THE FORESTS AND DESERTS OF AlUZOXA 225 



No picture lias ever conveyed an idea, language there is none 

 that can ever give an adeiiuate conception of the en.senihle of this 

 great chasm— its vast proportions, its intricate plan, the nol»ilitv 

 of its architecture, its colossal buttes, its wealth of ornauientation, 

 the splendor of its rich colors. It is not a canon at all that you 

 see — the word belittles the scene; it is a labyrinth of an infinite 

 number of chasms and canons that press themselves upon your 

 view all at once, a mighty mountain country filled witli most fan- 

 tastically carved, gigantic, rock masses. Cyclopean castles thou- 

 sands of feet in height, gracefully towering gothic cathedrals, 

 round-topped Moslem mosques,Greek and Indian temples, frown- 

 ing rock cities, pyramids, and obelisks, battlemented fortresses, 

 all the wonders of the Arabian Nights nmltii)lied and heaped to- 

 gether in a wild chaos, stimulating 3'our fancy beyond its power. 



And not only is the ensemble present the most stupendous 

 sight; even the least imj^osing portions of the canon are as im- 

 pressive as an}^ scenery that can be found in the world. For 200 

 miles of the river bed, with a breadth of 10 to 12 miles and more, 

 is here revealed the interior of the workshop of Nature and the 

 secrets of the building up of our earth's crust. The surrounding 

 plateau country is scored by intricate mazes of side canons. In 

 these and in the main chasm to a depth of 6,000 to 8,000 feet geo- 

 logical history is exhibited in precipitous walls with a clearness 

 "unparalleled in any portion of the world, telling of seons of rock- 

 building and of millenniums of rock-carving by wind and water. 

 Far below, hardly recognizable if at all visible from above, tlows 

 the great river, which in its ceaseless rush has carried to the sea 

 the sands and debris, results of the denudation of more recent 

 formations ; has cut through the pale gray limestones of the 

 Permian, the pink and brilliant red sandstones and the purplish 

 and vermilion limestones of the Triassic, the deep brown rocks 

 of the Carboniferous, down to the somber, iron-black granites of 

 the Silurian and Archaean ages, through which the river now 

 rolls its yellow waters, gathered from thousamls of s«iuare miles in 

 the mountains of Colorado and the plateausof Utah and Arizona— 

 herein placid and majestic dignity, there with a wild current in 

 roaring rapids, over boulders and rocks and preeii)itous falls. 



" Great as is the fame of the Grand Canon of the Colorado, tiie 

 half remains to be told," wrote Major Dutton in 1S81, in his su- 

 perb monograph on the canon ; and this is still true today, and 

 will be for many years. While its geology has been unfathomed 

 with considerable detail by that philosophical geologist, we have 



15 



