St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-04-12
Down 1000 Feet.

EXCITING DETAILS OF A TRIP TO THE
ROYAL GORGE OF THE GRAND CANON
OF THE ARKANSAS, IN COLORADO.
Leaving the hotel Immediately fol-
lowing an early breakfast, uext morn
ing, drive of twelve miles brings us to
the Grand Canon of the Arkansas. Dis
appointment is bitter, and feelings of
resentment almost beyond control, as
nowhere can the eye discover the canon.
In the immediate foreground the pinon
growth is rank and dense just beyond,
great black ridges of bare, cold rock
contrast strongly with the profusion of
foliage hiding everything beneath from
sight, while away in the dim distance
the snOw-crOwned peaks of the conti-
mental divide outlined sharp aud clear
against the solid blue of the morning
sky. Though grand beyond anything
we have seen in amazing extent of Wis
ion, the mind is so wrapped up in the
anticipation of full realization of the
gloom and vastness and solemn gran
deur of the Grand Canon as to resent
almost angrily the apparent absence. A
half-dozen steps from the clump of
pinOn trees where the horses have been
fastened, and all thoughts of resent
ment, of disappointment and chargrin
vanish, aud very cry of absolute ter
rOr escapes us, At our very feet is the
canOn-anOther step would hurl us into
eternity. Shuddering, we peer down
the awful slopes, fascinated we steal
little nearer to circumvent a very noun
tain that has rolled into the chasm,
and at last the eye reaches down the
sharp incline three thousand feet to the
bed of the river, the impetuous Arkan-
sas, forty to sixty feet in width, yet to
us a mere ribbon of molten silver.
Though surging madly against its rocky
sides, leaping wildly over gigantic
masses of Iock, and hoarsely murmur-
ing against its prison bars, we see not
nor do we 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 stationary as the
mighty walls that look down upon them
from such fearful height. Fairly awed
into bravadO as reckless as it is strange
to us, we crawl out upon tottering
lodges to peer into sheer depths of un-
told ruggedness; we grasp with death
like clutch some overhanging limb, and
swing out upon promentOry, 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 tele-
scope, 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 every
thing but an intolerable desire to be-
hold the most savage of Natures up
heavals, the short ride to the Royal
Gorge is made with illy-concealed i'm
patience.
Ii our first experience upon the brink
OF the Grand Canon was startling, this
is absolutely terrifying, and the bravest
at the one point become most abject of
towards in comparison at the other. AT
the first point of observation, the walls,
though frightfully steep, are neverthe-
less sloping to 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 stone from side
to side the easiest of accomplishments
} yet no living man has ever done it, OF
succeeded in throwing any object so that
1t would fall into the water below
Many tourists are content with the ap-
palling view from the main walls, but
others more venturesOme work theil
way six hundred to thousand feet
down the ragged edges of mountain
, that has parted and actually slid into
the chasm; and as we have come to SET
, it all, the Chamber down must be ac.
? cOmplished. For some distance VIZ
scramble over and between monstrous
6oulders, and then reach the narrow
] and almost absolutely perpendicular
crevice OF gigantic mass of rock, dowl
which we must let ourselves hundred
| feet or more. As we reach the shelf o
: ledge of rock upon which the great rocl
has fallen and been sundered, we glane,
back, but only for second-the though
OF our daring making us grow sick ant