^Jl_ Book .Tsr CopigMN^ COPYIdCliT DEPOSm *K5rf Marvels of the New West, A VIVID PORTRAYAL OP' THE STUPENDOUS MARVELS IN THE VAST WONDERLAND WEST OF THE MISSOURI RIVER. SIX BOOKS IN ONE VOLUME, COMI'RISINC MARVELS OF NATURE, MARVELS OF RACE, MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE, MARVELS OF MINING, MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING, AND MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE, GRAPHICALLY AND TRUTHFULLY DESCRIBED BY ^ WILLIAM M. THAYER, Author of over Twenty standard Works, including "The White House Series of Biographies," and "Youths' History of the Rehellion," in 4 Vols. ILLUSTRATED WITH OVER THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FINE ENGRAVINGS AND MAPS. Mov/Viv:;/5, v>i7.i)^7 NORWICH, CONN.: THE HENRY BILL PUBLISHING COMPANY. 1887. Copyright, 18S7, By William M. Thayer. All rights reserved. SOLD ONLY BY SUBSCRIPTION. Electrotyped by J. S. Gushing & Co., Boston. Presswork by Berwick & Smith, Boston. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. PAGB The New West, where and what is it ? Marvellous Boundaries ; Great Things attempted ; Capacity for Population ; Average Moral Charac- ter; No "Far West" now; Eastern Errors about Western Life; De- sign of this Book ; Next to Seeing ; " Wonderland " ; Testimony of Others ; Marvels only xxvii I. MARVELS OF NATURE. Rocky Mountain Scenery; Testimony of Bayard Taylor and William A. Baillie-Grohman 3 CANONS. The Arkansas Canon : Description and Royal Gorge ; Visit by Tourists . 5 Thk Black Canon : Its Character ; Curricauti's Needle ; Gateway to Price River Canon 6 PLATTii Canon: Grandeur; Crookedness; Wonderful Rocks; a Tourist's Description 10 Boulder Canon : How to enter it ; Dome Rock 11 Clear Creek Canon: Entrance and Course; Henry James" Description; Sculpture by Wind and Water ; The Double Head ; Wagon Road ; Old Man of the Mountains; View from Gray's Peak and James' Description; The Holy Cross Mountain 12 Williams' Canon : Its Location ; Rainbow Falls ; Devil's Gate : Remark- al)le Cave: More Remarkable Rock-Formations; Dr. Taylor's Descrip- tion: UtePass; Manitou ; Railway up Pike's Peak 17 Chkvenxe Canox : Where ; The Seven Falls : Words of a Visitor ... 26 Echo Canon: Grand Scenery; Nature's Pulpit; Description by Another; Hanging Rock: Devil's Slide: Pulpit Rock 26 American Fork Canon: Picturesque and Grand ; HippoiJotamus Rock . . 31 iv CONTENTS. PAGE Grand Canon of the Colorado : Grandest of All ; explored by United States Government; White and Strobe Walls 6,200 Feet High; Per- mian Butte; PinkClifts; Domes and Towers ; Vishnu's Temple ... 34 Marble Canon : Belongs to Grand Canon ; Button's Description .... 44 Kanab Canon : Belongs to Grand Canon : What Button says 46 Land of thk Standing Rocks: Very Wonderful ; Faithful Representation, 48 Albiquii Peak : In New Mexico ; What Captain Macomb says of it . . . 48 Casa Colorado Butte: In New Mexico; examined and described by Macomb 50 Forest of (jOTHk: Spikes: Remarkable Spectacle : as seen by Macomb . 51 The Needles : Graphic Description 52 Cabazon: Its Surroundings ; 1,500 Feet High 53 Painted Columns 54 Sandstone Formations: In Arizona; Description of them by Cozzens . . 56 City of Enchantment : View by Morning Light ; Mr. Cozzen's Vivid De- scription ; Testimony of Eye-Witnesses 56 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. History of its Exploration ; "Wonderland" 59 The Mammoth Hot Springs : What they are ; described by Mr. W' isner . 60 Great Falls of the Yellowstone : Its Location ; Falls 3,000 Feet ; Grand Scenery ; Statement by Gannett 63 Grand Canon of the Yellowstone : Magnificent Scene ; described by Dr. Wayland Hoyt , 65 Obsidian Cliffs: What are they? described by Wisner 68 Tower Falls : Surrounding Scene ; W' ords of the Superintendent and Lieu- tenant Doane 70 Kepler's Cascades : Beautiful ; described by Wisner . 72 Palace Butte: An Imposing Natural Structure 72 GEYSERS. Upper Geyser Basin 72 Old Faithful : Described by Lieutenant Doane, of the United States Survey, and Dr. Hayden 75 Bee Hive: Whence its Name; described by Two Members of the United States Survey 77 The Giantess: A Mighty Spouter; Mr. Langford's Testimony .... 77 Fan Geyser : Whence its Name ; What Lieutenant Doane and Dr. Hayden say: Table of Geysers; Remarks of a Tourist about Geyser Basin and Yellowstone Park So CONTENTS. YOSEMITE VALLEY. PAGE Location and History 82 Cathedral Rock : Its Height ; What a Traveller says 83 El Capitan : Grand beyond Description ; Words of an Eye-Witness ... 85 Bkidal Veil Fall : Beautiful ; described by Bentley 87 YosE.Mi'ji-: Falls: Compared with Niagara ; Bentley's Description . ... 89 Nevada Fall: Its.J^lunge; described by Bentley : Liberty Cap .... 90 Se.ntlnel Rock: Like Obelisk; Formation described by Ludlow .... 91 Tin; Bio Trees: Section of Big Tree; Table of Calaveras trees: Stage driven through Hole in a Tree ; Racy Account from the New West ; Pio- neer Cabin ; Professor Whitney's Catalogue of Trees and Measurement . 93 GARDEN (JE THE GODS. Where situated 98 The Gateway: Described; Testimony of a Traveller 99 Bear and Seal : Soldier near by, and Rocky Monster 99 The Grandmother: Words of Dr. Mary E. Blake; Words of Another . 100 Balance Rock: Description ; Profile on it; Words of Dr. B. F. Taylor . . 102 Natural Window : Action of Water in creating these Marvels, by Profes- sor Edwards 104 Cathedral Spires: Remarks; Words of Fossett 106 MONUMENT PARK. Its Location 106 Gkoui' of Monuments: Opinion of Geologists ; a Curious Incident ; a Trav- eller's Testimony 108 The Sentinel: Why so named 109 The Duchess: Greatest Marvel; No Exaggeration no MISCELLANEOUS. Shoshone Falls : Where ; a Traveller's Description no San Pedro's Wife: Near San Francisco ; a Lighthouse 113 Do.nner Lake: Its Beauty and Name 113 Multnomah Falls: Its Plunge ; Descrii)tion 115 Pillars ok Hercules: What a Writer says 115 Pyramid Park : Remarks by Professor Denton : Words of Another ; the Cathedral 118 Buttes near Green River Citv: Remarkable Exhibition 118 vi CONTENTS. PAGE Palisades of Wagon Wheel Gap : Where ; Story of the Place ; Magnifi- cent Heights 1 20 Castellated Rocks: In Wyoming; Extent and Grandeur ...... 123 Rhoda's Arch 123 Grand Coulee — Imposing Spectacle 123 Valley of the Laughing Waters: In l' tab ; compared with Yosemite Valley 125 Church, Castle and Fortress: In Montana; Rare Specimen of Nature's Handiwork 125 Indian Rock: In Columbia River ; Superstition of the Indians 127 The Old Woman of the Mountain : In Montana ; the Region round about it 127 Remarks on Natural Walls 128 Natural Flagstones, etc 129 Fishing on the Mountains: Over 11,000 Feet above the Sea; Bierstadt's Subject; how reached 130 Petrified Forest : In Arizona; Graphic Description by Mr. Cozzens . . 131 Summit of Italian Mountain 133 Arizona Cacti described ; What Captain Dutton says 133 II. MARVELS OF RACE. The New West Oldest 135 The Spaniards possessed the Land 136 Discovery of an Ancient Race 137 CAVE-DWELLERS. Description of their Houses 137 Age and Origin 138 Cave-dwellers on McKlmo 139 A Cave-Town restored 140 The Casa Griuuic, Ancient and Grand 141 Race in the Gila Valley 143 Found in New Mexico 144 In Canon de Chaco 144 In the Rio Mancos 146 CONTENTS. vii CLIFF-DWELLERS. PAGE Their Dwellings described by Holmes 146 Dwellings in Rio San Juan, described by Jackson 150 Estiifas. — Traces of Religious Rites 154 Holmes on Ruins of Southwestern Colorado 155 Heights almost Inaccessible 157 In Labyrinth Caiion, and Remarks of Crofutt 158 Jackson's Discoveries in New Mexico 161 Explanation by Abbd Dominech 163 Picture-Writing on Walls 165 Explanation by Holmes 167 Ancient Pottery 16S Remains of Human Beings 171 The Guide's Legendary Tale i7i PUEBLOS. What?— Their History 172 Description of a Pueblo, or Town 173 Professor Zahm's Observation 177 The Race at Sante Fe 179 Three Civilizations 180 Mrs. Wallace's Observation and Description 182 Implements and Customs Like those of Palestine 183 Acoma and its Inhabitants 184 Pecos and its People 186 ZUNIS. Frank D. Cushing among them 187 Zuni Town : Location and Description 188 Cushing's Entrance into the Town 190 Altars and Incantation Scene 193 Industrious and Intelligent 193 Thirteen Orders of Society 195 Making a Zuiii of Mr. Cushing 196 Hospitable and Truthful, Dress, Antiquity 199 Their Traditions • 200 Palestine Customs here 200 Cushing's Description of a Festival 201 MOQUIS. Like the Zunis, yet Different 206 Descripdon of them at Home 207 Vlll CONTENTS. PAGE Living on nearly Inaccessible Heights 208 Cozzen's Visit and Personal Observations 208 MEXICANS. Like the Pueblos . 210 Some of their Habits and Customs 211 How they till the Soil 211 Mexican Women 214 The Dance and Funeral 215 Penitenties 215 Every-day Life 216 Art of making Pottery 219 III. MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE, " Great American Desert " and its Perils 220 Fremont raising Flag on Rocky Mountains 224 History of Fremont's Hardships , 225 Rush to California in 1848 232 Gold-Seeking in Colorado in 1858 233 Reign of Terror among Settlers 238 Colonel Chivington's Battle with Red Men 240 A Pioneer Woman's Hardship 246 The Indian and Buffalo disappearing 253 Stage Line across the Plains 256 Progress in carrying Mails 259 The Pony Express 261 Growth of Business 264 Railroad across the Continent 266 First and Last Depot 269 What Indians thought of Railroads 271 Ten Miles built in One Day 273 United States Government vindicated 274 Growth of Population 276 RAILROADS OVER MOUNTAINS. Through the Royal Gorge 278 Over Marshall Pass 280 Trip through Platte Canon 283 CONTENTS. IX PAGE Heavy Work and Timber Line 285 Through Challi Creek Canon and Alpine Tunnel 287 Around the Palisades 291 The Runaway Train 293 Snowbound and Snow-Sheds 296 Over Veta Pass with its Wonders 300 Crossing Sangre de Christo Range and Whiplash Railway 301 Through Toltec Tunnel 305 The (jarfield Monument 308 Dogtown and Beavertown 309 Through Animas Canon 312 The Switchback and Loop 314 Over the Raton Mountains 317 The Loop at Tehachapi Pass 317 Rounding Cape Horn 318 American River Canon and the Calumet Railroad 320 Railway Hospitals 323 Missouri River and Marant (kilch Railroad Bridge 324 Mammoth Ferry-Boat 327 PUBLIC BUILDINGS. Omaha, Nebraska : Buildings show Enterprise ; School-House ; Court- House 329 Portland, Oregon : View of it, and Business ; High School ; Newspapers ; Business Block ; Contrast ; State-House ; Insane Asylum 332 Tacoma, W. T. : Thrift ; Hotel; Business Blocks ; House of Worship: Sem- inary ; School-House -iiyi Butte City, Montana: Business Boom; View of City; Court-House; Churches; Schools; Helena 341 Idaho : Origin of Name ; View of 15oise City ; Capitol Square 345 Cheyenne, Wyoming : Early History ; School-House 350 First and Last Capitol of Kansas 35 1 Gunnison City, Colorado : Magic Growth : Costly Hotel 35 1 Denver, Colorado : Desert and Garden ; Growth and Business ; Union Depot; First and Last Capitol; Tabor Opera House; Windsor Hotel; Superior Public Schools; Dr. Philbrick's Testimony; High School Build- ing; Libraries; Private Schools ; Churches 355 GROWTH OF COLONIES. Greeley, Colorado : Its History, by Cameron ; Foundation Principles ; High School: First Place of Worship ; First and Last Hotel : Business Blocks .