THE PANOEAMA FEOM POINT SUBLIME. 
153 
unconquered by the blaze of noonday. The want of half tones and grada- 
tions in the light and shade, which has already been noted in the Vermilion 
Cliffs, is apparent here, and is far more conspicuous. Our thoughts in this 
connection may suggest to us a still more extreme case of a similar phe- 
nomenon presented by the half-illuminated moon when viewed through a 
large telescope. The portions which catch the sunlight shine with great 
luster, but the shadows of mountains and cliffs are black and impenetrable. 
But there is one feature in the canon which is certainly extraordinary. It 
is the appearance of the atmosphere against the background of shadow. It 
has a metallic luster which must be seen to be appreciated. The great 
wall across the chasm presents at noonday, under a cloudless sky, a singu- 
larly weird and unearthly aspect. The color is for the most part gone. In 
place of it comes this metallic glare of the haze. The southern wall is 
never so poorly lighted as at noon. Since its face consists of a series of 
promontories projecting towards the north, these projections catch the sun- 
light on their eastern sides in the forenoon, and upon their western sides in 
the afternoon ; but near meridian the rays fall upon a few points only, and 
even upon these with very great obliquity. Thus at the hours of greatest 
general illumination the wall is most obscure and the abnormal effects are 
then presented most forcibly. They give rise to strange delusions. The 
rocks then look nearly black, or very dark grey, and covered with feebly 
shining spots. The haze is strongly luminous, and so dense as to obscure 
the details already enfeebled by shade as if a leaden or mercurial vapor 
intervened. The shadows antagonize the perspective, and everything seems 
awry. The lines of stratification, dimly seen in one place and wholly 
effaced in another, are strangely belied, and the strata are given apparent 
attitudes which are sometimes grotesque and sometimes impossible. 
Those who are familiar with western scenery have, no doubt, been 
impressed with the peculiar character of its haze— or atmosphere, in the 
artistic sense of the word — and have noted its more prominent qualities. 
When the air is free from common smoke it has a pale blue color which 
is quite unlike the neutral gray of the east. It is always apparently 
more dense when we look towards the sun than when we look away 
from it, and this difference in the two directions, respectively, is a maximum 
