Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1903-11-25

scenes and colors.
, From every point of vantage visited
/ found IT was the same. a series o.
surprises. a wonder, an apocalypse
of grandeur and glory, before which
my brain reeled in the mere effort Of
contemplating the inexhaustible
forms of Natures architectural cary
ings, that fill this crlnkled, curled old
chasm, winding in zigzag sinuosities
a length of seventy-fve miles before
me and melting away beyond the pow,
err of vision.
Il is impossible to measure dis.
%tances or give an adequate idea, OF
to guess the size OF certain objects
pointed out. A tiny bit of the fash
ing river 1000 feet below me, seem
ingly only a few hundred feet in
length, vas in reality six miles long.
! had, however, no wish for details. |
preferred to feast my eyes upon the
phantasmal forms Of rock, and medi-
tate for it is a place for thought, and
silence. The canyon, so deeply vyorn
and SCARED by the conflict Of cycles
stretching back beyond ones imagin,
ing, was old, perhaps, when Noah sat
and whitfield and planned the Ark, or
Adam learned the art of subtorfuge
The sun shown on these mesas encan-
tadas, even before the pueblos of the
clif-dwellers, like determined remin.
i%scences of the past, chung in inacces-
sible places, from which the dwellers
crept like ants from their aerial re-
treats or before the ancestral ape
stood erect.
The place was full Of brooding
memories, and the silence awful in
It's intensity, in the vast sunken world
beneath me. | have stood upon the
hot, trembling crater OF Vesuvius, and
have breathed the air of the wind.
swept deserts OF the Nile; have seen
the River Jordan and the Dead Sea;
have heard the thunder Of falling ice.
oergs from the Muir glacier, and
watched the icebergs there and at
Taku Inlet drift away In the waste OF
waters. spectral as dreams, and I
have seen the confusion Of spouting
geysers and wraiths of vapor from the
chaotic underworld in the Yellow.
stone Park, that sends the boiling,
foaming jet skyward with clocklike
regularity-but all that had seen
seemed TO be but a sort of prepare.
ton for me, that | might more fully
enjoy this, the greatest of ALL of
Gods grandest labyrinth Of wonders.
Someone has written about our PEG
pie "%doddering abroad" TO see the
scenery incomparably inferior TO our
own. Granted that this is so, I'm its
way, yet l think those who have trav.
eled, who have seen, are those best
htted to comprehend. SO | felt as |
saw something OF the thousand miles
OF harmonious colorings and carvings
in this deep cleft that stretched away
to the horizons uttermost rim, and
nearer me saw mountains floating in
the blue voids, showing peak, tuuret
and cone, with no visible anchorage.
In vivid coloring OF marvellous rril
liancy, which softened in the distance
into a soothing harmony Of colors.
through atmospheric influence and re.
fraction.
IL is a world unlike any / have
known, a world of changing, evanes-
cent lights. and Of colors that run riot
from the depths, up and up to the ut
termost verge, It is so vast, SO glo-
rious in its distances. wherein IRE
such wonderful mirage effects. i'm.
AGNES great cities and armies PASS
ing and repassing. Seemingly ships
we've sailing on smooth waters. with
shadows plainly seen in the blue
depths. A charming, marvellous pag-
cant lay over against the opposite
bank from me. and lower down were
vast stretches OF plain in death,ike
silence and isolation. Then there
were other fright groupings. showing
a very miracle OF climatic glory. that
me an unparalleled scene and
hlled me with ecstacies like the sound
OF some exquisite melody. s~ouLAuing
and satisfying. Il was a requiem and
a eallelujah' a desolate. ruined world
and a radiant. glowing world of
beauty there; each In turn speaking
my heart as no words could do
sermons in stone" indeed with
strange, soft. weird music stealing up
nom those strangely d~isQuietine
Il Is the voice Of the winds
among those crags that sobs and
noans and then changes into sym
sweet and solemn. dying sway