146 
THE GEAND CANON DISTRICT. 
succession of ledges projecting through the scanty talus which never con- 
ceals them. 
Numerous detached masses are also seen flanking the ends of the long 
promontories. These buttes are of gigantic proportions, and yet so over- 
whelming is tlie effect of the wall against which they are projected that they 
seem insignificant in mass, and the observer is often deluded by them, failing 
to perceive that they are really detached from the wall and perhaps sepa- 
rated from it by an interval of a mile or two. 
At the foot of this palisade is a platform through which meanders the 
inner gorge, in whose dark and somber depths flows the river. Only in one 
place can the water surface be seen. In its windings the abyss which holds 
it extends for a short distance towards us and the line of vision enters the 
gorge lengthwise. Above and below this short reach the gorge swings its 
course in other directions and reveals only a dark, narrow opening, while its 
nearer wall hides its depths. This inner chasm is 1,000 to 1,200 feet deep. 
Its upper 200 feet is a vertical ledge of sandstone of a dark rich brownish 
color. Beneath it lies the granite of a dark iron-graj^ shade, verging towards 
black, and lending a gloomy aspect to the lowest deeps. Perhaps a half 
mile of the river is disclosed. A pale, dirty red, without glimmer or sheen, 
a motionless surface, a small featureless spot, inclosed in the dark shade of 
the granite, is all of it that is here visible. Yet we know it is a large river, 
a hundred and fifty yards wide, with a headlong torrent foaming and plung- 
ing over rocky rapids. 
A little, and only a little, less impressive than the great wall across the 
chasm are the buttes upon this side. And such buttes! All others in the 
west, saving only the peerless Temples of the Virgen, are mere trifles in com- 
parison with those of the Grrand Canon. In nobility of form, beauty of deco- 
ration, and splendor of color, the Temples of the Virgen must, on the Avhole, 
be awarded the palm ; but those of the Grand Canon, while barely inferior 
to them in those respects, surpass them in magnitude and fully equal them 
in majesty. But while the Valley of the Virgen presents a few of these 
superlative creations, the Grand Canon presents them by dozens. In this 
relation the comparison would be analogous to one between a fine cathedral 
town and a metropolis like London or Paris. In truth, there is only a very 
