A short distance across the open prairie and up the river toward
Minneapolis—on the return—is the famed
MINNEHAHA FALLS.
Longfellow's exquisite picture—in words—of these falls seems so perfect and complete that we cannot forbear to quote it. He says:
"Sweet Minne-ha-ha like a child at play,
Comes gaily dancing o'er her pebbly way,
'Till reaching with surprise the rocky ledge,
With gleeful laugh bounds from its crested edge."
And what can we say of them that shall be new or of fresh interest either to those who have read of, or what is better, have seen them? After viewing and listening to their laughing-leap we easily understand the fitness of the name they bear—the "Laughing Waters."
The first sight of the falls is captivating, and there seems little of praise which you could wish to withhold. They are the very antipodes of those of Niagara—instead of volume and power inspiring awe, they win your love and enhance your views of the beautiful and good.
The waters
"Flash and gleam among the oak trees,
Laugh and leap into the valley,"
and move gaily and gleefully among the maples, oaks, and vines which line and wreathe its banks; rivalling in song the wild birds that linger in the cool shadows of the embowering trees.
Minnehaha Creek has its rise in Lake Minnetonka, a dozen miles or more distant, where it is quite a diminutive little brook; from thence runs to and through Lakes Calhoun and Harriet, meandering along the surface of the country, till it makes its graceful leap at the falls to the chasm, some forty feet below, then empties into the Mississippi about half-a-mile distant to the eastward. The width of the stream and falls does net much exceed twenty feet.