El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-02-02


mere tourist, it offers opportunities not
to be found in any other American
state.
Arizona has the largest, and by Tar
the most beautiful. OF All petrlIleu
forests. In one there are several nun
dred square miles OF surface fairly
carpeted with chips Of agate and dotted
with agate tree trunks, Two 10 touI
feet in diameter, the WnoIe pFeseT - 81
as a national monument by the federal
government, an action taken Just IN
time to stop the depredations OF those
who were taking out the agate Tor
commerce
Just across a valley from this agate
forest is another where the buried tree
trunks are silicified instead OF being
agatized. The stony logs show their
ends under so feet Of sandstone.
Through ages and ages the mineral
trees. fmpregnating them with the
stony substance that set and preserved
for all time the most minute details
Of their once living tissues,
Largesf Natural Bridge.
Arizona has the largest natural
bridge in the world. 1t is 200 feet
high has a span OF more than oOV
feet, it is 600 feet wide. Il has a bear
ing orchard on top and labyrinths or
caves under its abutments,
Arizona has the largest variety ana
display OF recent volcanic action IN
this continent, the word recent be-
Ing uSeQ IN It's geologic seAA11- AA-cA
Is q 60-mile lava. flow. blankets OF
tufa deep enough to be cut through
by canyons, hundreds Of cold craters
and thousands Of square miles or lava
beds There is a great abundance OF
the socalled volcanic glass, the obsid-
ian that was used by the AZtecs ana
the prehistoric Arizonans Tor Wea-
pOns in war and for tools in peace
The Cave DyTellers' Ruins.
Arizona has the largest and most
interesting cave-dWelling villages IN
the world, although competing with
Europe, Asia and Africa in this re-
spect The many stored cliff dwell
ings are Of more than passing interest
to the tourist and they present an alb
sorbing problem to the arcnitectural
historian and the archeologlst Ar1-
iona and New Mexico have 6-pueblOs.
curious communal republics. Inhabited
by the descendants Of the cliff dwell
ers, some OF them placed in fertile
valleys and some perched on barren
But more than this. and above all
and beyond everything, Arizona has
the Grand Canyon, by Tar the most
sublime Of all earthly spectacles.
Charles F. Lummis, the famous eX-
plOrer and author, has said; me
Grand Canyon Is just the Grand can
Won. and that is all you can say 1
never have seen anyone who was pre-
pared for It. have seen people rave
over it; better people struck dumb
with it; even strong men who cried
over It; but I have never yet seen the
man OF woman that expected it.
1T adds seriously to the scientific
wonder and the universal Impressive
ness Of this unparalleled chasm that
IL is not in some stupendous- noun
tain range but in vast arid, lofty
floor OF nearly hundred thousand
square miles. There IS no preparation
for it Unless you had been told. you
would no more dream that out yOnoer,
amid the pines, the flat earth is slash
az
expect to find an iceberg in Broadway.
With a running jump from the spot
where you get your first glimpse Of
the canyon, you could so down 2O00
feet without touching 1t is as sudden
as a we'll
A New Canyon Every Hour.
But IT is no more cleft. 1t is a ter
rifle trough 5000 to 1000 feet deep, 10
TO 20 miles wide and hundreds OF miles
long peopled with hundreds OF peaks
: taller than any mountain east of the
( Rockies, yet not one OF them with its
head as high as your feet and al
ablaze with such color as no eastern
| or European landscape ever knew. And
as you sit upon the brink, the divine
scene-shifters give you a new canyon
every hour. With each degree OF the
suns course, the great countersunk
mountains we have been watching fade
away, and new ones as terrific are
carved by the dazzling shadows II
is like. a dissection Of the whole cos
mogony And the purple shadows. the
I dazzling lights. the thunder storms
and the snow storms. the clouds and
! the rainbows that shift and drift in
( that vast subterranean arena below
your feetp'
Where the railroad takes the trav-
/ eler to the brink Of the chasm and
B lodges him there in a luxurious hotel
{ the canyon is Is miles wide and more
I than mile deep. A half dozen Elf
/ Eel Towers set in the bottom OF the
] cleft would not reach its rim; a dozeT
I Washington monuments set end on enc
would scarcely peep over its edge. The
walls OF the gorge are 50 times as
/ high s the walls Of the gorge at Mag
ara, and il the Niagara Falls them.
Z selves were set in the river at the bot
tom Of the cleft, one would need strong
[ Held glasses to find them from The
I brink The Grand Canyon is PIT miles
I long, as measured by the channel OF
/ the river, but II one were 20 journey
around its rim, he would find that its
I banded walls and those OF its hundreds
/ OF tributary gOrges would cause hin
7 10 travel thousands OF miles
Only five times. so far as Is known
I nave human beings gone through the
/ canyon from end to end. The canyon
/ was first discovered by Europeans and
[ reported TO the civilized world In 1870
7 but none Of those early explorers found
any way to get down from the plateau
| to the river In l716, a Spanish priest
AO4AAu a RAaElAEaD4E ELQo1AAE ana IL
was the first white man 10 60 down
into the gorge and come up again. In
1857, the war department Sent an ex-
( petition under Lieut. Ives TO explore
/ the Colorado as far from its mouth
as navigation should be practicable
( He entered. but did not traverse the
/ gorge.
Powell the First
Mai. J. W Powell, whose name is
writ large in the history Of American
/ science. whose labors as an explorer
and as q geolOgist were OF incalculaole
/ value, and who left as a rich legacy
/ to the American people and as an en-
I during monument to himself, the geo
/ logical survey. Of which he was d.
rector, and whose scope he outlined
was the first explorer of the canyon
/ In 1863, Mai. Powell undertook the eN-
ploratfon Of the Colorado OF the west
! With nine men and four boats he
/ started from Green River city on the
/ Green river in Utah.
His project was undertaken against
/ the most urgent remonstrances from
{ those best acquainted with that region,
l including the indians, who maintained
/ that boats could not live in any one
of A score Of rapids and cataracts
| known to them, to say nothing Of the