Year: 1878

Leaving the hotel Immediately follow
ing an early breakfast next morning,
drive of twelve miles brings us to the
Grand Canon of the Arkansas. Disap-
pointment, is bitter, and feelings of re-
sentiment almost beyond control, as no.
where can the eye discover the canon.


In the immediate foreground the pinion
growth is rank and dense; just beyond,
great bleak ridges Of bare. cold rock con-


trast strongly with the profusion of foli-
age hiding everything beneath from


sight, while away in the dim distance


the snow-crowned peaks of the continen-
tai divide are outlined sharp and clear
against the solid blue of the morning
sky. Though grand beyond anything


we have seen in amazing extent of Wis


ion, the mind is so wrapped up in the


anticipation of full realization of the


gloom and vastness and solemn grandeur


of the Grand Canon as to resent almost
.angrily the apparent absence. A half.


dozen steps from the clump of pinion


trees where the horses have been fasten-


ed, and all thoughts of resentment, of
disappointment and ehagrin vanish, and


a very Cry of absolute terror escapes US.


At our very feet is the canon-another


step would hurl us into eternity. Shud-


dering, we peer down the awful slopes,


fascinated we steal a little nearer to cir


cumvent very mountain that has rolled


into the chasm, and at last the eye reach


es down the sharp incline three thousand


feet to the bed of the river, the impetu-


Gus Arkansas, forty to sixty feet in


width, yet to US mere ribbon of molten


silver. Though surging madly against


its rocky sides, leaping wildly over gi


gantic masses of rock, and hoarsely mur-


muring against its prison bars. we see


not nor do we hear aught of its fury.


The solemn stiffness Of death pervades


the scene the waters as we see them are


as if polished, and as stationary as the


mighty walle that look down upon them


Irom o~eh fearfal height. Fairly awed


into bravado as reckless as II is ss.aasA


to US. We crawl out upon tottering ledg-


es to peer into sheer depths of untold


ruggedness we grasp with death-like


clutch some overhanging limb and swing


out upon promontory, beside which the


apex of the highest cathedral spire in


the world would be as sapling in


height We crawl where at home we


would hardly dare look with telescope,


and in the mad excitement of the hour


tread with perfect abandon Drinks, the


bare thought of which in subsequent So


Der senses makes us faint of heart and


dizzy Of head. Eager now for still great


er horrors of depth, blind to everything


but an intolerable desire to behold the


most savage of Natures upheavals, the


short ride to the Royal Gorge is made


with illy-concealed impatience. If oul


first experience upon the brink of th,


Grand Canon was startling, this is abso
lutely terrifying, and the bravest at the
one point become most abject of coward
in comparison at the other. At the frs
| point of observation, the walls. thougl
: frightfully steep, are nevertheless slop
: ing to more or less extent here at tn
Royal Gorge they are sheer precipices
, as perpendicular as the tallest house, a
4 straight as if built by line. So narro1
e is the gorge that one would think tn
t throwing of stone from side to side th
e easiest of accomplishments, yet no livin
a man has ever done it, or succeeded i
s throwing any object so that it would ia
J, into the water below. Many tourists al
s content with the appalling view frol
d the main walls, but others more venture
r some work their way six hundred to
n thousand feet down the ragged edges
n a mountain that has parted and actuall
l. slid into the chasm and as we ha,
|, come to see it all, the Chamber dow
d must be accomplished. For some di
l. tance we scramble over and betwee
is monstrous bouldcrs, aud then REACH IL
d narrow and almost acknowledgement
IN ular crevice of a gigantic mass of roc
ID down which we must let ourselves


hundred feet or more. As we reach Il


shelf or ledge of rock upon which T.


great rock has fallen and been sundere
- we glance back, but only for second
the thought of our daring making
> grow sick and dizzy. But step or t.
:. more, and the descent just made sin
- into utter insigni6cance compared
- what is before us. Then we had
y huge walls of the parted rock as t
rails of staircase /; now we have moi
= ing but the smooth, rounded surface
- the rm-washed boulders to cling
- and on either side of our narrow W
~ depths at the bottom of which a ma
" body could never be discovered with |
man eye. Behind us the precipitt
- :, rocks over and through which we cam
- :. ahead Of us the slender barrier Of re
- - overhanging the appalling chasm, a
all there exists between us and it. CO
: ards at heart, pale of face and with pa


full breath. we slowly crawl on hal