L52 GRAND CANON DISTRICT. 



panse of rock surface displayed is more than half in the Ked Wall group. 

 It is less brilliant than the fiery red of the Aubrey sandstones, but is 

 still quite strong and rich. Beneath are the deep browns of the lower 

 Carboniferous. The dark iron-black of the hoi nblendic schists revealed 

 in the lower gorge makes but little impression upon the boundless expanse 

 of bright colors above. 



The total effect of the entire color-mass is bright and glowing. There 

 is nothing gloomy or dark in the picture except the opening of the inner 

 gorge, which is too small a feature to influence materially the prevailing 

 tone. Although the colors are bright when contrasted with normal 

 landscapes, they are decidedly less intense than the flaming hues of the 

 Trias or the dense cloying colors of the Permian; nor have they the 

 refinement of those revealed in the Eocene. The intense luster which 

 gleams from the rocks of the Plateau country is by no means lost here 

 but is merely subdued and kept under some restraint. It is toned down 

 and softened without being deprived of its character. Enough of it is 

 left to produce color effects not far below those that are yielded by the 

 Jura-Trias. 



But though the inherent colors are less intense than some others, yet 

 under the quickening influence of the atmosphere they produce effects 

 to which all others are far inferior. And here language fails and de- 

 scription becomes impossible. Not only are their qualities exceedingly 

 subtle, but they have little counterpart in common experience. If such 

 are presented elsewhere they are presented so feebly and obscurely that 

 only the most discriminating and closest observers of nature ever seize 

 them, and they so imperfectly that their ideas of them are vague and 

 but half real. There are no concrete notions founded in experience upon 

 which a conception of these color effects and optical delusions can be 

 constructed and made intelligible. A perpetual glamour envelops the 

 landscape. Thing are not what they seem, and the perceptions cannot 

 tell us what they are. It is not probable that these effects are different 

 in kind in the Grand Cafion from what they are in other portions of the 

 Plateau country. But the difference in degree is immense, and being 

 greatly magnified and intensified many characteristics become palpable 

 which elsewhere elude the closest observation. 



In truth, the tone and temper of the landscape are constantly varying, 

 and the changes in its aspect are very great. It is never the same, even 

 from day to day, or even from hour to hour. In the early morning its 

 mood and subjective influences are usually calmer and more full of 

 repose than at other times, but as the sun rises higher the whole scene 

 is so changed that we cannot recall our first impressions. Every pass- 

 ing cloud, every change in the position of the sun recasts the whole. 

 At sunset the pageant closes amid splendors that seem more than 

 earthly. The direction of the full sunlight, the massing of the shadows, 

 the manner in which the side-lights are thrown in from the clouds deter- 

 mine these modulations, and the sensitiveness of the picture to the 

 slightest variations in these conditions is very wonderful. 



