AMPHITHBATBES OF THE KAIBAB. 
173 
BRIGHT AEGBL AMPHITHEATER. 
Altogether it is perhaps the finest of those of the first order. It is the 
longest and deepest of any, and is also the narrowest. Its length is about 
fifteen miles, its width varies from two to three miles, and through the 
greatest part of its extent it is cut deeply into the granite. A fine large 
creek of clear water flows along its bottom and enters the Colorado. Its 
walls, more than ii,000 feet in height, are majestic in the extreme, and pre- 
sent the noblest forms. Upon its southern side and along the lower portion 
the promontory which separates it from the amphitheater next beyond has 
been carved into a cloister butte, which is one of the finest of its class. 
Upon its thicker parts are planted pagodas, which are terminated above by 
sharp finials. The projecting wings include grand alcoves between them, 
which toward sunset are filled with a “dim religious light,” commingled 
with a tenuous haze suggestive of the smoke of incense. The walls which 
encircle these recesses ascend in awful grandeur, as rich in sculpture as a 
Gothic cathedral. Beyond is the throng of temples and the dominant facade 
of the further canon wall. It is a repetition of the scenery which over- 
powers us at Point Sublime, unchanged in style and undiminished in grandeur. 
There are many spots, and this is only one of them, where comparisons 
seem no longer possible. Each is far beyond the power of the faculties to 
comprehend it, and no one of them greatly exceeds the others. They differ 
as the turns of the kaleidoscope differ from each other. But they never grow 
monotonous. When the mind has once wrestled with this scenery it feels 
its own insignificance, but it does not grow listless, nor lose its enthu- 
siasm. It is rather disciplined and brought into a calmer and better regu- 
lated mood and the better fitted to enjoy it. 
Thompson’s Spring is also the starting-point from which to visit the 
extreme southern portion of the Kaibab. It is the southernmost spring 
which can be depended upon to furnish good water. There is a lagoon 
further south, which in ordinary seasons retains water through the summer, 
but the quality is by no means of the best, and it is desirable to carry a 
supply in kegs from the spring. Ascending Thompson’s ravine about a 
mile, we leave it by a side gulch and pass over two broad ridges, keeping a 