- CONTENTS. PAGE and Business; Anti-Saloon iMeasure ; Life of Meeker; Capture of Mrs. Meeker and Daughter Z^l Colorado Springs : The Antlers ; Location and Description of the Town ; College 389 THE PACIFIC SLOPE. San Francisco, California : Gold and Business ; Progress of the City ; State Capitol ; City Hall ; Palace Hotel ; Lick Observatory ; Palatial Residen- ces ; Remarkable Health Resorts ; a Hundred Years from Now ... 391 THE MORMON SETTLEMENT. Great Business Enterprise ; Description of Salt Lake City ; Thrift in Agri^ culture 404 RAILROAD KINGS. Brief Biographies: Oakes Ames; Oliver Ames; C. P. Huntington; Charles Crocker; Leland Stanford; Sidney Dillon; David H. Moffat, 406 IV. MARVELS OF MINING. Discovery of Gold by Marshall in 1848 429 Captain Sutter and the End 43° Richness of the Mines 43' Remarkable Increase of Population 433 Immense Fortunes realized 435 Industrial Mining Exposition 43^ The Prospector 43^ Intelligence and Tact Indispensable 44° Stumbling upon Mines 44^ Placer Mining 446 Gulch Mining 449 Hydraulic Mining 449 Lode Mining 45° Drift Mining 45 1 Going into a Mine • 453 Weights, Values, and Measurements 45^ Reduction of Ores: Stamp Mill; Quartz Mill 459 Smelting 462 CONTENTS. xi PAGE Leadville: Its Sudden Growth. — Location. — Hotel. — Art Palace. — Appearance of City. — Business. — Schools and School-Houses. — Its Bullion Output. — Origin of the Gold-Find. — Bonanza Mines. — Mines Inexhaustible 463 Profits of Mining 47^ Leading Mines of Colorado 479 The Mariposa Estate • 480 The Mother Lode 483 Richest Mines in California 484 Nuggets 487 Arizona: Silver-Bearing. — Apaches hinder. — Great Mines 490 Dakota, and its Richest Mines 493 Idaho and its Wealthy Mines 494 Montana, and its Wonderful Bullion Product 49^ Nevada: Its Harvest of Silver. — The Famous Comstock Lode, and its Fabulous Yield 5°° New Mexico : Present Mining Output and Future Promise 503 Utah : Wealth of its Gold and Silver Mines. — Rich Iron Mines .... 506 Wyoming: Gold. — Copper. — Coal 5^9 Oregon and Washington : Estimate of the Director of the United States Mint 511 Product of Precious Metals in the New West 512 Will the Mines fail? SU Additional Facts and Statistics 514 Gems 520 Morals of Mining Camps 5-° Mining Kings: Horace A. W. Tabor, John L. Routt. John P. Jones, James G. Fair, Jerome B. Chaftee, Nathaniel P. Hill, J. F. Matthews ... 524 V. MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. Paradise of Stock-Raisers: Immense Herds of the New West. — Acres of Grazing Lands. — How it was from 1850-70 535 What Cattle eat : Description of the Grasses 538 The Cattle Ranch: How to get one. — Cattle on the Range. — The Stockman on Duty 54 1 Profits of Stock-Raising : Estimate by Dakota Editor. — Hayes. — Fosset. — One Cow's Family. — Estimate by Clark and Ulm. ^ Whigham. — Other Estimates and Facts. — A Scotchman's Estimate. — Dressed Beet, 547 xu CONTENTS. PAGE The Cowboy : Not understood. — His Defence by the Oregon Editor. — An Incident 561 The Round-up: What it is, and where. — Citizen joining the Round-up. — Description by a Kansas Ranchman. — Perils of the Round-up. — De- scription of Horses used. — Cattle-Brands. — "Cutting Out." — Brand- ing Calves. — Beef Round-up. — Driving Cattle to Railroad. — " Blabbing Calves." — The Chicago Stockyards. — Cattle in Extreme Cold. — The Enemies of Cattle and Horses. — The Herd and Prairie Fire .... 568 The Sheep Ranch: Extent of the Business. — Estimate of Profits by Hayes. — By Idaho Official. — By Fossett. — In Montana. — In Kansas. — Other Facts. — Breeds. — Shearing. — Sheep on Union Pacific Rail- road. — Life on Sheep Ranch. — Incidents on a Ranch. — Latest Sheep Rack. — Sheep thrive in all lands 594 A Woman on a Cattle Ranch 608 Cattle Kings: John H. Iliff, Jared L. Brush, Charles Lux, R. G. Head, Thomas H. Lawrence, John W. Snyder, John T. Lytle 616 VI. MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. The Facts too Large for Belief 628 Now, the Facts not Large enough 630 Current Reports from Journals of the Day 631 Methods of Agriculture: How a Farm of 30,000 Acres is plowed. — Steam-Plowing. — History of Wheat-Harvesting. — Seeding Wheat. — Wonders of Harvesting. — Words of Another. — Threshing by Steam. — Wheat and Blizzards. — Real Facts about Land " Unfit for Cultivation " . 637 Kansas: The Hub. — The Geographical Centre. — "Corn is King." — Sound Corn. — Facts about Wheat. — The Status of Oats and Other Products. — Income and Value of Farms. — The Floral Wealth of Kansas. — Broom Corn. — Tree-Planting 649 Nebraska: Originates "Arbor Day." — Generous Laws. — Her Example Contagious. — United States Government Aids 658 Railroad Companies planting Trees 659 Montana: Pioneer Farmers and their Success. — What Agricultural Bureau .says. — Strahom on Montana, with Figures that won't lie 662 Dakota : An Empire. — Exhibit at New Orleans. — Words of E. V. Smalley. — A Great Wheat Farm. — The Dalrymple Farm of 75.000 Acres. — Amusing and Instructive Letter. — A Stubborn Fact 671 CONTENTS. xiii I'ACR Idaho: Its Great Resources. — How 300,000 Acres are opened to Settlers. — Testimony of Two Eye-Witnesses 678 California : The Cornucopia of the World. — Its Two Seasons. — Remark- able Crowths. — ^ Words of Nordhoff. — Hop-Raising. — Raisin-Making. — Wine-Making. — Orange Culture. — Alfalfa. — Miscellaneous Facts . 682 Colorado: Its Agricultural Domain. — Marvellous Parks. — Testimony of Farmers in San Luis Park. — Reports of Immense Products 695 Arizona : Its Large Area of Fertile Land. — Report of Several Experiments. — Other Facts 698 Wyoming and Washington : Proofs of Fertility. — Letter of a Resident . 699 Irrigation: Its Advantage. — Remarks of a Writer. — Ditch in Kansas. — Irrigation by Flooding. — Great Land Scheme. — Irrigating in San Luis Park. — Extent of Irrigation in Colorado, with J. Max Clark's Description of it. — Cost of Irrigation. — Irrigating an Orchard in California. — Underground Irrigation 702 CONCLUSION. What we have seen. — God in this History. — Why Pilgrims landed on a Rock and not on a Gold Mine. — (Greatest Christian Nation meant. — Result if Gold instead of Granite. — View of A. Carnegie. — The New West paying our Debt. — American Credit higher than English. — The New West will decide our Destiny. — Anglo-Saxon Race to rule. — One Language and Purpose. — Remarks of Herbert Spencer. — Intem- perance. — Mormonism and Other Isms. — Power of Liberty, Education, and Christianity 710 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. I'ORTRAITS. I'AflE Railroad Kings : O.ikes Ames, Oliver Ames, C. P. Huntington, Charles Croclver, Lcland Stanford, Sidney Dillon, David H. Moffat 407 IMiNiNG KiN(;.s: Horace A. W. Tabor, John L. Routt, John F. Jones, James G. Fair, Jerome B. Chaffee, Nathaniel P. Hill, J. F. Matthews .... 523 Catti.k Kings: John H. Iliff, Jared L. Brush, Charles Lux, R. C. Head, Thomas H. Lawrence, John W. Snyder, John T. Lytle 623 I. MARVELS OF NATURE. Frontispiece. (Jrand Canon of the Arkansas 4 The Royal Corge 5 The Black Canon 7 Curricauti's Needle 8 Castle Gate 9 Rift in the Rocks 10 Dome Rock 12 The Double Head 13 The Old Man of the Mountains 14 Gray's ]'eak 15 Mount of the Holy Cross 17 Williams' Canon 18 Rainbow Falls 19 Devil's Gate 20 Cave of the Winds 21 Castle Rock 22 Pillar of Jupiter 22 Freight Teams climbing Ute Pass 23 Manitou and Pike's Peak 24 Pike's Peak Railway 26 The Seven Falls 27 Pulpit Rock 28 xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Hanging Rock = .,... 29 Devil's Slide 3° Pulpit Rock 32 Hippopotamus Rock ZZ Climbing the Grand Canon of the Colorado 34 Permian Butte 36 Vermilion Cliffs 38 Pink Cliffs 40 Dome and Towers 41 Vishnu's Temple 43 Marble Canon 45 Land of the Standing Rocks 46 Kanab Canon 47 Albiquiu Peak 48 Casa Colorado Butte 50 Forest of Gothic Spires 51 The Needles 52 Cabazon 53 Painted Columns 54 Natural Sandstone Formations i'^ A City not made with Hands 57 Mammoth Hot Springs 61 Great Falls of the Yellowstone 64 Grand Canon of the Yellowstone 66 Obsidian Cliffs 68 Tower Falls 69 Kepler's Cascades on the Firehole River 71 Palace Butte -j-^ Old Faithful Geyser 74 Bee Hive Geyser 76 The Giantess Geyser 78 Fan Geyser 79 Cathedral Rock 84 Bridal \'eil Fall 85 El Capitan 86 Yosemite Falls 88 Liberty Cap 90 Sentinel Rock 91 Section of a Big Tree 93 Stage Line 95 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Pioneer Cabin g(3 Gateway to the Garden of the Gods qq I GO Bear and Seal . The Grandmother Balance Rock roi [02 Window in a Rock loi Cathedral Spires iqr Monument Park 107 Group of Monuments 108 The Sentinel ion The Duchess no Shoshone Falls 1 1 1 San Pedro's Wife ; or, The Woman of the Period 112 Donner Lake 114 Multnomah Falls 115 Pillars of Hercules 116 Pyramid Park 118 Green River City and Buttes 119 Wagon Wheel Gap 120 Rhoda's Arch 121 Castellated Rocks 122 Grand Coulee 123 The Valley of the Laughing Waters 1 24 Indian Rock 125 Church, Casde, and Fortress 126 Old Woman of the Mountain 127 Forms of Walls 129 Fishing on the Mountains 130 Petrified Forest 131 Summit of Italian Mountain 132 Arizona Cacti 133 II. MARVELS OF RACE. Cave-Town near the San Juan 138 Ancient Cave-Dwellings on the McElmo 139 A Cave-Town Restored 141 The Casas Grandes in 1859 14- A Tower in McElmo Valley 143 Ruins in the Canon de Chaco I45 Restored Tower and Cliff-Houses I47 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. House in a Rock of Montezuma Canon 149 Two-Storied Clift-House 150 Cliff-House on the Mancos 153 Ground Plan of Last-Named Cliff-House 