The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-08-10

again below that, then still lower,
$50 of carboniferous sandstone, lower
still 180 of quartzite, and then gran
ite and other archaic form atoms to
the river bed and below. The geolog-
ical formation further up the river
shows that many strata existing there
have been swept away from the can
yon by denudation-largely by gla
cial action.
Indeed, were all the deposited stra
ia IN sita, these tremendous walls
would be 5000 feet above the river
instead of 5000 And these strata
that reveal the earth's anatomy and
that exhibit her rocky foundations,
are level, horizontal, s'slantindicular",
contorted, curved, and in all shapes
showing the processes through which
she has passed since and before the
awful time when her cooling crust
cracked, and this awful cash was
made.
Between these walls, battlemented,
buttressed, symmetrical as palace or
cathedral, are all conceivable shapes
of architectural invention, -pinnacles,
spires, towers, cornices, bastions,
forts, entablatures, roofs, pediments,
with every possible variation of orna-
mentation, and all the colors and
tints that the pigments of the painter
can produce. All sorts of forms and
figures are here; busts, statues, cas-
ties, cathedrals, flowers of stone. fret
work of leaves, pantheons of shapes,
arched and domed, numberless and
limitless! If the music of the great
masters could be petrifed, or the an
them of the primal forces that made
the world, it would assume some such
form. The wonder is that there is no
hint of all the splendor that bursts
upon the spectators gaze until it is
reached. The excellent Tolfree camp
of tents, at the end of the stage-route,
is on the very margin of this vast
spectacle, and not glimpse Of it is
had until going through the forest
the tourist can at once look down
into the immensity of this enormous.
and terrific cash in the earth. For
myself l wanted the best possible
look first, SO shutting my eyes to the
nearer points of observation | walked
beneath the hot, transparent Arizona
sky three full miles that I might
climb out on the jutting prorhontory
where Thomas Moran made his i'm
mortal sketch-Moran's Point and
there breathless, awestruck, almost
blinded with excess of grandeur,
quite blinded with tears that would
flow; faint indeed, so that / clung to
the gnarled cedar that had urged it's
way through the crevices to light,
and there, hour after hour / stayed
and looked and wondered. 1t was
hard to keep firm the trembling hinges
of the knees. A mile and quarter
1000 feet below-the almost invisible
river crawled, five miles on a straight
line from the eye, faint murmur
proceeding from the fierce flow of it's
rushing waters, at this distance just
counterfeiting the sigh of the breeze
among the pines and cedars around
me. Far as the eye could go were
strewn the wonderful shapes that
render this vast arcana of grandeur
supreme among the achievements of
Deity. l thought of Vesuvius,-on
whose trembling brink had stood
wart! Of the icebergs l had seen
born from the glaciers frigid womb
in Alaska = toboggan slidesl OF
Niagara, thirty of which could be
placed each on each, against these
tremendous walls, and which might
be within sight, and it's voice at this
far height would be like the whisper
of an aspen leaf. Of the Yosemite
combination of the grand and beau
tiful, the one unapproachable picture
of perfect beauty and grandeur COM
bined-but the Yosemite could be
put in any one of a thousand can
yons in sight, and subordinate to the
main chasm, and its presence would
be unsupported by the gazer. l re-
called the Garden of the Gods
"a puppet show. But / will not
even try to tell in words what words
can never tell. The modern masters
of speech have attempted it in vain.
Describe it one moment, and hun
dred new canyons, and pinnacles
leap into view with every change of
light and shade, e,-inexhaustible, in
comprehensive. One of the best of
modern descriptive writers, Charles
F. Lummis says: There is one grand
canyon of the Colorado. Nothing
else on earth is like it, or approaches
IL. or prepares for it, or suggests il.