ARCHITECTURAL FORMS IN NATURE. 



69 



wonderful, while having the advantage of more inviting color. The 

 region surrounding them is one of the most remarkable scenic spots 

 on the continent, and in time will become as celebrated as the 

 Yosemite or the Yellowstone. It has fewer freaks and curiosities, 

 perhaps, but probably more real beauty. Xot far from the Five 

 Domes are the Temples of the Virgin (Fig. 8), similar to the domes, 

 but more rugged at the top. These are veritable temples of the gods, 

 solid as the rock-ribbed earth itself. 



There are also in some places domes hollowed out. In Glen 

 Canon of the Colorado, a little below the mouth of the San Juan, is 

 a dome of this character carved out of the homogeneous sandstone 

 by the action of a pretty brook, which in fair weather is a mere 

 rivulet, but in rain time is an angry flood, sweeping down on its tide 

 immense quantities of sand. This little stream enters at the back of 

 the cavern through a very deep, narrow cleft, not more than a foot 

 or two wide, and after a plunge of some thirty feet or more into a 

 clear pool trickles on out to the river, which flows past the entrance. 



The chamber is about two hundred feet high, 

 with a narrow crevice twisting on up to the top 

 of the cliffs, about a thousand feet, while the 

 area of the sandy floor is about two 

 hundred by five hundred. Its 

 mouth is barred by a little grove 

 of box-elder trees. When the 

 storm is abroad the innocent brook 

 grows to a giant in an hour, because 

 of the rain accumulating 011 the 

 barren, rock-surfaced country as on 

 the roof of a house, and, gathering 

 the load of sand in its impetuous 

 clutch, it hurls it against the bound- 

 ing walls, thus doing its part in the 

 war of the waters against the land. 

 I have counted dozens of these cas- 

 cades leaping over the canon walls 

 , during heavy rainstorms. An ex- 

 ploring party once camped within 

 the dome mentioned, and, thinking 

 it rendered well their songs, they 

 named it " Music Temple." Some carved their names on the soft 

 sandstone wall, and three of these a short time after were sent by 

 the Indians to the Great Dome of all. 



The extensive Pink Cliffs, forming the escarpment of the south- 

 ern edge of the Great Basin, are of the colonnade type, and for 



IENNY30NS 



\ UN". 



Fig. 7. — Tennyson's Monument. 