1 54 Cliff-Dwellings, Mancos Canon 155 Cliff-House in the Canon de Chelly 156 Cliff-Dwellings, Southern Colorado 159 Cliff and Cliff-Houses 160 Ground Plan of the Pueblo Bonito in the Chaco Canon 162 A Pueblo restored by Lieutenant Simpson 164 El More, or Inscription Rock 166 Rock Inscriptions 167 Vases found on the Banks of the San Juan 1 69 Fragments of Pottery 169 A Drinking- Vessel from Zufii 170 A Drinking-Vessel from Old Zuni 170 Photograph of a Human Skull found One Hundred and Thirty Feet Deep in the Earth 171 Pueblo of Laguna 1 74 Pueblo of Taos, New Mexico 175 Adobe Oven 177 The Oldest House in the United States 178 The Adobe Palace 179 The Oldest Church in America 181 Pueblo and Cart 183 Primitive Agriculture 184 Burro loaded with Wood 184 An Ancient Wheelbarrow 185 Acoma 185 Pecos 186 Zuni 189 Zufii Altars and Incantation Scene 193 Zuni Vegetable Garden 193 Zuni Farm-House 194 The Moquis Pueblos 208 Life in New Mexico 210 Mexican Cart and Plough 211 Mexican Flour-Mill 212 Adobe Fireplace 213 Mexican Pottery 218 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. III. MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. PAGE Raising the Flag 223 Encountering the Blizzard 227 Leaving the Weak to Die 229 Over the Plains then 233 Lightning Express 234 Crossing the Plains with a Hand-Cart 236 Perils of D. C. Oakes 237 Capture of Spotted Horse 238 Perils by Indians 240 Mrs. Tabor's Cabin 247 Crossing the Plains now 254 Herd of Buffalo stopping the Train 255 Stage attacked by Indians 257 Snow Skates 260 Pony Express Station 262 Pony Express in Mountain Storm 263 Fargo and Wells Express 264 Fifty-four Thousand Pounds 263 Driving the Last Spike 267 First Office 269 Central Pacific Depot 270 Indians' First View of the Cars 271 Locating the Line 278 Marshall Pass 282 Head of South Park 284 Stage Line over Mosquito Pass 285 Near Breckenridge on Way to Leadville 286 Above Timber Line 287 Chalk Creek Canon 288 Scene in South Park 289 Around the Palisades 291 The Runaway Train 293 Uncompahgre Peaks 295 Snow Galleries, Sierra Nevada Mountains 296 Interior of Snow-Sheds -97 The Great Snow-Plough 298 Railroad above the Clouds 3°° Crossing Sangre de Christo Range 3°! Fort Garland 3°^ XX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE The Whiplash 303 Lot's Wife 304 Phantom Curve 305 Toltec Tunnel 306 West End of the Toltec Tunnel 307 Garfield Monument 308 Dogtown 309 Beavertown 310 Canon of the Rio Las Animas 311 Animas Canon and Needles 313 The High Line Road between Black Hawk and Central City 314 The Loop 315 Crossing the Raton Mountains 316 The Loop, Tehachapi Pass 318 Over Tunnel and Loop 319 Rounding Cape Horn 320 American River Canon 321 Central Pacific Railroad Hospital 323 Marent Gulch Bridge 325 Steamer " Solano " 328 High School Building, Omaha 330 Court-House 331 High School Building, Portland 333 Portland, Oregon 335 The Kamm Block 336 State House 337 Insane Asylum 338 The Tacoma Hotel 339 Butte City 342 Court-House 343 Boise City 347 Capitol Square 348 Central School Building 349 First Capitol of Kansas . 350 Last Capitol of Kansas 350 Gunnison in 1879 351 La Veta Hotel, Gunnison 352 Union Depot 358 First Capitol of Colorado 359 Last Capitol of Colorado 360 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xxi FACE Tabor Grand Opera House 361 Windsor Hotel 362 High School, Denver 365 High School Building, Greeley, Colorado 372 First Place of Worship 373 First Hotel 374 Last Hotel — The " Oasis " 374 Business Block 376 Meeker and his Home 379 Captivity of Mrs. Meeker and Daughter 384 The Antlers 3S9 Colorado College ' 390 State Capitol 393 City Hall 394 Palace Hotel 395 Residence of Charles Crocker 397 Lick Observatory 398 Hotel del Monte, Monterey 400 The Raymond 401 Hotel, Las Vegas Hot Springs 4°- Assembly Hall, Tabernacle, and Temple, Salt Lake 405 Monument in Memory of Oakes Ames and Oliver Ames 41^) IV. MARVELS OF MINING. Sutter's Mill 43- Oft" for the Mines 433 Industrial Exposition Building 437 Prospectors 43^ Gold-Digger and Deer 44- Mine Locomotive 443 Finding Gold by Accident 444 Placer Mining 445 The Rocker 447 Gulch Mining 44^ Gulch .Mining, Idaho 449 Flume 450 Lode Mining 45' Underground Railroad 45- Veins of Gold 453 Going into a Mine 454 xxii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Sloping 456 Rock-Boring Winch 458 Ten-Stamp Quartz Mill 459 Smelting Works at Argo 461 Gold and Silver 462 A Ton of Pure Silver 463 Tabor Grand 465 Looking West from Printer Boy Hill 467 Fryer Hill 47^ Sugar Loaf Mountain 473 Drifting and Shaft-Sinking 477 Red Mountain 498 Lake Valley Smelting Works 504 V. MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. Buffalo Grasses 539 Kansas Grasses 540 Home on a Cattle Ranch 541 Home on a Cattle Ranch 542 A Dug-Out 542 Herd on the Range 544 Off for the Ranch 545 Prairie Post-Ofifice . , 546 Tarantula Nest 547 Cattle Seeking Water 548 A Cowboy 561 Cowboy off for the Range 562 Death of a Hero 565 Stopping a Stampede 568 Group of Cowboys 569 The "Round-Up" 570 Starting a Laundry 572 Picking up a Coin 574 Grub Wagon for the " Round-Up "' 575 Preparing for the Night-Herd 577 A Bucking Horse 579 Cattle Brand 580 Roping and Cutting Out 581 Branding Calves 582 Chasing a Calf 583 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Chicago Stockyards 586 Hauling a Cow from the Alire 590 A Prairie Fire 592 Sheep Ranch 595 Captain Jack 602 Sheep-Shearing 602 Bagging Wool for Transportation 603 Counting Sheep 605 The Runaway Lamb 606 A Novel Sheep-Rack 607 Going to the Ranch 609 Their Ranch Home 611 Climbing the Butte 613 VI. MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. Sulkey Plough 629 Corn in the Kaw Valley, Kansas 630 Millet — Six Weeks' Growth 632 King of Harrows 634 Ploughing on a Bonanza Farm 636 Steam Gang Plough 637 Harrowing on a Bonanza Farm 638 Seeding on a Bonanza Farm 639 Harvesting on a Bonanza Farm 641 Steam Header 642 The Steam Thresher 644 McCormick's New Reaper 643 Broadcast Sower ^'4^ Two-Rowed Corn-Planter 652 Empire Grain-Drill '*53 Sunflowers "5" Broom Corn ^^^1 Pioneer Farmer's Home in Montana 6"' Pleasant View Farm ""3 Albino Park Farm ^^5 Cart-Spreader > 666 Hay-Tedder ^''7 Automatic Stacker and Gatherer ""9 Pioneer Home in Dakota 7° A Dakota Wheat Fan 672 XXIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE California Farm House 683 Hop Farm 685 California Vineyard , 689 Bee Culture 691 California Orange Grove 693 Logging near Olympia 701 Fish Wheel on the Columbia 702 Irrigating 703 Headgate . 706 Irrigating an Orchard „ . 708 MAPS AND DIAGRAMS. The New West as it was 220 The New W'est as it is 221 Alignment of the D. & R. G. Railroad over Marshall Pass, Colorado ... 281 Geographical Centre of the United States 649 Irrigating in Idaho 680 Method of Irrigating 704 AUTHORS CONSULTED. United States Geological and (jeografmical Survey of Colorado and Adjacent Ti£rritories. By F. V. Hayden. United States (iEOLOoiCAL Survey. J. W. Powell, Director. Second Annual Report, 1880 and 1881. Atlas of Monographs and History of Grand Canon of Colorado. By iMajor Dutton. United States Geological Explorations. By Clarence King. United States Geological Survicy. By Lieutenant Wheeler, of Corps of Engi- neers. Vol. III., 1875. United States Report ox Dakota. By Lieutenant Warren. United States Survey of Idaho, Montana, etc. United States Report on Ni:vada and Arizona. Exploring Expedition from Sante Fe to Junction of Grand and Green Rivers, 1859. By Major Macomb. United States Geological and Geographical Sir\i:y of the Rocky Moun- tain Region. Contribution to Ethnology. J. W. Powell, Director. Vol. IV., 1881. Mining Statistics West of the Rocky Mountains. By R. H. Raymond, United States Commissioner of Mining. Eleventh Annual Report of thic United St.ates Geological and Geo- graphical Survey of Idaho and Wyoming, 1877. I^}' F- V- Hayden. Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. By J. W. Powell. United States Census for 1880. Reports to United States Government on Mineral Resources of the United States. By J. Ross Browne. Bulletins of the United States Geological and (;eogr.a.phical Survey of the Territories. By F. V. Hayden. Vols. I. and II. Seventh Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey for 1873. By F. V. Hayden. Tenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey for 1876. By F. V. Hayden. XXVI A UTHOJ^S CONSUL TED. Expedition to Great Salt Lake of Utah. By H. Stansbury, Captain of Topographical Engineers of United States Army. Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi, Arkansas, Kansas, and La Platte Rivers. By Major Z. AL Pope. Natu'e Races of the Pacific Coast of North A:merica. By Herbert Howe Bancroft. History of the United States. By George Bancroft. Prehistoric America. By the ALirquis de Nadailac. Atlantis ; the Antediluvian World. By Ignatius Donelley. History of the Northern Pacific Railroad. By E. V. Smalley. Reports of the Director of the Mint. Washington, D.C. Prehistoric Times as illustrated by Ancient Ruins, etc. By Sir John Lubbock. Resources of Arizona. By P. Hamilton. Tales of the Colorado Pioneers. By Alice Polk Hill. The Resources of the Rocky Mountains. By E. J. Farmer. The Union Pacific Tourist. By the Company. Reports of the State Boards of Agriculture of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and California. Artesian W^ells on the Great Plains. By Department of Agriculture, Wash- ington. Number and Value of Farm Animals. By Department of Agriculture, Wash- ington. Reports of National Convention of Cattlemen for 1884 and 1885. Reports of the Chamber of Commerce of Denver and San Francisco. The Mining Industry. By Mining Association of Denver. California as it is. By San Francisco Call Company. Report of the Wyoming Stock-Growers' Association. Bits of Travel at Home. By H. H. Resources of Colorado. By J. Alden Smith, State Geologist. Leadville. By L. A. Kent. Reports of the Public Schools of Kansas City, Omaha, Denver, San Francisco, etc. The Wonderland Route to Pacific Coast. By Northern Pacific Railroad. Illustrated New Mexico. By M. G. Ritch. Colorado. By Frank Fossett. Montana and Yellowstone Park. By Robert E. Strahorn. Gunnison, Colorado's Bonanza County. By John K. Hallowell, Geologist. History of Oregon and California. By Robert Greenhouse. History of Oregon. By Dr. William Barrows. History of Kansas. By Professor Spring. AUTHORS CONSULTED. xxvii Bachelijkk's Resources of