TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GEEEN K1VEES. 97 



interest ; lofty lines of massive mesas rising in successive steps to form the frame of the 

 picture ; the interval between them more than 2,000 feet below their summits. A 

 great basin or sunken plain lay stretched out before us as on a map. Not a particle of 

 vegetation was anywhere discernible ; nothing but bare and barren rocks of rich and 

 varied colors shimmering in the sunlight. Scattered over the plain were thousands of 

 the fantastically formed buttes to which I have so often referred in my notes; pyramids, 

 domes, towers, columns, spires, of every conceivable form and size. Among these by 

 far the most remarkable was the forest of Gothic spires, first and imperfectly seen as 

 we issued from the mouth of the Canon Colorado. Nothing I can say will give 

 an adequate idea of the singular and surprising appearance which they presented from 

 this new and advantageous point of view. Singly, or in groups, they extend like 

 a belt of timber for a distance of several miles. Nothing in nature or in art offers a 

 parallel to these singular objects, but some idea of their appearance may be gained by 

 imagining the island of New York thickly set with spires like that of Trinity church, 

 but many of them full twice its height. Scarcely less striking features in the landscape 

 were the innumerable canons by which the plain is cut. In every direction they ran 

 and ramified deep, dark, and ragged, impassable to everything but the winged bird. 

 Of these the most stupendous was that of Grand River, which washes two sides of the 

 base of the pinnacle on which we stood, a narrow chasm, as we estimated, full 1,500 

 feet in depth, into which the sun scarcely seemed to penetrate. At the bottom the 

 whole breadth of this canon is occupied by the turbid waters of Grand River, here a 

 sluggish stream, at least with no current visible to us who were more than 2,000 feet 

 above it. In this great artery a thousand lateral tributaries terminate, flowing through 

 channels precisely like that of Labyrinth Creek ; underground passages by which inter- 

 mittent floods from the distant highlands are conducted through this country, producing 

 upon it no other effect than constantly to deepen their own beds. Toward the south 

 the cafion of Grand River was easily traced. Perhaps four miles below our position it 

 is joined by another great chasm coming in from the northwest, said by the Indians to 

 be that of Green River. From the point where we were it was inaccessible, but we 

 had every reason to credit their report in reference to it. 



After reaching the elevated point from which we obtained this view, I neglected 

 to take the rest I so much needed, but spent the little time at my command in endeavor- 

 ing to put on paper some of the more striking features of the scene before us. Stand- 

 ing on the highest point, I made a hasty panoramic sketch of the entire landscape. 

 The effort had, however, nearly cost me dear ; for before I had completed the circle 

 of the horizon I was seized with dreadful headache, giddiness, and nausea, and, alone 

 as I then was, had the greatest difficulty in rejoining my companions. 



The greater part of the walls of the canon of Grand River are formed of Car- 

 boniferous rocks; the summits of the cliff's are, however, composed of Triassic red 

 sandstone, the equivalent of those resting on the Carboniferous limestone on the Little 

 Colorado and in the valley of the Pecos. The Carboniferous cannot, therefore, be said 

 to be the surface formation anywhere in this region, as it is nowhere exposed except 

 in the trough of the Colorado, and there in the cafions. The composition of that 

 portion of this formation to which I had access in the canon of Labyrinth Creek is as 

 follows; the Triassic sandstone resting on the upper member of the section : 

 13 s P 



