156 
THE GRAND CASfON DISTRICT. 
nitudes, however majestic the forms, or sumptuous the decoration, it is in 
these kingly colors that the highest glory of the Girand Canon is revealed. 
At length the sun sinks and the colors cease to burn. The abyss lapses 
back into repose. But its glory mounts upward and diffuses itself in the 
sky above. Long streamers of rosy light, rayed out from the west, cross 
the firmament and converge again in the east, ending in a pale rosy arch, 
which rises like a low aurora just above the eastern horizon Below it is 
the dead gray shadow of the world. Higher and higher climbs the arch, 
followed by the darkening pall of gray, and as it ascends it fades and dis- 
appears, leaving no color except the after-glow of the western clouds and 
the lusterless red of the chasm below. Within the abyss the darkness gathers. 
Gradually the shades deepen and ascend, hiding the opposite wall and 
enveloping the great temples. For a few moments the summits of these 
majestic piles seem to float upon a sea of blackness, then vanish in the dark- 
ness, and, wrapped in the impenetrable mantle of the night, they await the 
glory of the coming dawn. 
