The weekly Arizona miner., 1873-10-18
Wonders of the Colorado.


 of Major Powelrs second expedition to the canon of the Colorado r.ycr, from which we extract the following;
 Natures work in this canon country is on the most magnificent s'nle. The plans are vide, the mountains and the walls ot perpen- dicular cliffs hemmcd it in unbroken, and Tor many miles together impossible. The gorges are deep, and the color intense There IS prodigalty of everything but water, and the vegetable and animal life which cannot sub sist without it. The Grand Canon the cen tral feature of the whole, is for 21O miles an . impossible gorge, whose sides range from . l,O00 feet to one mile ard quarter in per | pendcular height, cut through the solid rock ! by the wild impetuous river that flows through it.. Its general course is east and west; but it IS exceedingly tOrtuous and IT, 1 regular in its direction. Into it there breaks innumerabe side canous, whose united length is thousands of miles. Some of them run back into the country a hundred miles or mors, and as they, as well as Grand Canon are for the most part impossible, the edges oi the Grand Canon cannot be traveHed with out going around tue side cahons also. It is practicable to reach the brink of the canon by any ordinary effort only at few points
 As soon had saton tannh, after nur arrival at the last mentioned pocket, we pro ceeded to the brink of the canon. Our view was obstructed by cliffs, or gulches, till we arrived almost at the very edge of the abyss, so that our first sight of it revealed 1t m all its mighty grandeur. We had looked across and seen the top of the wall on the other side We had indeed seen as much when we were at Pipe--not the well at Ta-ro-weap, but further up the canon. But we had no view which gave us any idea of the vastness of the chasm. When we were 100 yards away, a sharp bend in the course of the stream appeared before us, and the gorge suddenly opened almost as if the very crust of the earth had been instantly rent asunder. We stop and gaze in awe-stricken silence upon the wonderful spectacle. But still we do not yet comprehend in the fullness of the power the grand scene nor have we all of it before our eyes. We go forward to the very edge, and creeping out on a projecting cliff, look directly down upon the river raging in its rocky bed 5000 feet beneath our standing place Although the river has volume equal to the Ohio at Cincinnati, so distant is it that we see but q ribbon of sheen like A little rivulet or creek. An object the size of man at the waters edge, l an told, Is inyis- ible from our point, except as speck before the eye, which cannot be distinguished as an object. Yet the water rushcs along with such force that it's motion can be seen and what appear to be only rifles on it's surface. MT Killers, who came through the canon in one of the boats, tells me there are huge waves and swift rapids that hurry along with tre- mendOus speed, and deafening roar that is terrible to the navigator This IS easy to be- lieve, for the roar of the dsshing current bounds and echoes from wall to wall, reach ing the point where we stand, intensifying the impression on the sense of sight. We seem to stand directly over the river, but pbav, ( n,.1 find we are at least 300 to 400 yards back from the waters edge. The opposite wall recedes in the same manner. The walls dc not, however, recede by a regular angle ol inclination, but by a series of deep terraces some very narrow and some quite wide. Be tween these terraces they shoot up perpendic ularly hundreds of feet at single leap. We judge the chasm to be 800 to 2,0O0 it. across at the top frUm where we stand, so it can be perceived that the angle of inclination from bottom to top is very slight. We spent thS whole of the afternoon wandering about thu verge of the canon, selecting the most favora ble points of view, receiving momentary new revelations of magnitude and new impres sions of grandeur.
 There is something in the character of tht impression made upon the sense and feeling by tue Grand Canon peculiar to itself anC difficult of description. Perhaps comparison will reveal ts real nature, though any clos' analysis of the emotion produced may not b' attempted. At Niagara, the impression i one of tremendous poWer'and activity. Th beholder may stand at arms length only from the mighty force he sees displayed, ant all around arc the evidences of it's recent en ergy. The wide, deep chism below the fall IS not so deep but that every movement c the whirlng, seething waters Is plain to sec IL is not the effect of the force, but its activi ty, and the sense of its might, that pEoduc the emotion of grandeur and submty. mountain summit view is grand because ( it's yastness, and generally there is no impre, sion like that made at Niagara of force an power. At the Grand Canon, the feeling grandeur is not produced by power in actiS ity, for the river is too far away, and forms to insignificant part in the scene. Nor is produced by the yastness of the chasm alon' for every one has seen other things giving
 more distinct impression of great extent c size I think the feeling is one of awe an wonder at the evidence of some mighty, il conceivable, unknown power, at some tim terrible, majestically, and mysteriously enc gctic, but now ceased. And yet the !ort which has wrought so wonderfully throug periods unknown unmeasured and unmea urable, is dyeF {, ,0O0 feet below, so far ava that one never thinks of it as an agency cap ble of such work. Nor, indeed, withOt study and investigation and reflection can
 be conceived that its ceaseless motion, thr myriads of years, may have eroded and wo its rocky channel through plains and moul tains, to such depth that, in places Mour Washington, plucked up by the roots, as Mi tons contending legions plucked the hea enly hills, and thrown into the chasm, woul not appear above the brink, nor form da for the rushing river.
 have mentioned only the lower and nea ly perpendicular cleft of the rocky strat The To-ro-weap has led us down to it's brin and there rise all about us another series
 terraces 800 to 2,0OO feet high, which al proach in places almost to the edge of tl narrow chssm on which we stand, and in ot CTS recede half mile or mile. This secor