288 Transactions of the American Institute. 



green or yellow, and bearing domes and pinnacles of the most fan- 

 tastic shapes. As -we approached, we found a way opened to ns, and 

 we sailed freelj and quietly througli, for each of these mountain 

 chains was traversed l)y a canon cut l)y the river. At the point to 

 which I have bVought you in my story, there appeared before us a 

 more formidable chain than any we had encountered, named by 

 Lieut. Ives, from its predominating color, the Black Mountain range. 

 It was on Saturday morning, the Tth of February, tliat, having toiled 

 up^some rapids, just below the canon we came to a great gate, of 

 which the walls, composed of red porphyry, rose a thousand feet on 

 either side. As we entered this grand portal we came into deep and 

 gtill water, and a panorama opened before us so peculiar and enchant- 

 ing ^lat all the party soon became absorbed in the scene before us. 



B}^ means of the small boat the canon was traversed twenty-five 

 miles up to the point we aimed at, the mouth of the Rio Virgin. 

 We then returned down the river 150 miles to meet our suj^ply train 

 and find a point where the mountains lying east of the river could be 

 crossed. 



Passing the Black mountains we came down on a plateau 800 

 feet higher than the valley of the Colorado. This was twenty miles 

 wide, and bounded on the east by the Cerbat mountains. Crossing the 

 Cerbat range we descended to another plateau 2,200 feet above the 

 river. On the other side of that another range of mountains, east 

 of which was the great plateau of the central portion of the conti- 

 nent, and it was to bring you safely up to that high table land that 

 I have led you by such a long and round-about course, and have 

 tried your patience with the details of our progress. 



Tlie Colorado plateau is traversed from side to side by the 

 Colorado river, which, throughout all its course through the table 

 lands, runs from 3,000 to 6,000 feet below tlie general surface, in 

 a gorge cut out by its waters, known as the caiion of the Colorado, 

 one of the most remarkable topographical features on the earth's sur- 

 face. Probably nowhere can be found a more striking and impres- 

 sive scenery than that formed by perspective lines of the Mesa w'alls 

 which seem almost hanging in mid-air, and the profound abysses of 

 the canons, whicli open in yawning chasms a mile in depth at the 

 very feet, as it were, of the unprepared and awe-struck traveler. 



A still higher interes| attaches to the Colorado plateau from the 

 fact that it was once the home of a large and partially civilized peo- 

 ple, whose stone-built structures, habitations, citadels and towns are 



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