The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-07-13


sorb its splendor the mind must become familiar
Auence of the winds and storms on the softer ma
teral perceive the variations of colors forms and
trees, TILL expanding with the spirit of the noun
tains, the soul itself has grown colossal or
Till. growing with its growth, we thus dilate
/ Our spirits to the size of that we contemplate
VALUE OF THE CHURCHES
With my Mayo guide [ camped that night on
the granite platform high up on the Gran Bar
ranca We saw the sun descend behind the great
hills. the feecy clouds, suspended and stationary.
take on the coors of the solar spectrum, the stars
coming out and then-at one stride came the night
Early next morning we began the descent to the
Valley of the Churches. The path was narrow and
Steep around rocks honeycombed with water or
eaten into by zoophites 1t twisted here and there
through precipitous defes, where the Jagged spurs
and salient angles of the huge cliffs showed it dam
gerously near the rim of the precpce We CON
tinued to descend our path winding around rocky
projections, across arroyos formed by running wa
tiers in the rainy season. skrting the danger line of
the abysses till early in the afternoon whenwe en-
tered the mesa or table land, where In a huge ba-
sin reposes ola Arroyo de las Ig1esias@the vale
of the churches. 1t is labrvnth of architectural
FORMS endiessly varied in design and at times
painted in every color known to the palette in
pure transparent tones of marvellous delicacy-a
shifting dicrama of colors-advancng into crys-
taine clearness or disappearing behind sl1unberous
haze.
The foliage had assumed the brilliant colors of
summer. and from the mesa, midway between the
mountains and the valley of the Urique, the season
was marking, on brilliant chromatic scale the
successive zones of vegetation as they rose in reg
lar gradations from the tropc floor The at1nos-
phere had the crystalline transparency which be-
longs to mountain air. and through it the scenery
assumed vvidness of color and grandeur of out
line which impaired to the mind sense of exal-
tation
"Tfll the dilating soul, enwrapt, transfused
Into the mighty vision passing there
AS in her natural form, -sweed vast to heaven"
The appearance instantaneousiy disclosed was
that of abandoned city, a wilderness of ruined
buildings left standing in an endless solitude 1t
phantom city within which human voice
never heard, where coyotes and foxes starved
and where scorpions, tarantulas and horned toads
increased and multiplied
The land around was broken into terraces and
looked like city wrecked by the Goths and long
ago abandoned For here was "a forest of cathedral
spires, of towers great arches and archtraves bat
tlements huttresses and flying buttresses dismall-
tied buildings and wondrous domes There are
times, the is declining when these domes
and cathedral towers glow with sheen of FURNISHED
gold or-repose meath coluring of soft purple or
mantle of fiery vermillion.
BIRTH OF STRANGE FORMATIONS.
And how did these weird and ghostly monu-
ments originate, who raised them in this wilder
ness and when were their foundations laid2
Here is the story as it was told to me- When
mass or body of ar becomes very warm from the
direct rays of blazing or by contact with the
hot sand of great plane, it looses moisture and
rapidly ascends to higher regions in the heavens;
then other and much colder air from the sea or
surrounding land rushes in to fill the void and as
this atmospheric rolls its great waves into
the stupendUus space partially left vacant by the
disappearing hot air, sand and grit are taken up
and with violent force and velocity carried against
a projecting cliff of soft material separating it
from the parent body, or again a great sandstone
hill may stand SOLITARY and alone on be surrounded
by hills of lesser height and magnitude Then. wear
after year and century after century these sand
blasts cut little here and little there, till in
time these spectral forms stand alone and at dis
resemble in their isolation the ruins of long
deserted city.
This vast amphitheatre, with its great forest of
and weird structures surrounded by
volcanic cones and walled in by towering noun
tans is a part of the great Barranca You now
perceive that you are in region of many canyons,
and that the whole face of the country is covered
With wounds and welts, and with sharply outlined
and lofty hills of gneiss and quartzite springing
rom the floor of the valley. Beyond contradiction,
earthquakes and volcanoes at one time shook this
place with violence. Only by the aid of an air
hip may the Gran Barranca be seen in its majestic
ntirety, for much of it lies buried in the vast and
gloomy abyss through which the silent river flows
md to which direct descent is impossible