The weekly Arizona miner., 1879-10-03
COLORADO RIVER oAsYoNs

aIt is impossible for mere description to convey any but faint idea of the sub limity that lines she banks of the Colorado of the West. The walls rise m many in- stances more than a mile ia heighr, thou sand feet of which is up through granite crags, then steep slopes and perpendicular cliffs rise one above another to the summit The gorge Is black and narrow below, red and gray and faring above, with crags and angular projections on the walls, which, cut in many places by side canyons, seem to be a vast wilderness of rocks. The wa ters of the river rush thsir winding way throuuh the gloomy depths. pluDging over steep declivifies with a mad roar, spreading out into a placid bosom in some opening beyord. Clouds play in the canyon or roll down in great masses filling the gorge with gloom, sometimes hanging above from wall to wall, covering the canyon with roof of impending storm.
 Ever and anon gust of wind sweeps down side guich, making a rift in the clouds, and revealing the blue heavens. In some localities volcano evidences accumu- late. Great quantities of cooled lava, and many cindeF cones are seen on either side and then comes e cataract. Just over the fall a we'll denned crater stands on the very brink of the canyon. From this volcano vast floods Of lava have doubtless been poured over the canyon wall, where the cat aract now rushes. The whole north side, as far as the eye can reach. is lined with the black basalt, and high up on the oppo- site wall are patches of the same material res,ingbn the benches, filling old alcoyes and caves. Directly under the volcanic cone the cocks are broken in two along n line which crosses the river, and the beds nave dropped 800 feet on the lower side Vf the line forming fault.
 Prof. J. w. Powell, in his report on the Colorado of tho West, in referring to the volcanic features in one of the canyons, says: I've have no difficulty as we float along. aud am able to observe the won derful phenomins connected with this flood of lava. The canyon was doubtless filled to height of ZOO or 500 feet, perhaps by more than one food. This would dam tbe water back; and in cutting through thjs great lava bed, a new channel has been formed, sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other. The cooled lava, being of frmer textuIe than the rocks of which the walls are composed, remains in some places; 1; in others a narrow channel has been cut, leaving line of basaIt on either side. IL IS possible that the lava cooled faster on the sides against the walls, and that the centre ran out; but of this we can only conjecture. There are other places, where almost the whole of the lava is gone, patches of it on-
 y being seen where it has cyught on the walls As we float down, we can see that it ran out into si6e canyons. In some pla- ccs this basslt has e tine columnar struct- ure, often in concentric prisms, and pssses of these eoncentric columns have coalesced. In some places, when the flow occurred, the canyon was probably at about the same depth as It is now, for VIC can see where the basalt has rolled out on the sands, and, what seems curious to me, the sands are not melted or netamorphcsed to any sppreei- able extent. In places the bed of the river is of sandstone or limestone, in other places of lava, showing thatIt has all been cut out again whore the sandstones and hmestones appear; but there is little yet left where tho bed is of lava.
 "What conflict of water and fire there must have beer here Just imagine a riv- CT of molten rock, running down into a liver of melted snew. What a seething and boiling of the waters; what clonds of steam rolled into the heavens Mining and sel- entihc Press.