The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1885-11-21
The Canon of the Colorado.
From the Boston transcript.

From the Boston Transcript
Probably few rivers are less generally
known than the COLORADO of the West;
Rising in Colorado and Wyoming, it runs
through a country of peerless beauty
through pleasant valleys, rocky mountains,
high plateaus and arid deserts, finally de-
bouching into the California gulf, nearly
300 miles from its starting place It
drains an area of nearly 100000 square
miles. 1t is the river of canons. From
the junction of the Green and Grand
rivers to Colville it has but few breaks in
what forms probably the most stupendous
rift in the world. Five hundred miles in
length is the cut, with a maximum depth
OF $500 feet, and an average that exceeds
$1,000 Americans are apt to overlook their
own country and travel to other lands in
search of the picturesque To the geolo-
glst, the earnest student of nature, the
artist, Or to the mere sight-seer this coun-
try offers inducements unparalleled
Looking south across the House Rock
valley in northern Arizona, one notices a
few broken bluffs, about ten miles distant,
apparently about twenty feet high. Only
five or six of these occur, scattered at
irregular intervals. There lies the canon.
Riding across the level plain toward the
bluffs, one finds it hard to conceive how
such canon can exist, with so few signs
OF existence Here and there we are
obliged to make long detours, to avoid
yawning crevasses that streams have worn
on their downward rush to the Colorado
The country here, probably, escaped the
grand glacial epoch that elsewhere har-
rowed this continent level, and filed up
the postertiary washouts. Until we come
within half mile of the canon we get no
hint of its existence. Gradually it unfolds
to nearer advance, until on its brink its
awful sublimity bursts upon US. As we
walk out upon projecting tongue of rock
we gradually, dimly begin to appreciate the
chasm. Great rock walls around us on
every side stretch downward, seemingly
fathomless.
Far below, looking like muddy ribbon,
lies the river. At first sight the mind is
incapable of grasping the dimensions of
this gorge, Men whom [ have seen de-
clared stoutly, "That can't be the Colorado,
for the Colorado, is good two hundred
yards across and that creek isn't over six
feet at most Far below us floats lazily
a bald eagle; so far that he resembles a
mere speck, and yet he isn't half way down
A stone about as large as ones fist turns
the course of the river at certain point
Were we down there, we should find that
stone to be about three times as large as
the Boston postofice.
On the loose soil of the banks grow
thousands of century plants, with tall
stalks, reminding me of the pictures of the
Jewish candle sticks 1 used to see in the
big Bible at home when youngster.
Pulling up one of these, we send it whistl-
ing down into the abyss. 1t grows smaller
and smaller until it vanishes and presently
puff of dust announces it has struck.
And yet these "yant" often measure six
feet across
Opposite where we stand is the mouth
of the Colorado Chiquito. Where it enters
the parent canon it is of the same depth
as the latter; and yet it starts scarcely 300
miles away, and up to about 100 miles dis
tant flows on top of the ground. The
walls of these canons furnish the most
magnificent rock-paintings | ever beheld
Black and gray porphyry, white and pink
limestone, broad and narrow-veined marble,
sandstone from vermillion to light gray,
and sturdy old granite, blend their many
strata in colors no painter dare initiate,
At sunset and sunrise, when the sunheams
strike slantingly across the rocky face, the
effect is indescribable Its as if the gates
of heaven were thrown open, and the city,
with its jasper walls and dazzling gateways,
shone before us,
Probably long before the earliest date of
human history this river fretted and chat
ed its rocky banks. While Europe was
plunged in ignorant night, this country
saw the growth of civilization second on
ly to that of to-day While the Old
World nations were yet in their infancy,
the dwellers OH the banks of this stream
were adopts in casting metals, in architect
ure, in seul pture, in gold and silver smith
cry, and mosaic painting. Their feather
paintings have never been equalled The
river witnessed their southern migration
and saw the sacred fire die from the estu-
fas ON its banks. 1t saw the whirlwind of
northern tribes, that swung like whip
upon the Moquis and Zunis and forced
them to dwell in forts; that chased the
CocoRiRas until, in despair, they found
refuge in the deepest canons and breaks,
where wretched remnant still exist,