214 



THK BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



just emptiod of primeval floods and 

 vvaitiiis;' for a new creative woi'd" 

 ohuliiiK all sense of perspective or 

 dimension, outstretchir.g tlie faculty 

 or measurement, overlapping the con- 

 fines of detinite appreliension, a bod- 

 ing, terrible thing, unflinchingly real, 

 jet six'ctral as a dream. The beholder 

 is at flrst unimpressed by any detail; 

 he is overwhelmed by the ensemble 

 of a stupendcus panorama, a thou- 

 sand s(iuare miles in extent, that lies 

 wliolly beneath the eye, as if he stood 

 upon a mountain peak instead of the 

 .level brink of a fearful chasm in the 

 plateau, whose opposite shore is thir- 

 teen miles away. A labyrinth of 

 luige architectural forms, endlessly 

 A'aried in design, fretted with orna- 

 mental devices, festooned with lace- 

 like webs formed of talus form the 

 upper cliffs and painted with every 

 color known to the palette in pure 

 transp.u'ent tones of marveloi.s del - 

 cacy. Never was picture irorc iiar- 

 rnonious, never flower moi'e exquisite- 

 iy l>eautiful. It flashes instant com- 

 munication o( all that architecture 

 and painting and music for a thousand 

 years have gropingly strived to ex- 

 press. It is the soul of Michael An- 

 gelo and of Beethoven. 



A canyon, truly, but not after the 

 accepted tyr)e. An intricate systeui 

 of canyons, rather, each subordinate 

 to the river channel in the midsr 

 which in its turn is subordinate to the 

 whoh> eft'ect. That river channel, the 

 profoundest depth, and actually more 

 tlian (l.bdt) feet beloAV the pnint of 

 view, is in seeming a rather Insignih- 

 cant trench, attracting the eye 

 n>()re l)y reason of its somber tone 

 ;ind mysterious suggestion that by 

 ;;ny ii)preciable characteristic of a 

 chasm. It is perhaps five miles dis-- 

 tant in a straight line and its upper- 

 most rims are nearly 4.000 feet be- 

 neath th(> o])scr\(r. whose m(>asuiing 



capacity is entirely inadequate to the 

 demand made by such magnitudes. 

 One can not believe the distance to 

 be more than a mile as the crow liies, 

 before descending the wall or attempt- 

 ing some other form of actual meas- 

 iirement. 



Mere brain knowledge counts for 

 little against the illusion under A^hich 

 the organ of vision is here doomed 

 to labor. Yonder cliff, darkening 

 from white to gray, yellow, an.d ])!()\va 

 as your glance descends, is taller than 

 the Washington Monument. Th' 

 Amlilorium in Chicago would not co\ 

 ei one-half its perpendicular span. 

 Yet it does not greatly impress you. 

 You idly toss a pebl)le toward it, and 

 are surprised to note how far the mis- 

 sile falls short. By and by you will 

 learn that it is a good half mile dis- 

 tan.t. and when yoii go down the trail 

 you will gain an abiding sense of its 

 real proportions. Yet, relatively, it is 

 an unimportant detail of the scene. 

 Were Vulcan to cast it bodily into the 

 chasm directly beneath your feet, it 

 would pass for a bowlder, if, indeed, 

 it Avere discoverable to the unaided 

 eye. 



Yet the immediate chasm itself is 

 only the first step of a long terrace 

 that leads down to the innermost 

 gorge and the river. Roll a heavy 

 stone to the rim and let it go. It talis 

 sheer the heiglit of a church or an Ei 

 ffel Tower, according to the point se- 

 lected for such pastime, and explodes 

 like a bomb on a projecting ledge. If, 

 happily, any considerable fragments 

 remain, they bound onward like elas- 

 tic balls, leaping in wild parabola from 

 point to point, snapping trees like 

 straws; bursting, crashing, thundering 

 down the declivities until they make 

 a last plunge over the brink of a void; 

 and then there comes languidly up the 

 cliff sides a faint, distant roar, and 

 vour bowlder that had withstood the 



