THE PANOEAMA FEOM POIJTT SUBLIME. 
151 
fusion with which they are arrayed along the whole visible extent of the 
broad chasm. 
The color effects are rich and wonderful. They are due to the inherent 
colors of the rocks, modified by the atmosphere. Like any other great 
series of strata in the Plateau Province, the Carboniferous has its own range 
of characteristic colors, which might serve to distinguish it even if we had 
no other criterion. The summit strata are pale grey, with a faint yellowish 
cast. Beneath them the cross-bedded sandstone appears, showing a mottled 
surface of pale pinkish hue. Underneath this member are nearly 1,000 feet 
of the lower Aubrey sandstones, displaying an intensely brilliant red, which 
is somewhat masked by the talus shot down from the grev, cherty limestones 
at the summit. Beneath the Lower Aiibrey is the face of tlie Red Wall 
limestone, from 2,000 to 3,000 feet high. It has a strong red tone, but a 
very peculiar one. Most of the red strata of the west have the brownish 
or vermilion tones, but these are rather purplish-red, as if the pigment had 
been treated to a dash of blue. It is not quite certain that this may not 
arise in part from the intervention of the blue haze, and probably it is ren- 
dered more conspicuous by this cause; but, on the whole, the purplish cast 
seems to be inherent. This is the dominant color-mass of the canon, for 
the expanse of rock surface displayed is more than half in the Red Wall 
group. It is less brilliant than the fiery red of tlie Aubrey sandstones, but 
is still quite strong and rich. Beneath are the deep browns of the lower 
Carboniferous. The dark iron-black of the hornblendic schists revealed in 
the lower gorge makes but little impression upon the boundless expanse of 
bright colors above. 
The total effect of the entire color-mass is bright and glowing. There 
is nothing gloomy or dark in the picture, except the opening of the inner 
gorge, which is too small a feature to influence materially the prevailing 
tone. Although the colors are bright when contrasted with norma] land- 
scapes, they are decidedly less intense than the flaming hues of the Trias 
or the dense cloying colors of the Permian; nor have they the refinement 
of those revealed in the Eocene. The intense luster which gleams from the 
rocks of the Plateau Country is by no means lost here, but is merely sub- 
dued and kept under some restraint. It is toned down and softened without 
