The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-04-27

against its rocky sides, leaping wildly
over gigantic masses ofrock, and hoarse-
ly murmuring against its prison bars,
we see not, nor dove hear, aught of its
fury The solemn stiffness of death
pervades the scene; the waters as we
see them are as if polished, and as sta
tionary as the mighty walls that look
down on them from such afearful height
Fairly awed into bravado as reckless
as it is strange to us, we crawl out up
on lettering lodges to peer into sheer
depths of untold ruggedness; we grasp
with death-like clutch some overhang-
ing limb, and swing out upon a prom
ontory, beside which the apex of the
highest cathedral spire in the world
would be as a sapling in height. We
crawl where at home we would hardly
dare look with telescope, and in the
mad excitement of the hour tread with
perfect abandon Drinks, the bare thought
of which in subsequent sober senses
makes us faint of heart and dizzy of head.
Eager now for still greater horrors of
depth, blind to everything but nintoler-
able desire to behold the most savage
of natures upheavals, the short ride to
the Royal Gorge is made with illy-con-
cealed Impotence. If our first expe-
rience upon the brink of the Grand
Canon was startling, this is absolutely
terrifying, and the bravest at the same
point become most abiect of towards
in comparison at the other. At the
first point of observation the walls,
though frightfully steep, are neverthe-
less sloping to a more or less extent;
here at the Royal Gorge they are sheer
precipices, as perpendicular as the tall
est house, as straight as if built by line.
So narrow is the gorge that one would
think the throwing of Il stone from side
to side the easiest of accomplishments,
yet no living man has ever done it, or
succeeded in throwing any object so
that it would fall into the water below.
Many tourists are content with the ap-
palling view from the main walls, but
others more venturesome work their
way 600 to 1000 feet down the ragged
edges of a mountain that has parted
and actually slid into the chasm; and
as we have to come to see it all, the
Chamber down must be accomplished.
For some distance we scramble over
and between monstrous powders, and
then reach the narrow and almost
absolutely perpendicular crevice of q
gigantic mass of rock, down which
we must let ourselves 100 feet
or more. AS we reach the shelf or
ledge of rock upon which the great
rock has fallen and been sundered, we
glance back, but only for second
the thought of our daring making us
grow sick and dizzy. But step or two
more and the descent Just made sinks
into utter insignitcance compared to
what is before us. Then we had the
rails of staircase; now we have naught
but the smooth, rounded surface of the
storm washed powders to cling to, and
on either side of our narrow way depths
at the bottom of which mans body
could never be discovered with human
eye. Behind us the precipitous rocks
over and through which we came:
ahead of us the slender barrier of rock
overhanging the appalling chasm, and
all there exists between us and it. Cow
ards at heart, pale of face, and with
painful breath, we slowly crawl on
hands and knees to the ledge, and as
the fated murderer feels the knotted
moose fall down over head, so feel we
as our eyes extend beyond the rocks to
catch one awful glimpse of the eternity
of space. Few dare to look more than
once, and one glance suifices for a COM
prehension of the meaning Of the word
depth never before even dreamed of.
and never afterward forgotten. The
gorge is zoos feet sheer depth, and
most precipitous and sublime in its pro-
portions of any chasm on the continent.
The opposite wall towers hundreds
OF feet above us, and if possible
to imagine anything more terrify-
ing than the position on this side,
that upon the other would be, were
its brink safe to approach. Overhanging
crags, black and blasted at their sum
mits, or bristling with stark and
gnarled pines, reach up into profoundly
dizzy heights, while lower down mon
strous rocks threaten to topple and
carry to destruction any foolhardy
climber who would venture upon them.
Among all the thousands who have
visited the Grand Canon and the ROYAL
Gorge harm has befallen none, for,
despite the seeming horror of the situa-
'i'it' 'iiC "PP"ihhS uClpIho anu luSSeu
paths, the fascination of the danger ap-
pears to give birth to greater caution.
The canon, except in the dead of WIN
ter, is approachable only from the top,
the walls below being SO PERCEPTIONS
and the river such torrent as to DEFY
all access. When frozen, as the waters
are for brief periods during the coolest
months, the way up the canon may be
accomplished, but only at the risk of
personal comfort and not little dan
ger. Mr.. Talbot, the photographic at
Canon City, ventured into the canon
last winter with his apparatus, and,
after infinite trouble, secured the ex-
cellent views which afford US some con-
ception of the grandeur of the gorge
from the bottom.-Rocky Mountain
Tourist.
These United States would be a
most ph q O,iOo nnnptrx &c ~ g..