The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1875-03-11
CANYONS OF COLORADO.
River Bed with stone Walls n Mile in
uciahih-.A Thrilling SketcL.

Hcighth--A Thrilling sketch.
Major Powell, in his thrilling stories
of the canyons of Colorado, in Scribner's
Monthly, speaks of one of them as
follows
The walls were now more than a mile
in height. Stand on the south steps of
the Treasury building in Washington
and look down Pennsylvania avenue to
tho Capitol park, and imagine cliffs ex-
tending to that altitude, and you Will un-
derstand what l mean. Or, stand at
Canal street in New York and look up
Broadway TO Grace Church, and you
have about the distance; stand at Lake
street bridge i'll Chicago and look down
to the union depot, and you have it
again.
A thousand feet of this is up through
granite crags, then slopes and perpen
dicular cliffs rise one above the other to
the summit. The gorge is black and
narrow below, red and gray and iiarine
above. and crags aud angular projections
on walls which, cut in many places by
slie canyons, seem TO be vast wilder
ness OF rocks. Down through these
gloomy depths we glidcd, always listen
ing; for the mad waters kept up their
roar always watching and peering
ahead-for tho narrow canyon was wind
ing and the river was closed so that we
could see but few hundred yards, and
what might be below we knew not. We
strained our ears for warming of the
falls and watched for rocks, or stopped
now and then i'll the bay of a recess to
admire the gigantic scenery; and ever
as we went, there was some new pinnacle
or tower, some crag or peak, some dis
tant view of the upper plateau, some
deep, narrow side canyon, or some
strangely shaped rock. On we went,
through this solemn, mysterious way
The river was very deep, the canyon very
narrow and still obstructed, SO that
there was no steady flow of the stream,
but the waters wheeled, and rolled, and
boiled, aud we were scarcely able to de-
ternine where we could go with greatest
safety. Now the boat was carried to the
right, perhaps close to the wall, again
she was shotinto the stream and dragged
over to the other side, where, caught in
whirlpool, she spun about like clip.
We could neither land nor run as we
pleased; the boats were entirely un-
manageable; now one, now another was
ahead, each crew looking after its own
safety.
We came to another rapid; two of the
boats ran it perforco; one succeeded in
landing, but there was no foothold by
which to make portage, and she was
pushed ont again into the stream; the
next minute a great reflex wave filled the
open compartment; she was water-logged,
and drifted at the mercy of the waters.
Breaker after breaker rolled over her,
and ono tossed her deck downward. The
men were thrown out, but they clung to
the boat, and she drifted down alongside
OF us, and we were able to catch her.
She was soon bailed out and the men were
aboard once more, but the oars were lost.
their place being supplied by a pair from
the Emma Dean"
Clouds We're playing in the canyon
that day. Sometimes they rolled down
i'll great masses, filling the gorge with
gloom sometimes they hung above from
wall to wall, covering the canyon with a
roof of impending storm, and we could
peer long distances up and down this
canyon corridor, with its cloud root
overhead, its walls of black granite, and
its river bright with the sheen of broken
waters. Then a gust of wind would
sweep down side gulch and make a rift
in the clouds, revealing the blue heavens,
and q stream of sunlight poured in.
Again the clouds drifted away into the
distance and hung around crags and
peaks, and pinnacles, and towers, and
walls, covering them with a mantle that
lifted from time to time and set them
all in sharp relief. Then baby clouds
crept out of side canyons, glided around
points, and crept back again into more
distant gorges. Other clouds stretched
in strata across the canyon, with inter
vening vista views to cliffs and rocks be-
yond.
Then the rain came down. Little
rills We're formed rapidly above; thes,
soon grew into brooks, and the brooks
into creeks, which tumbled over tho
walls in innumerable cascades, adding
their wild music to the roar of the river
When the rain ceased, the rills, brooks
and creeks ran dry. The waters tha
fall during the rain on these steep rock
are gathered at once into the river; they
could scarcely be poured in more sud
denly If some vast spout ran from the
clouds to the stream itself. When
storm bursts over the canyon a sid
gulch is a dangerous place, for suddel
flood may come, and the inpOuring watel
raise the river 50 as to drown the rock
before your very eyes.