INTERESTING VIEW. 151 



sandstone, almost vertical in their position, and ornamented with an occar 

 sional stunted pine, or cedar, or shrub of the buffalo-berry, (shepherdia ar- 

 gentea,) while at their base reposed, in huge masses, a profuse medley of 

 fallen fragments, strown around in all the wild confusion of savage 

 scenery. 



A few hundred yards to the left, the Platte forces its way through a 

 barrier of table lands, forming one of those striking peculiarities incident 

 to mountain streams, called a "canon."* 



Improving the opportunity afforded by a short stay, I ascended an emi- 

 nence to enjoy a full vew of the grand spectacle. Tlie mountain through 

 which the river finds passage, at this place, is from five to eight hundred 

 feet high, opposing perpendicular walls upon each side, that at many points 

 overhang the narrow stream which sweeps with its foaming waters among 

 the rocks below. 



This canon is nearly two miles in length. About midway of the dis- 

 tance the whole stream is precipitated in an unbroken volume from a ledge 

 of rocks, causing a cataract of some twenty or twenty-five feet descent. 



Standing upon the dizzy verge of this frightful chasm, and gazing 

 adown its dark abyss, the aspect is one of terrific sublimity, and such an 

 one as will cause the beholder to shrink back with instinctive dread ! 



These walls are principally of red-sandstone, and ferruginous rock, the 

 precise character of which I was unable to determine. Upon the summit 

 I noticed an abundance of silex, with some elegant specimens of crystal- 

 line quartz, that, reflecting the sun's rays, shone like gems in the crown of 

 a mountain-god ; a number of singular ligneous petrifactions also met my 

 observation, principally consisting of pine and cedar. 



The surrounding country brought within the scope of vision an interest- 

 ing and romantic scene. The lofty table land in front (with diversified 

 surfaces of granitic rock and vegetable earth, affording a scanty nourish- 

 ment for herbage and foothold for dwarfish cedars and pines) spread far 

 away to the snow-clad mountains of the north, — while rearward at its base 

 lay the broad valley through which passes the Oregon trail, shut in upon two 

 sides by rugged hills; and farther on arise the snowy sides of the Lara- 

 mie chain, with their cloud-capped summits. To the left, peak towering 

 above peak, in gradual succession, point to the ridge dividing the waters 

 of the Atlantic and Pacific; and, to the right, the lessening eminences, 

 vallons, and plateaux, guide the eye to where the boundless prairie revels 

 in wild beauty and owns itself the realm of eternal Solitude ! 



How magnificent must be the scene when spring arrays the surrounding 

 landscape in her own loveliness, and bedecks the wilderness with gaudy 

 verdure ! 



Bearing again to the left, we continued our course by a winding 

 buffalo-path which soon brought us to a broad valley borderino: upon tlie 

 Platte. 



♦The Spanish word " canon" implies a narrow, tunnel-like passage between high 

 and precipitous banks, formed by mountains or table lands. It is pronounced kanyow, 

 and is a familiar term in tlie vocabulary of a mountaineer. 