Dakota. Tlalvs of the (iREAT WEST, liy K. I. Dodge. Adventures in the Apache Country. By J. Ross lirowne. Mines of Col(jraijo. By O. J. Hollister. THHtTY Years" Rkshjenci: with Inihan Trhses. By H. R. Schoolcraft. The Tourist's Overland Guide. By George A. Crofutt. Grip-Sack Guide of Colorado. By George A. Crofutt. The New West. By Charles Loring Brace. The Aztecs. From the French of L. Biaut. By J. L. (Earner. Ca.mi'S i\ the Rockv Mountains. By William A. liaillie-Grohman. C;h it. One of the number — ^a clergyman — -said to the writer: "We knew that it was an awful place, for friends had been there before us, and rolled large stones over the precipice, to listen to their reverberating sound as they descendctl. down, down, tlown, their noise dying awa}' in the distance. We had a strong desire to look down into the awful gorge from the top, so we crawled on our hands and feet to the dizzy edge, not daring to trust ourselves in an upright position, and cast one swift glance down into the terrible chasm ; and that was enough. The transient view was a shock to our nerves. We crawled back as quickly as possible to a place oi safety, and from that tlay to this, I ne\er had the least desire to repeat the act. Though seven years have elapsed, as often as memory recalls the scene, I feel a weakness and shudder running through my body." The " Black Canon " is a darker and more dismal gorge, lying west of Gunnison City. Its name is derived from the dark, sombre appear- ance of the walls, although in some places they are composed of red sandstone. But a profusion of cedars and pines grow near the sum- mits and out of crevices which the elements have matle down the sides ; autl these cast a gloom over the place, creating a sensation of loneliness in the hearts of many observers. There is great variety of scenery in this canon, autl one never tires of looking". Here and there small ri\ulets are seen issuing from the craggy sides, two thousand feet up and more, while occasionally a beautiful cascade leaps over its rocky bed to break in pieces on the rocks below ; and, in one instance, a cataract leaps clear of every rock and plunges down the whole distance to the railway track. This canon is thirty miles long, — three times the length of the Grand Canon of the Arkansas. The waterfall at the right is known as Chipeta V:\\\'&, and here the sides of the canon rise from fifteen hundred to two thousaml feet. From tlie railway the view is impressive. The canon is unlike that of Arkansas in its general appearance, and yet like it in depth and some other characteristics. The contrast between the two is suffi- cient to create a lively interest in both, enough to dispel that false idea of the tourists, " when you have seen one canon, you have seen all." Like "the human face divine," no two of them are alike, and hence each one must be studied by itself. We have entered them MARVELS (J J- NATUh'/-:. at the bottom, middle, and top, and it is quite impossible to siv at which prmn then- is most to enjoy. At either altitude the imprest ilway THE BLACK CANON. sion can be described only by a series of exclamation ])oints. " Web- ster's Great Unabridged" is mute on almost any canon, ami at almost MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. any point thereon. "Comparisons become odious " as never before; so that even the aspiring letter-writer feels somewhat insignificant ^m i^ '•^ -'f:. ,^- ..ii&k On the Line of D. & R. G, Railway, CURRICAUTI'S NEEDLE. in his vain attempt at accurate description, and is inclined to say, " Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him ?" MARVELS OF NATURE. Among the most remarkable objects in tliis canon is " Curricauti's Needle," which towers above all other pinnacles. It stands as a sentinel to guard the everlasting solitude at its base. It is of a red- dish color from top to bottom, and rises very abruptly into the air. A "Cleopatra Obelisk" does not possess more grace or symmetry than this natural wonder. Here and there a tree or shrub thrives in the crevices ,___„^„. of its rocky "\ sides. The cut is a fine and cor- rect representa- t i o n of the mar\el. The author of "The Crest of the Conti- nent " says of this marvel: " In the very centre of the c a 11 o n , where its bul- warks are most lofty and pre- cipitous, unbro- ken cliffs rising two thousanc feet without a break, and shac owed by ovc i hanging corni ces — just here stands the most striking buttress I and pinnacle of them all, — CuKKic.vuTi's Needle. It is a conical tower standing out somewhat beyond the line of the wall, from which it is separated (so that from some points of view it looks wholly isolate) on one side by a deep gash, and on the other by one of those narrow side-canons which in the western part of the gorge occur every mile or two. These ravmes are filled with trees, and make a green setting for this massive MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. monolith of pink stone, whose diminishing apex ends in a leaning spire that seems to trace its march upon the sweeping clouds." As our limits will not allow of an illustration or description of the Price River Canon, lying beyond on the route to Salt Lake City, we will call attention to its marvellous gateway, called " Castle Gate," through which river, railway, and trail pass. It strikingly resembles the "Gateway to the Garden of the Gods." "The two huge pillars or ledges of rock composing it, are offshoots of the cliffs behind. They are of different heights, one measuring five hundred, and the other four hundred and fifty feet, from top to base. They are richly dyed with red, and the firs and pines growing about them, but reaching only to their lower strata, render this color more noticeable and beautiful. Be- tween the two sharp promontories, which are separated only by a nar- row space, the river and the railway both run, one pressing closely against the other. The stream leaps over a rocky bed, and its banks are lined with tangled brush. Once past the gate, and looking back, the bold headlands forming it have a new and more attractive beauty. They are higher and more massive, it seems, than when we were in their shadow. Church- like caps hang far over the perpen- dicular faces. No other pinnacles approach them in size and majesty. They are landmarks up and down the canon, their lofty tops catching the eye before their bases are discovered. It was down Price River Canon, and past Castle Gate, that General Sydney Johnson marched his army home from Utah." Twenty miles from Denver is the entrance to Platte Canon, which is scarcely inferior to the Arkansas Canon in the variety and grandeur of its scenery. The walls at the entrance are several hundred feet high, increas- ing in altitude as the mountain is penetrated. Peak on peak greet the eye, shooting up higher and higher, as the train begins to climb the sides of the mountains. The tourist has heard that the RIFT IN THE ROCKS. MARVELS OF NATURE. I, Rocky Mountains are distinguished for the number of peaks and now he has ocular demonstration of it. With a single sweep of his vision he can count thirty, forty, and even sixty peaks, piled one above another, clear back to the sky. Personal observation alone can enable one to realize the crooked ness of the canon. It is necessarily crooked beyond all ordinary con- ception of crookedness ; so that crookedness becomes one of the -rand novelties to enjoy. We venture to affirm that the traditionary^'stick that was so crooked it couldn't lie still, was not so crooked as this canon. The eye is frequently delighted by such scenes as the cut on the previous page illustrates, the monumental stones or spires often num- bering a half-dozen in the cluster. A writer who is perfectly familiar with this canon says : " For full fifty miles there is a succession of complex curves, and beetlino- heights coming almost together above and crowding the track from one side to the other. Nature has shaped the rocks so oddly that giants seemingly stand guard by their castles perched dizzily above but scorning to molest the rabble going uninvited through their possessions. It is a fascinating sight to watch the engine, which writhes along as though its gleaming fire were an inward life, its puffs a pulse, and the sparks flying crimson against the walls, drops of agony. At times the cliff is directly ahead. Unwittingly you brace for the shock to come when the cars shall be dashed to i)ieces against its flinty face. But with a quick turn to the right or left, the passage by is made in safety. The train hun-ies by picturesque hamlets, among which Estabrook Park is perhaps the most delightful, and up Kenosha Hill by a miracle of engineering, and from the toj) you behold such a panorama as was never seen before from the windows of a railway coach." Boulder Canon, in which Dome Rock is found, is sixteen miles in length, wild and grand. A tourist (H. H.) says : "To .see Boulder Canon aright, one must enter it from the Nederlands Meadows, at its upper mouth; and to reach the Nederlands Meadows from Denver, one must go by rail to the Clear Creek Canon, and dri\-e across from Central City to Nederlands. The road lies through tracts of pines and over great ridges, grand in their loneliness. From every ridge is a new view of the ' Snowy Range ' to the west and north. In strong sunlight and shadow, these myriads of snow peaks, relieved against the blue sky, are of such brilliant and changing colors that it must be a very dull soul indeed that could look on 12 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. -jf^l •^S t*i--^*' them without thinking of many-colored jewels. On the day that I saw this view, James' Peak was covered with snow, and stood in full light. Its sharp, pyramidal lines looked as fine cut and hard as if the mountains had but just been hewn from alabaster." Clear Creek Canon deserves mention with the remarkable caflons already named. Mr, F o s s e 1 1 says :: " The most en- tertaining trip that can be made, and the quickest and cheapest, is that by way of the Colorado Cen- tral Railway from Denver to the mining cit- ies of Central, Black Hawk, Idaho, and Georgetown. la this, the tourist gets the great- est variety for the least expen- diture of money that any single excursion af- fords which act- ually enters the mountains any distance. While Clear Creek (_\'inon [through which the afore- said cities are