THE GRAND CANON OF THE COLORADO

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2136, 28 May 1889, Page 2

THE GRAND CANON OF THE COLORADO

I believe no paralled can be found on the face of the globe to the Qrand Canon of the Colorado River m the State of Arizona, » region raraly vlilted by the traveller, and almost unknown to Englishmen. This astonishing oleft In the aurfase of the earth runs for 220 miles through an elevated mountain plateau, m irblob It 00*8 a deep ■erpantine gaeb from 3000 to 6000 feet deep, the average height of the mountain walls being 5000 feet, o».,» perpendicular mile. At itie bottom of this appalling gorga Is no smiling valley or wooded glade ; nothlDg but a gieat river surging angrily alongla rooky bed and obafing witb eternal thunder against Its prison walls. But onoe has the passage of that terrible defile from end to end been accomplished. The story is contained la a Parliamentary paper, but it reads like some weird romance. Tha spectator from above sees nothing but what might be a silken skein twisted along the bottom of the abyss ; his ear If straiued hardly c»tobe» » dim and fretfal marmar. Bui below is the everlasting roar ot waiere and from there (ho otfuopy of sky upheld by the pillared walls looks unu.terably remote, I know of nothing m (be world at all Ojmparab'e to this. The canons o Ithe Yoiemlie *ud the Yellowstone are gre*t; but a greater than either is here. — George N. Oa.z^D, MP.