The Press. (Stafford Springs, Conn.) 1883-1935, 1907-02-06
THE GRAND CANYON
SOME OF THE WONDERS OF THIS
VAST WILD FREAK OF NATURE.

Comparisons Which VIII Give Some
Idea of Its Enormous Proportions.
The Age of the Terrific Trough q
Mystery to the Scientists.
Grand canyon guides are oftentimes
as much startled as was Mark Twain's
conductor who showed him the statue
of Christopher Columbus. After the
American humorist had heard his guide
dilate on the greatness of the man who
discovered the new world he calmly
asked if Columbus was dead.
A Philadelphia man after his first
glimpse of the canyon put this question
to his guide:
IF our city hall was put down there,
how high would the top reach above
groundT"
"What is the height of your city
hallT" asked the guide. The Philadal-
phian grew red In the face. He was
Disguised with the guides ignorance.
He stamped his foot and shouted:
''Why, man alive, don't you know?
That wonderful building! Listen! The
hat of the great statue of William
Penn on it's top is SAT feet from the
street Think of that, sir!"
do you see that crack in the rocks
down there?' asked the guide, pointing
to a distant crevice which looked no
bigger than an open sewer ditch.
"Well, you could drop three of your
city halls one on top Of another into
that crack and not know where they
went"
Some New Workers unfamiliar with
the big4ess of western things cause
the guides equal amusement. One of
them, who afterward admitted he had
never been above Fourteenth street
before he inherited the fortune he had
since been blowing in" on travel,
asked if the Grand canyon was as
long as the BoWery.
In self defense, therefore, the canyon
guides formulated number Of COM
PARSONS between the biggest hole in
the world and other objects with
which visitors from the east and else
where are more familiar. The guides
spring these facts as soon as they
can. 1t has the effect, they say, Of
heading off lot of idle questions and
thus saving a tremendous amount Of
breath, Of which the average tourist
who tries to see the canyon on foot
soon finds himself sadly in need.
The guides say, for example, that If
the Eiffel tower, which, with height
of 984 feet, is the tallest structure in
the world, were placed at the bottom
Of the canyon in it's deepest part five
more towers just like the first would
have to be piled on top of one another
to reach the rim of the plateau, Elev-
en- Washington monuments superlm-
posed would just about equal the depth
Of the gorge.
If it were possible to build four st.
Peters, four Strassburg cathedrals and
four pyramids of Cheops, all of them
would be needed, piled one on the 9th
or, to reach from the canyons bottom
to its top, The skyscrapers Of New
York would fairly be lost in the "big
hole" The Singer building, with it's
tower reaching to the height of 594
feet, would reach one-tenth the distance
from the bed of the Colorado river to
the edge Of the Arizona plateau. The
depth Of the canyon ABOUT equals six
teen Park Row buildings or seventeen
such structures as the one known as 90
Wall street,
In length the canyon, il transferred
to the Atlantic coast, would extend
from New York city to Washington.
If a tight rope performer tried to cross
it at its widest point he would have to
walk a distance equal to that from the
Battery to the northernmost limit Of
the Bronx, or about fifteen miles. Could
the canyon be filled In for building
site 1t would furnish room enough for
fifty New York cities. Indeed, 1t
would have an area of 10000 square
miles, equal to the whole of Switzer-
land or the states Of Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Is
land combined.
Were canal of the size Of the Pan
anna canal to be dug in the Grand
canyon it would appear hardly larger
than a baby ribbon to a spectator on
the rim. 1t is estimated that to OBJ
tain enough earth to fill the Grand
canyon it would be necessary to exca
vate 10000 Panama canals,
Yet when 1t comes to the age Of the
canyon the guides admit they have no
way Of satisfying the questioning tour
ist 1t is not enough to say that the
Colorado river originated in the early
tertiary period as the outlet of great
eocene lake and that it has persisted
In it's course ever since. The material
istic man Of business wants figures and
dates. From the biologists the guides
can obtain no relief. AS Clarence Ed
ward Dutton, one of the leading geo
logical authorities Of this country, has
said:
1.-THE question will often be asked,
How long has been the time occupied
in the excavation Of the grand canyon?
Unfortunately there is no mystery
more inscrutable than the duration of
geological time On this point geolo-
gists have obtained no satisfactory re-
suits in any part Of the world. What
ever periods may have been assigned
to the antiquity of past events have
been assigned Professionally only, and
the differences are almost purely hypo-
thetical. In the plateau country nature
has in some respects been more COM
has answered manv questions far more
ruIly and graciously. But here, as else
where, whenever we interrogate her
about time other than relative her lips
are sternly closed and her face be
comes as the face of the sphinx"
For the reason that the Grand Canyon
Of the Colorado bursts on the view of
the traveller as If the earth before his
feet suddenly caved in for more than
a mile it is not wonderful that he
should ask questions that to the learn
ed seem childish. AS he approaches its
rip by railroad he sees only the Arizo-
ma desert apparently stretching away
on every side, dreary expanse, for
illimitable distances.
''There is no preparation for it, says
Charles F. Lummis, the author and ex-