reached] may not compare with the Royal Gorge in massive gran- deur, the tourist can derive unalloyed pleasure from the many and varied sights that continually offer themselves en route and at adja- cent points on either hand." DOME ROCK. MARVELS OF NATURE. This canon is twenty miles fn.ni Denver, and was the first e^-e^ penetrated by a railway. At the entrance, the walls rise about one thousand feet, so near together that a child can throw a stone fn one side to the ot er. It is exceedingly tortuous, jagged, and gr The rocky wal s often r.se to two thousand feet, and even to tvte ' five hundred feet, n. sublime proportions, and nature has carvJd them mto many fantastic forms. Henry James, Esc, savs ■ " At tniies the canon widens, but again it comes together like'two mighty jaws. Some marvellous turns arc made, until in confusion you won- der which way you are going, and if such a series of doubl ng back wdl no ultimately lead to the starting-point." He continues . « For the miles of amazing, overpowering height of cliffs, and their near approach to or absolute verticality ; for majestic, awe-inspiring ing interest oj vast gold ami silver mining enterprises lin- ing it for miles at a stretch, and session of delicioi waters,— for all these thnv^s rL>n,- (^ 1 "■ '^^^ DOUBLE HFAn <-lear Creek stands une- qualled by any canon penetrated by a railway on the whole earth. An hour's ride from Denver, over the Colorado Division of the 14 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. Union Pacific, takes the tourist fairly into it, and for forty miles he is afforded a spectacle of surpassing splendor." The Double Head is a hanging rock as well as a double head, lo- cated in a very picturesque part of the canon. Double-faced humans are more common in flesh than they are in stone, because they are more easily wrought in soft material, we suppose. Hence, they are more remarkable in stone. Let the reader study the illustration thoughtfully, and his wonder over such natural phenomena will increase. THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAINS. That the above bit of sculpture was well named by miner or tour- ist, the reader must admit. The features of the "old man" stand out in bold relief, even to the left ear. There have been other " old man of the mountains" in different parts of our country, —one of them in New England, — but none of them can compare with this in MARVELS OF NATURE. 1 5 striking resemblance. The venerable patriarch can add to his nov- elty by laying claim to the fact that he was settled here before Columbus landed on these shores. \ It is through Clear Creek Canon that Georgetown is reached, from which place parties easily ascend to the summit of Gray's Peak, which is two hundred feet higher than Pike's Peak. Gray's is 14,341 f^'^'t above the level of the sea — the highest mountain peak in the United States except Blanca. Here is the " dome of the continent," as all who ascend to the top of Gray's Peak fully realize, when, in a clear 1 6 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. day, they take in the magnificent view of two hundred miles and more in every direction. Henry James, Esq., describes the view from Gray's Peak most graphically. "A wavering line," he says, "stretches back to the valley, and the tourist wonders vaguely if he has just come over it. The horse is panting as he takes the last turn, and his shoes click upon the granite jewels of the continental crown. Gray's Peak is beneath you. The sea is 14,411 feet below your level. Hats off! The genius of this sublime solitude demands homage. They who have traversed the globe say that it affords but one such prospect. A pictured landscape so mighty in conception that it overpowers, yet harmonious as an anthem in all its infinite diffusion of color and form ; framed only by the limit of the eye's vision ; a picture where the lakes gleam and the rivers flow, the trees nod, and the cloud ships clash in misty collision with the peaks which have invaded their realm, while the moving sun floods it with real life and warmth. How like an atom the beholder feels ! Northward, southward, westward, ramify the spurs of the range, till remoteness swallows them up. Pike's Peak is a neighbor. Lincoln's and Long's seem near. The sharpness of the Spanish peaks — Terra's Twins — near New Mexico, is distinct, while the Uintah Mountains rise up faintly in the distance of Utah. Here and there are depressions where parks and valleys are. Every park in the State can be located. You may trace the course of rivers and the site of lakes. You can see the little cities in sheltering nooks, and pathways from them up the mountain side. You detect the glint of the Holy Cross. You perceive the South Park Railway worming along the valley of the Blue. You overlook Decatur and Dillon and Chihuahua. You note the hovering dusk which broods above Lead- ville. Eastward are the plains — a waterless ocean — each town a fleet, each house a sail, each grove an island. Denver is seen, like the mythical city of the mirage." Close observation of the cut will show Mr. James to the reader, on his way to the summit. The writer whose description of the view from Gray's Peak we quoted referred to the "Mount of the Holy Cross." It is not a fancy i)icturc — it is a real mountain, rightly named, situated in the vicinity of Leadville and Red Cliff. " The sacred symbol which gives the name to the ' Mount of the Holy Cross ' is derived from two great and deep depressions, one vertical, and one horizontal, which cross each other nearly at right angles on the bare eastern slope of the mountain, which in winter become filled with great MARVELS OF NATURE. 17 masses of snow. During the summer the snows around these depressions are melted away, leaving the rest naked, and the snuw}- emblem of human faith and hope stands gleaming in white splendor against the azure sky, as if Na- ture were thus conse- crating the mountains to her God, and reflects the sun's glories above it." Williams' Canon is entered from Mani- tou, Colorado. It is a narrow gorge, so nar- row that, in one place, scarcely a single inch j of space separates the carriage from the walls on either side. The tortuous road winds itself thr as grand as it is versatile. Tall cliffs and monumental ough piles scenery of rock i8 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. WILLIAMS CAN(. N rise, one upon another, in wonderful profusion, "worn by some fierce torrents of long a-o, until now they show on their steep facades the deep scars which whirlin-; rocks have formed." MARVELS OF NATURE. '9 "Raixi'.ow Falls" is a very beautiful cascade most romantic parts of Williams* Canon, the fact that, at a certain time of day, when the sun reaches a .<;iven meridian, a perfect rainbow aj^pears on tlie sheet of falling water. Two miles up the canon is the " Cave of the Winds " (p. 21), a remarkable sub- terranean cavern in which a hundred chambers have been exjjlored, some of tliem very high and long. In these chrini- bers are countless stalactites and stal; mites, which glisten in the light ui torches which explorers carry, ])resenting a dazzling and fairy-like appearance. Cave of the Winds is a great curn. ity to all tourists, and they put them- selves to great inconvenience in order to see it. It is wild in itself, and every- thing around it is wild also. A part)' on their way thither were overtaken by a tempest in the mountains, and one of the number rlcquaints us with the scene as follows : — " Once, in a ramble to the Cave of the Winds, we were weather- bound for an hour in a lime-burner's hut by the side of the trail, while a furious hail-storm rolled through the canon, and five minutes after the majestic columns in the Temple of Isis, a thousand feet above our heads, were blazing and glcnving as if under some reflected sliower of sunshine. The flying clouds lifted here and there from peaks and battlements ; the inspired air tingled in every vein ; the heavenly glow and radiance flashed into our souls; and ten minutes after we were in the midst of another swift storm of hail, or snow, or rain, as if sunshine never belonged to the world. ... It was not unusual, through these days, to have four alternate storms in the course of a single hour, with clear skies between ; but owing to the brilliant rarity of the air, we were never sure it was raining uncil we felt or actually saw it. And this when it was pouring a ton to the sc[uare inch." " How the giant element From rock to rock, leaps with delirious bound!" ' D & R G Railway .BOW FALLS. 20 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. A very remarkable locality in Clear Creek Caiion, near George- town, has been named "Devil's Gate." It is spanned by a railroad bridge at a dizzy height, from which tourists enjoy a very enchanting On th. Li-t r\\\ p R DLvlLb GATu. view. The strange wildness of the scenery, a mixture of jagged- ness, confusion, and desolation, suggest badness, and hence the bad name. MARVELS OF NATURE. Castle Rock is a huge formation, so much hke an old feudal castle as to suggest its present name. An arch underneath, like an ample doorway, renders it a more curious and notable object. Water, no doubt, that powerful agent of nature, imprisoned within, found this the most feasible way of getting out, and hence the arch. Mythology would not be troubled to find here an abode of tlie gods, whose presence once converted cave, dell, rock, ravine, and mountain peak and gorge into strange thrilling history. Another curiosity in this caiion is the "Pillar of Jupiter," — so named b)- tourists, — a mammoth rock, or ledge, worn by the elements into its present impos- ing appearance. The ])edestal on which nature has erected this statue is so distinct that the statue itself becomes more strik- ing. It is a curious oroduction, or freak )f nature, as some would call it, con- iiibuting another object oi interest to the great variety which ever}- where kcej^s the vision lively. 