GRAND BANKS 



2559 GRAND CANYON OF THE COLORADO 



Any soldier or sailor of the United States 

 array, navy or marine corps, who "served be- 

 tween April 12, 1861, and April 9, 1865, and was 

 honorably discharged, and members of state 

 regiments who were subject to orders of United 

 States officers, were admitted as members of 

 the society, which grew in numbers until 1890, 

 when the maximum membership of 409,489 was 

 reached. In that year 5,476 veterans died, and 

 the steadily increasing death rate had reduced 

 the membership to fewer than 135.000 at the 

 beginning of 1917. 



The Grand Army is divided into local posts 

 and departments representing the states, and 

 annual meetings, known as encampments, are 

 held in the various large cities of the country. 

 On official occasions members wear a dark 

 blue uniform and a slouch hat. Though the 

 Grand Army is in no sense a political organiza- 

 tion, it has had a noticeable influence on pen- 

 sion legislation. The society has been espe- 

 cially active in charitable work and in found- 

 ing soldiers' homes, and to its influence is 

 partly due the custom of observing Decoration 

 Day (which see). The Woman's Relief Corps 

 (which see) is an auxiliary of the Grand Army. 



GRAND BANKS, the chief source of the 

 wealth of Newfoundland, are submerged banks 

 of sand, gravel and fragments of rock, stretch- 

 ing 200 miles along the coast of Newfoundland 

 and extending southeast into the Atlantic 

 Ocean for a distance of 500 miles. Their waters 

 range in depth from fifty to 1,000 feet. Thou- 

 sands of sea birds, circling above them, indicate 

 to the fisherman the location of the shallow 

 waters teeming with fish; codfish, especially, 

 are caught in enormous quantities (see COD). 

 Over 100,000 Canadian and American fisher- 

 men, in bankers, crafts especially equipped for 

 fishing in these waters, brave the storms, float- 

 ing icebergs and dense fogs of the Banks. The 

 heavy fogs are due to the meeting of the 

 Labrador currents and the Gulf Stream. 

 Most of Newfoundland's fishery products, 

 which in 1914 were valued at $7,971,355, are 

 caught on the Grand Banks. See FISH, sub- 

 title Deep-Sea Fisheries. 



GRAND CAN 'YON OF THE COLORADO, 

 one of the greatest scenic marvels in the world. 

 Some discerning travelers under the spell of 

 its splendor do not hesitate to say that it 

 dwarfs all other natural spectacles; E. Burton 

 Holmes, who has probably traveled more ex- 

 tensively than has any other person, calls 

 it "the biggest beautiful thing in the world." 

 Simply stated, this "divine abyss" is the chasm 



which the Colorado River has cut for itself 

 through the plateau region of Northwestern 

 Arizona (see COLORADO RIVER), and is 217 VI- 

 miles in length. The words canyon or chasm 

 or gorge, all of which are applied to it, give a 

 mental picture of a steep-sided, narrow valley, 



LOCATION OF THE GRAND CANYON 



on the more or less level floor of which a river 

 flows; but the Grand Canyon admits of no 

 such classification. It is from one to eighteen 

 miles wide, and over a mile deep, and the 

 sandy, turbulent river which twists and winds 

 through its depths is thus buried so far below 

 that scarcely a murmur from it reaches upward 

 to the rim. 



To try to describe the Grand Canyon is to 

 attempt the impossible. "When the Creator 

 made it," says one writer, "He made no adjec- 

 tives to go with it." Even the faintest idea 

 of its stupendous size, its wealth of coloring 

 and its riot of forms, majestic, grotesque or 

 beautiful, can be gained only from actual sight 

 of it. The way to it is from tin- south, over 

 a level, heavily-wooded plateau, and no hint 

 of the waiting wonders conies to the visitor 

 until he stands upon the southern rim. Across 

 from him, miles distant, but seeming close Bt 

 hand in the clear atmosphere, is the farther 

 rim, as straight and level as the horizon, while 

 in between and on all hands stretch craggy 

 peaks, flat-topped mesas, steep valleys, ter- 

 raced rocks, all glowing with the deepest, 

 richest colors. Red, yellow, purple, white, 

 brown and black blend in some spots, and in 



