great Rocky stones, fit to make Mill-stones, with very rich tracts of Land, and in some places between the head of Farmers Chase River and Black water Lake, is ground that gives very probable proofe of an Iron, or some other rich Mine. Some sixteen miles from Farmers Chase, North, and by East, and North, North East, lies Black water Lake, which hath very much rich land about it, and with little labour will be made very passable. ”

“ “I have seen,” he said, “the most beautiful scenes of my own country; I have visited the lakes of Lucerne and Uri, where the snowy mountains descend almost perpendicularly to the water, casting black and impenetrable shades, which would cause a gloomy and mournful appearance were it not for the most verdant islands that relieve the eye by their gay appearance; I have seen this lake agitated by a tempest, when the wind tore up whirlwinds of water and gave you an idea of what the water-spout must be on the great ocean; ”

“ The whole region on the north is woody, low and marshy. The water is clear, deep, and full of fish; the bottom gravelly; and the entire shore covered with reeds and rushes. The trees which abound here are the pine, oak, elm, maple, birch, and poplar; and the fish are principally the trout, pike, and black bass. The Mississippi when it leaves this lake is only about twenty feet wide, but after passing through a great number of lakes it spreads itself out to the width of one hundred and fifty feet, and empties into Red Cedar Lake. ”

“ The record fails to show whether these country roads are passable in all kinds of weather. They seem to be at least six to eight miles off the state or interstate roads over which interstate travelers are accustomed to travel. Petitioners did not offer evidence to show whether Lake Nixon is a natural lake, or whether it is simply a small body of water obtained by building a dam across a little creek in a narrow hollow between the hills. The District Court made findings about Lake Nixon and Spring Lake [2] as follows:
'Both are accessible by country roads ”

“ The linen thread is given them by the merchants, who pay them at the rate of from 2d. to 41⁄2d. the yard, according to the breadth of the lace, from 2 to 4 inches. A most industrious lace-maker can earn 1 fr. per day. 31⁄4 m. S.W. from Le Beage in an extinct crater is the lake Issarlès, occupying a surface of 222 acres.
From Le Beage the trachytic mountain of Mezenc (pronounce Mezing) is visited. But the best plan is to go on to Les Etables, 4410 ft. ”

“ When the Authority was faced with the problem of justly compensating the occupants of the forty-four thousand acre area between the Fontana Dam Lake and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina and Swain County for the destruction of Highway No. 288, it could within its delegated powers purchase or condemn the lands affected or build a substitute highway whichever appeared cheaper. The United States is not barred from the exercise of good business judgment in its construction work. ”