1) r . T a }' 1 o r writes of Pike's l\>ak, as seen from Denver, as follows: "To the .southwest. Pike's Peak, the mighty milestone and monument to thousands of the old miners, stands erect and flat-footed upon the world. It is seventy-five miles to its base, but the view is as clean-cut as a cameo. Should I tell anybody it is 13,985 feet high, it would be no very satisfactory information ; should I say, you must chmb about twelve miles to reach the summit, it would be better; but suppose the reader swings a little water over a fire on the sea- 22 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. CASTLE ROCK. ter than the tea strong our grandmothers clinked after a big washing. How often lofty people forget that ebullition does not always mean earnestness and fervor. Boiling water is not necessarily hot water." " Ute Pass " is the world-renowned wagon trail from Manitou to Leadville, a narrow de- file leading over the mountains in a circuit- ous way. It was original- ly an Indian trail over which the red men trav- elled to and from the Manitou Valley. When gold was discovered at beach, metonymically, it will boil at 212°. Now pick up kettle, kindling-wood, and thermometer, and begin your climb. At fifty-three hundred feet the water is in active trouble at 202°. Play- ing Longfellow's young man, Excelsior, again, at the altitude of 10,600 feet it is in a lively state of unrest at 192°. Another lift to the top of the Peak, and the peripatetic kettle makes a tambourine of the lid, and plays so mild a tune that what scalded you so prompt- ly and satisfactorily down by the sea, will be no hot- enough to " bear up an Qgg," wherewith up their hearts and limbered their tongues PILLAR OF JUPITER. MARVELS OF NATURE. 23 Leadville, and the rush for that Eldorado fairly set in, this trail was converted into a passable road, at an e.\i)ense of $15,000, over which the immense supplies were carried to that most famous of all mining; FREIGHT TEAMS CLIMBING UTE PASS. towns, Colorado City being headquarters for supplies. Two thou- sand horses and mules were employed to convey the necessaries ■of life over the "Pass" to that rapidly growing po{)ulati()n, and 24 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. Still there was privation, and even suffering, among the gold-seek- ers because of scant supplies. As soon, however, as rail com- munication with the place was established, the quantity and price of goods found their proper level. Twenty-five cents a pound for hay was a common price when it was carried over the pass, but the rail- road reduced it at '^n once to three, and : even less. The { illustration also i furnishes a good view of Rainbow Falls. Another says of Ute Pass: "The oftener one goes through this pass, the grander it seems. There are in it no mere sem- blances, no delu- sions of atmos- pheric effect. It is as severely, sternly real as Gibraltar. Sun- light cannot soft- en it nor storms make it more frowning. High, rocky, inaccessi- ble, its walls tower andwind and seem at every turn to close rather than to open the path leaping, foaming D. ik R. G. Railway. MANITOU AND PIKE'S PEAK. through which the merry little stream con down. . . . For a short distance the road is narrow and perilous — on strips of ledges between two precipices, or on stony rims of the crowded brook, which it crosses and recrosses twenty-four times in less than three miles. Then the Pass widens, the rocky walls sink gradually, MARVELS OF NATURE. 2$ round and expand into lovely hills — hill after hill bearing more and more off to the ri<^ht and more and more off to the left — until there is room for bits of meadow alon<; the brook and for [proves and [grassy intervals where the hills join ; room and at the same time shelter, for the hills are still hi<;h. . . . We came out at sunset on a ridge from which we could look down into a meadow. The ridge sloped down to the meadow through a gateway made by two huge masses of rocks. All alone in the smooth grassy forest they loomed up in the dim light, stately and straight as colossal monoliths, though they were in reality composed of rounded bowlders piled one above another." Pike's Peak was named in honor of Gen. L. M. Pike, who discov- ered it in 1806. The ascent is wearisome and somewhat perilous, passing, as the trail does, over rugged hills and the precipitous walls of narrow cafions. The ascent is made from Manitou, which nestles at its base, as indicated by the cut. The transition is very abrupt from a dense pine forest to the bare, bald, storm-beaten mountain side where no vegetation appears, except grass here and there in patches among the rocks. The summit is nearly level, embracing about sixty acres. Near it appears a faint yellow blossom mingled with purple, often in great profusion, so near to the snow that blos- soms may be plucked with one hand and snow with the other. Two mighty gorges extend from the top almost to the base, one of which can be seen at the distance of eighty miles. "Pike's Peak" was the watchword of the gold-seekers in 1859, who flocked by thousands and tens of thousands to the region which "that famous landmark overlooked. The next year the product of the mines, within the Pike's Peak district, amounted to four million dol- lars. In August, i860, the population was sixty thousand; and, two months later, nearly two million dollars were invested in quartz-mills, — a fact which shows the rapidity of settlement. The view of Pike's Peak from Manitou is exceedingly imiM-essive. The town is about six thousand feet above the sea level, but the mountain rises more than eight thousand feet above it in unparalleled grandeur. Lesser peaks surround it in magnificent proportions, and magnify, by contrast, the majesty of their towering monarch. The Rio Grande Railroad Company will soon complete a railway to the top of the peak, where the United States Signal Service has had a station for several years. The following cut illustrates the method of ascending the great peak by rail, running thirty miles to ascend two. 26 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. The Pike's Peak Railway will be the most notable piece of track in the world. It will ascend two thousand feet higher than the Lima and Oroya Railway in Peru. Its whole length, thirty miles, will be a succession of complicated curves and grades, with no piece of straight work longer than three hundred feet. Cheyenne Canon is situated three miles from Colorado Springs, and possesses many grand features. We shall occupy space only to call attention to the one marvellous object that makes it famous, — The Seven Falls. One who has often penetrated this caiion to gaze enraptured upon its wonderful Seven Falls, says : " In Cheyenne Canon, at its extreme end, a volume of water dashes over a dizzy height, and, leaping from ledge to ledge, reaches its granite basin, and lingers there awhile to recover from its fall before speeding on again toward the river lead- ing across the plains to the distant sea. This caiion, only three miles from town, is entered after climbing to the top of a sloping mesa, which commands a view of ^^ f the city and plains. A nar- row path penetrates the mountains, and leads PIKES PEAK RAILWAY. through a luxurlant growth' of trees to where stern, rocky, vari-colored heights press their huge shoulders into the narrow way, and render climbing necessary for those who would go still deeper into the solitudes of the Rockies. Tall trees, up- rooted by the madly rushing stream which flows through the canon, and thrown down by the fierce winds, which, at some time, have swept through the narrow gorge, lie across the path in wild disorder. There is a balmy fragrance in the air ; a low rumble fills the place as the water leaps over the fallen bowl- ders which beset its path ; there are ever-varying shades ; and now and then a glimpse is had beyond the cafion's mouth, of the plains, which are lighted by the sunlight, while the gorge is dark and cold." Echo Canon is entered by the Union Pacific Railway at Castle MARVELS OF NATURE, 27 Rock in the Wa- satch Mountains, Utah, It embraces some of the wildest and most majestic scenery of the New West, together with several of the most original and inter- esting objects which nature ever carved. These begin at the very mouth of the caiion, as the cut on the following page shows. Nature builds on a magnificent scale at the West, and so her rock-pulpit, at the opening of Echo Caiion, is none of your modern toy af- fairs behind which an orator can hide all but his head. It is made to stand upon, though tow- ering high into the air ; and the imagi- nary preacher occu- pying it is supposed to address the mul- titude who pass down the caiion by generations. It is a fitting introduction to the scenes that follow. Mr. Crofutt says "The beauties of 28 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. Echo Caiion are so many, so majestic, so awe-inspiring in their subhmity, that there is little use in calling the traveller's atten- tion to them. . . . Four miles below Hanging Rock the walls rise in massive majesty, the prominent features of the canon. Rain, wind, and time have combined to destroy them, but in vain. Centuries have come and gone since that mighty con- vulsion shook the earth to its centre, when Echo and Weber caiions sprung into existence, — twin children, whose birth was heralded by throes such as the earth may never feel again ; and still the mighty wall of Echo remains, bidding defiance alike to time and his co-laborers, the elements ; still hangs the delicate fret and frost work from the walls ; still the pillar, column, dome, and spire stand boldly forth in all their grand, wild, and weird beauty to- entrance the traveller, and fill his mind with wonder and awe." ^ Another says : " A canon is only a valley between the high hills ; that is all, though the word seems such a loud and compound mys- tery of warfare, both carnal and spiritual. But when the valley is thousands of feet deep, and so narrow that a river can barely make its way through by shrinking and twisting and leaping ; when one wall is a mountain of grassy slope, and the other wall is a mountain of straight, sharp stone ; when from a perilous road, which creeps along on ledges of the wall which is a mountain of stone, one looks across to the wall which is grassy slope, and down at the silver line of twisting, turning, leaping river, — the word canon seems as inade- quate as the milder word valley. This was Echo Canon. We drew near it through rocky fields almost as grand as the canon itself. Rocks of red and pale yellow color were piled and strewn on either hand in confusion so wild that it was majestic ; many of them looked like gateways and walls and battlements of fortifications ; many of 1 Crofutt's Overland Tourist is indispensable to the traveller. It contributes information, direction, and interest to his travels. PULPIT ROCK. MARVELS OF NATURE. 