78 GRAND CANON DISTRICT. 



the stylo depends. The Jurassic forma arc characterized by a peculiar 

 massiveness and boldness and by an extreme simplicity which is even 

 severe. Its walls aie quite plain, without horizontal or vertical mould- 

 ings, and the only decoration is the cross-bedding which becomes invis- 

 ible at distances sufficient to render a general view of the fronts effect- 

 ive. A notable feature also is the absence of talus — or, if it be present, 

 its small proportions. This simplicity usually gives a dull slumberous 

 aspect to the escarpments, suggesting on a vast scale the structures of 

 the Peruvian Incas. But it is not always so. Occasionally the auster- 

 ity of these forms is relaxed or replaced by a strange kind of animation 

 which sometimes becomes amusing. Looking southward from the brink 

 of the Markagunt the eye is attracted to the features of a broad middle 

 terrace upon its southwestern flank, named The Colob. 1 1 is a veritable 

 wonderland. It lies beyond the Cretaceous belt and is far enough away 

 to be obscure in its details, yet exciting curiosity. If we descend to it 

 we shall perceive numberless rock-forms of nameless shapes, but often 

 grotesque and ludicrous, starting up from the earth as isolated freaks of 

 carving or standing in clusters and rows along the white walls of sand- 

 stone. They bear little likeness to anything we can think of, and yet 

 they tease the imagination to find something wherennto they may be 

 likened. Yet the forms are in a certain sense very deiinite, and many of 

 them look merry and farcical. The land here is full of comedy. It is a 

 singular display of Nature's art mingled with nonsense. It is well 

 named the Colob, for the word has no ascertainable meaning and yet 

 sounds as if it ought to have one. 



Nor are these the only forms which the Jurassic discloses. Here and 

 there blank faces of the white wall are brought into view as the sinuous 

 line of its front advances and recedes. Isolated masses cut oil' from the 

 main formation, and often at considerable distances from it, lie with a 

 majestic repose upon the broad expanse of the terrace. These some- 

 times become very striking in their forms. They remind us of great 

 forts with bastions and scarps nearly a thousand feet high. The smaller 

 masses become regular truncated cones with bare slopes. Some of them 

 take the form of great domes where the eagles may build their nests in 

 perfect safety. But noblest of all are the white summits of the great 

 temples of the Virgen gleaming through the haze. Here Nature has 

 changed her mood from levity to religious solemnity, and revealed her 

 fervor in forms and structures more beautiful than anything in human 

 art. But we shall see more of this hereafter and from much more advan- 

 tageous stand-points than the summit of the Markagunt. There only 

 faint suggestions of the reality are given. We only perceive in imper- 

 fect detail some throngs of towers, snow-white above and red below, the 

 bristling spires of ornate buttes, or a portion of the grand sweep of a 

 wing-wall thrust out from some unseen facade. None of them appear 

 in their full relations to the whole, and all of them are weakened, faded, 

 and tlatteued by the distance. 



