THE GRAND CANON 



in wildest extravagance held her bravest 

 structures as common as gravel-piles. Yon- 

 der stands a spiry cathedral nearly five thou- 

 sand feet in height, nobly sjrmmetrical, with 

 sheer buttressed walls and arched doors and 

 windows, as richly finished and decorated with 

 sculptures as the great rock temples of India 

 or Egypt. Beside it rises a huge castle with 

 arched gateway, turrets, watch-towers, ram- 

 parts, etc., and to right and left palaces, obe- 

 lisks, and pyramids fairly fill the gulf, all colos- 

 sal and all lavishly painted and carved. Here 

 and there a flat-topped structure may be seen, 

 or one imperfectly domed; but the prevailing 

 style is ornate Gothic, with many hints of 

 Egyptian and Indian. 



Throughout this vast extent of wild archi- 

 tecture — nature's own capital city — there 

 seem to be no ordinary dwellings. All look like 

 grand and important public structures, except 

 perhaps some of the lower pyramids, broad- 

 based and sharp-pointed, covered with down- 

 flowing talus like loosely set tents with hollow, 

 sagging sides. The roofs often have disinte- 

 grated rocks heaped and draggled over them, 

 but in the main the masonry is firm and laid 

 in regular courses, as if done by square and 

 rule. 



Nevertheless they are ever changing: their 



355 



