The silv'ry salmon leaps the falls;
And everywhere insistent calls
Arise from forest, stream and hill,
To charm the sense or test the skill.
Oft times by restlessness oppressed,
I long to see that lonely crest;
And once again to dream beside
The arch, that's lettered "Great Divide."
[*]A watershed of the Rockies—a stream passing beneath an arch on the summit is divided, one part being directed eastward and the other westward.
Above the Clouds
On the shores of a sea of mist
I chanced to roam,
Where sunlit the surface gleamed
Whiter than foam.
But the voice of the restless main
Was absent there,
For the billows that rolled along
Were waves of air;
And the isles of that silent sea
Were mountain peaks
That, far from the haunts of man,
The wild goat seeks.
O, that day above the clouds
Was bright and fair!
With pines and the sparkling snow
Unsullied there;
But, a thousand fathoms down
A city street
Was shrouded in sunless gloom
Where shadows meet;
It knew not the fairer day
And matchless view;
That snowfields gleamed above
And skies were blue: