Arizona silver belt., 1889-08-10
The Grand Canyon of the Colorado.

Colorado river, varying m width from 10 to l5 miles and in depth from 4000 to $500 feet, rising in series of ter- races, often beautifully colored and frequently castellated and peaked. The channel is winding and sometimes very narrow, whose somber recesses the suns rays rarely visit. The river is broken by numerous falls of from 50 to 200 feet in descent, and countless rapids, whlrlpools, swirling eddies and miniature maelstroms, wherein lie powders, are olttlmes churned about like pebbles in Q mill.race by the fierce current.
 The country the Grand canyon is ] situated in Is very rough one, thiniy settled and out of the beaten paths of travel, and that, with the extreme diff iieulty of entering 1t either from above or by the perilous waters below, have coaspired to keep one of the greatest wonders of the world yeritable terra incognito. A careful examination of the country and it's formation has com viuced the writer that the old theory. as taught in our textbooks of geology, that the Grand canyon is the result of the erosion of water for many millions of years, and the attempt of some 10 approximate the age of the globe by calculations based upon the supposed time necessary to wear down 1000 or 5000 feet of stone, Is altogether unten- able and inconsistent with our present knowledge of it's topography The re- gion gives unmiatakabie proof of once being sea-bottom, by the water.worn rocks. deposits of salt, fossils, coral, etc, to be found every where. It now has an altitude of 5000 ic 5000 feet, the result of vo.canie upheavalS, and It is 10 ihs that we can look fer an exp!d- nation of the Grand canyon. This gigantic uplifting ot the earth 5 crust caused huge Assures to occur in the soft sand and silt through which inc torrents Of escaping waters tore with irresistible fury, gouging ont the up. per part of the existing channel in n comparatively short time. This ac- counts for is great width from side 10 side and also explains the cleavage of tue Buskin mountains, winch rise 20U0 feet above the level of the canyon $ banks and could Dever have been the work of erosion. The basaltic iorma- lion Tn many parts of ibe canyon, the immense beds of scorla known as mal- afal rock. which everywhere abounds, tue sllIcitied forests and the great era. ters of extinct volcanoes in Northern Arizona, all point to time of volcan- ic activity, wtien those twin monsters of inc primal word-Gre and water ccntendcd for mastery.
 Tbc first stratum of the canyon, which extends down several hundred feet, Is q sandstone, nestcom a shale or slaty formation, and underneath lies bed of limestone, which in some places, notably Marble canyon, seem 10 be much deeper than at others. In this limestone silver is more or less 10 be found. Next comes stratum of salt. That near the junction of the Little Colorado with the parent stream has been mined for many years by the Supai, Moqui and Ed City Indians. Below this rock salt comes the prime val granite, hard as adamant and bearing gold in some places.
 These canyons have peculiar in- terest to the ethnologist, they having once been ihs home of prehistoric man. |, Many rnIns oi these Cllll Dwellers arc to bc seen, and sometimes a rare find rewards the patient explorer in the shape of unique pottery or curious copper implements, hardened by an adpixturc of silica, now lost art. Who were these mysterious people, and what was the cause of thelr sud. den extinction? Whether an awful pestilence swept them into oblivion or the armed hordes of some fercer tribe tore hem from their peaceful homes will always be one of the dark secrets of that strange land. Many of their habitations are almost inaccessible perched on some dizzy cliff, neeessita- ting the use of ropes 10 reach them. Ex.