29 them seemed poised on points, just ready to fall. Otliers rose, mas- sive and solid, from terraces which stretched away beyond our si^i;ht. . . . Then the canon walls close in aiiain, and lookin Mountain-walls rising towards the sky more than six thousand feet, with crags and monumental piles, jagged rocks, and barren peaks, wildness, weirdness, and strangeness, uniting to make the abyss sub- lime and mysterious beyond description! "Who is like unto thee. 36 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. O Lord, among the gods ? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fear- ful in praises, doing wonders ? " What explorers call the " Grand Canon District " embraces so many marvels that it is difficult to make a selection. However, we shall call attention to several which have been carefully photo- graphed. Buttes in the western portion of the Grand Caiion District are higher than those near Kanab ; yet, in the latter region, they are from three hundred to six hundred feet high. "But," remarks Dut- ton, "what they lack in magnitude they make up in refinement and i^iiriv- ^ '.i'^i PERMIAN BUT beauty of detail, and in sumptuous color. It is in the Permian that we find the most remarkable buttes. They are never large, but their resemblance to human architecture, or works of design, are often amazing. Very few Permian buttes are found in the Grand Canon District ; but further eastward, especially in the neighborhood of the junction of the Grand and Green rivers, they are innumerable, and of such definiteness that the geologist feels as if he were taxing the credulity of his hearers when he asks them to believe that they are the works of nature alone, and not of some race of Titans." The Vermilion cliffs derive their name from their color, which is flaming red. They extend more than one hundred and twenty miles. MARVELS OF NATURE. 37 and their height ranges from one thousand to more than two thousand feet. Captain Button remarks : " Their great altitude, the remarka- ble length of their line of frontage, the persistence with which their proportions are sustained throughout the entire interval, their ornate sculpture and rich coloring, might justify very exalted language of description. But to the southward, just where the desert surface dips downward beneath the horizon, are those supreme walls of the Grand Caiion, which we must hereafter behold, and vainly strive to describe; and however worthy of admiration the Vermilion Cliffs may be, we must be frugal of adjectives, lest, in the chapters to be written, we find their force and meaning exhausted. They will be weak and vapid enough at best. Yet there are ]K)rtions of the Ver- milion Cliffs which, in some respects, lay hold of the sensibilities with a force not much less overwhelming than the majesty of the Grand Caiion ; not in the same way, not by virtue of the same ele- ments of power and impressiveness, but in a way of their own, and by attributes of their own. " The profile of Vermilion Cliffs consists of a series of vertical ledges rising tier above tier, story above story, with intervening slopes covered with talus, through which the beds project their fretted edges. . . . Near Short Creek it breaks into lofty truncated towers of great beauty and grandeur, with strongly emphasized ver- tical lines and decorations, suggestive of cathedral architecture on a colossal scale. Still loftier and more ornate become the structures as we approach the Virgen River. At length they reach the sub- lime. The altitudes increase until they approach two thousand feet above the plain. The wall is recessed with large amphitheatres, but- tressed with huge spurs, and decorated with towers and pinnacles. " As the sun is about to set, the cliffs glow with an orange-ver- milion that seems to be an intrinsic lustre emanating from the rocks themselves. But the great gala days of the cliffs are those when sun- shine and storm are waging an even battle; when the massive banks of clouds send their white diffuse light into the dark places, and tone down the intense glare of the direct rays ; when they roll over the summits in stately procession, wrapping them in vigor, and revealing cloud-girt masses here and there through wide rifts. Then the truth appears, and all deceptions are exposed. Their real gran- deur, their true forms, and a just sense of their relations are at last fairly presented, so that the mind can grasp them. And they are very grand — even sublime. There is no need, as we look upon them, of fancy to heighten the jiicture, nor of meta])hor to present 38 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. MARVELS OF NATURE. 39 it. The simple truth is quite enough. I never before had a realiz- ing sense of a cliff one thousand eight hundred to two thousand feet high. I think I have a definite and abiding one at present." The Pink Cliffs present a mar\-ellous scene even for the Grand Canon District of the Colorado. The verge of the precipice at the foot of the cliff is eight hundred feet above the valley. From this eminence the cliffs rise in beauty and grandeur, to fill every observer with surprise and wonder. Captain Dutton says : " The cliff is of marvellous sculpture and color. The rains have carved out of it rows of square obelisks and pilasters of uni- form pattern and dimensions, which decorate the front for many miles, giving the effect of a gigantic colonnade from which the entab- lature has been removed or has fallen in ruins. The Plateau Country abounds in these close resemblances of natural carving to human architecture, and nowhere are these more conspicuous or more per- fect than in the scarps which terminate the summits of the Marka- gunt and Parmsagunt Plateaus. Their color varies with the light and atmosphere. It is a pale red under ordinary lights, but as the sun sinks towards the horizon, it deepens into a rich rose color, which is seen in no other rocks, and is beautiful beyond description." The reader will understand whence the name given to the cliffs. Dome and Towers is another view in the Grand Canon District that baffles description. The Mu-kun-tu-weap, which is one of the princi- pal forks of the Virgen, flows between mighty walls that are covered with the most remarkable natural carvings. Mr. Dutton says : "The further wall of the caiion, at the opening of the gateway, quickly flings northward at a right angle and becomes the eastern wall of Little Zion Valley. As it sweeps down the Parunuweap (the other principal fork of the Virgen), it breaks into great pediments covered all over with the richest carving. The effect is much like that which the architect of the Milan Cathedral appears to have designed, though here it is vividly suggested rather than fully realized, as an artist painting in the 'broad style' suggests many things without actually drawing them. The sumj-ituous, bewildering, mazy effect is all there ; but when we attempt to analyze it in detail, it eludes us. The flank of the wall receding up the Mukuntuweap is for a mile or two simi- larly decorated, but soon breaks into new forms much more impressive and wonderful. A row of towers half a mile high is quarried out of the palisade, and stands well advanced from its face. There is an eloquence in their forms which stirs the imagination with a singular power, and kindles in the mind of the dullest observer a glowing 40 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. Siv .,. :r^ MARVELS OF NATURE. 41 response. Just behind them, and rising a thousand feet hi^dier is the eastern temple, crowned with a cylindric dome of white s-ind stone; but smce it is, in many respects, a repetition of the nearer western temj^le, we may turn our attention to the hitter. Directly in front of us a complex group of white towers, springing from a cen- tral pile, mounts upwards to the clouds. Out of their midst, ant! high overall, rises a dome-like mass, which dominates the entire landsca pe. 42 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. It is almost pure white, with brilliant streaks of carmine descending its vertical walls. At the summit it is truncated, and a flat tablet is laid upon the top, showing its edge of deep red. It is impossible to liken this object to any familiar shape, for it resembles none. Yet its shape is far from being indefinite ; on the contrary, it has a defi- niteness and individuality which extort an exclamation of surprise when first beheld. There is no name provided for such an object, nor is it worth while to invent one. Call it a dome ; not because it has the ordinary shape of such a structure, but because it performs the functions of a dome. "The towers which surround it are of inferior mass and altitude, but each of them is a study of fine form and architectural effect. They are white above, and change to a strong, rich red below. Dome and towers are planted upon a substructure no less admirable. Its plan is indefinite, but its profiles are perfectly systematic. A curtain wall fourteen hundred feet high descends vertically from the eaves of the temple, and is succeeded by a steep slope of ever-widening base-courses leading down to the esplanade below. The curtain wall is decorated with a lavish display of vertical mouldings, and the ridges, eaves, and mitred angles are fretted with serrated crisps. The ornamentation is suggestive rather than precise, but it is none the less effective. It is repetitive, not symmetrical. But though exact symmetry is wanting, nature has here brought home to us the truth that symmetry is only one of an infinite range of devices by which beauty can be materi- alized. " ' And finer forms are in the quarry Than ever Angelo evoked.' " The finest butte of the chasm is situated near the upper end of the Kaibab division, but it is not visible from Point Sublime. It is more than five thousand feet high, and has a surprising resemblance to an Oriental pagoda. We named it Vishnu's Temple." ^ Mr. Button continues: "Whatsoever is forcible, characteristic, and picturesque in the rock-forms of the Plateau Country is concen- trated and intensified to the uttermost in the buttes. Wherever we find them, whether fringing the long escarpments of terraces or planted upon broad mesas, whether in caiions or upon expansive plains, they are always bold and striking in outline, and ornate in architecture. Upon their flanks and entablatures the decoration peculiar to the formation out of which they have been carved is most 1 Capt. C. E. Dutton. M/IRVELS OF NATURE. 43 ^3.: ^^^^^^.^^, ^^u^..^.^' »4^^'* rr-ps % ^. r- 44 MARVELS OF THE NEIV WEST. Strongly portrayed, and the profiles are most sharply cut. They com- mand the attention with special force, and quicken the imagination with a singular power." Moving northward, with grandeur on each side, Captain Button describes another butte still more surprising in its appearance, but, for reasons not mentioned, it was not photographed. " The controll- ing object was a great butte which sprang into view immediately before us, and which the salient of the wall had hitherto masked. Upon a pedestal two miles long and a thousand feet high, richly decorated with horizontal mouldings, rose four towers highly suggestive of cathe- dral architecture. Their altitude above the plain was estimated at eighteen hundred feet. They were separated by vertical clefts made by the enlargements of the joints, and many smaller clefts extending from the summits to the pedestal carved the turrets into tapering but- tresses, which gave a graceful, aspiring effect, with a remarkable defi- niteness to the forms. We named it Smithsonian Butte." Marble Canon belongs to the Grand Canon of the Colorado. The illustration conveys to the reader as correct an idea of its grandeur as can possibly be obtained without beholding the original. Button says: "The Grand Canon of the Colorado crosses transversely the four western plateaus of the district, while the Marble Caiion trav- erses the eastern or fifth plateau. The two canons are only nomi- nally separated, for there is no gap between them. The Marble Caiion begins at the base of the eastern terraces. The Colorado River, after traversing the central mesas of the Plateau Country in a series of profound chasms, at length emerges from the echo of Trias- sic and Permian age. Here for an instant the river is in compara- tively an open country. But within a mile or two it begins to sink another chasm in the carboniferous rocks, and in the course of sixty- five miles the depth steadily increases until it becomes about thirty- five hundred to four thousand feet. This is the Marble Caiion. It is a gorge of very simple form, and its width is about twice as great as its depth. Its course is at first southwest, but gradually deflects to the southward. Its lower end is arbitrarily fixed at the junction of the Little Colorado or Colorado Chiquito, a stream coming in from the southeast and entering by a lateral chasm as deep as the main gorge itself. Below the junction the river turns westward, the walls grow rapidly higher, the great chasm widens out to six or eight times its width in the Marble Caiion, and the valley of the river is filled with buttcs as large as mountains and wonderfully sculptured. Here MARVELS OF NATURE. 45 46 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. the river enters the Kaibab, and its walls soon attain the altitude of six thousand feet." Kanab Canon is a division of the Grand Caiion, possessing many at- tractions in common with Marble Canon. The cut shows that its mas- sive and towering walls must excite the wonder of men. Everything about it is grand on a large scale. As an adjunct to the Grand Canon, it is in complete harmony with its transcendent glories. The contemplation is inspiring and elevating. A man is better for taking in the sublime view. It awakens thoughts of the Great Architect, whose handiwork is so wonderful. LAND OF THE STANDING ROCKS. Captain Button writes : " A spectacle of this kind is most impres- sive to the geologist. It brings into one view the co-ordinated results of observations made laboriously by months of travel and inspection in a very broad and rugged field. The great distances through which the eye can reach, the aspect of cliffs towering above and beyond cliffs, the great cumulative altitude thus attained, the immensity of the masses revealed, the boldness of form, the distinct- ness of the lines of stratification, and especially the brilliant coloring, subdued indeed, but also refined by the haze, give to the scene a grandeur which has few parallels." MARVELS OF NATURE. 47 KANAB CANON. 48 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. Could anything be grander and more imposing than this " Land of Standing Rocks " ? It is difficult to suppress the thought that human industry and art have here reared vast granite temples and towers, such as we read of in European cities. There has been no touch of the artist to exaggerate the scene, for it is taken from a faithful photographic view, and appears here just as it is in the wonderful caiion of which it is a part. (See p. 46.) Albiquiu Peak is one of the most unique natural rock-formations in New Mexico, and it becomes more interesting in consequence of the ruins of an ancient pueblo which Macomb discovered on his way to the ALBIQUIU PEAK. peak. He says: "On the 19th of July we left Albiquiu for the ascent of the Albiquiu Peak. The train moving on to the Aroya Seco passed up the Chama to a point just beyond Albiquiu, and then turned to the left and ascended, by a long and difficult road, the high mesa which overlooks the valley on the south side. This mesa is here full a thousand feet above the Chama, and is connected with that of which the broken edge forms a bold headland below the town, known as Albiquiu Cliff. The mesa over which we passed extended, with a nearly level surface, several miles towards the peak. Arriving at the western border of this mesa, we looked directly down MARVELS OF NATURE. 49 into the narrow but fertile valley in which is nestled the little Mexi- can village of Los Canones. Descending by a steep and tortuous path, we left our mules at the bottom and climbed a detached mcsilla which stands at the junction of the two branches of the valley, and on which is situated an ancient and ruined pueblo, once a stone-built town of considerable size. Even its name is now lost, and of the inhabitants whose busy hands constructed its walls, and whose feet in successive generations wore so deeply the threshold of its entrance, no tradition now remains. The mesa on which it stands is some five thousand feet in height, and the top is only to be reached by a nar- row and difficult path. The houses are now in ruins, but were once numerous, and all built of dressed stone. Within the town we noticed a dozen or more cstiiffas excavated from the solid rock. They are circular in form, eighteen to twenty feet in diameter by ten or twelve in depth. They all exhibited evidence of once having been covered with wooden superstructures. In most of them, four excavations on opposite sides would seem to have been used as the sockets for the insertion of wooden posts, and in oTie is a niche cut in the side, with a chimney leading from it ; probably the place where the sacred fire was kept perpetually burning. The style of archi- tecture in which the town was built, as well as the estiijfas, show that its inhabitants belonged to the Pueblo Indians, a race now nearly extinct, but once occupying every habitable portion of New Mexico." 1 Mr. Macomb continues : " Spending the night at Los Canones, we started this morning very early for the ascent of the peak. This we mostly accomplished on mule-back, passing over a succession of hills composed of the variegated marls, — containing beds of gyp- sum of great thickness, — covered with a forest of piiion and cedar. When we had arrived within five hundred feet of the summit, we left our mules, and commenced the ascent on foot. This part of the mountain is very steep, and the upper two hundred feet is a perpen- dicular wall of trap-rock. The summit we found to form a cuchillo, a narrow, knife-like ridge, bounded on e\-ery side b}- vertical preci- pices. Its height above the sea is al)0ut nine thousand feet. The extreme summit is covered with piiion, and the slope with yellow pine, Douglas spruce, the western balsam fir, and the quaking-cap. The view from the summit was particularly fine, sweeping a circle of fifty miles' radius, except towards the buttes, which are very near, and fill the northeastern horizon." 1 These ancient races are treated at length in Part II. of this volume. 50 MARVELS OF THE lYEW 1 1 EST. Macomb says : " l^>veryvvhere over the second plateau are scat- tered buttes and pinnacles, wrought, from the massive calcareous sandstone and the overlying Saurian beds, by the erosion which has swept from the surface all traces but these of the immense mass of sedimentary rocks which once covered it. Of these, one of the most striking, seen from our route, is the Casa Colorado. It is a detached Butte, some three hundred and sixty feet high, composed of sandstone covered with the harder layers of the Saurian beds. An- other symmetrical and beautiful dome, composed of the same mate- rials, is lemon-yellow, with a base of red." >A COLORADO BUTTE. Macomb examined this butte (in New Mexico) in 1859, when on his expedition from Santa Fe to the junction of Grand and Green rivers for the United States Government. It will be observed that the height of the butte is just that of Hunker Hill Monument. Captain Macomb writes : " T'rom the pinnacle on which we stood the eyes swept over an area some fifty miles in diameter, everywhere marked by features of more than ordinary interest ; lofty lines of massive mesas rising in successive steps to and from the frame of the picture, the interval between them more than two thousand feet below their summits. A great basin or sunken plain lay stretched MARVELS OF NATURE. 51 out before me as on a map. Not a particle of vegetation was any- where discernible ; nothing but bare and barren rocks of rich and varied colors, shimmering in the sunlight. Scattered (jver the plain were thousands of the fantastically formed buttes to which I have so often referred in my notes ; pyramids, domes, towers, columns, spires, of every conceivable form and size. Among these, by far the most remarkable was riii': I'ORKst (;f (ioiHic spires, first and im[)cr- fectly seen as we issued from the mouth of the Caiion Colorado. Nothing I can say will give an adequate idea of the singular and sur- prising appearance which they presented from this new and advan- FOREbT OF GOTHIC SPIRES. tageous point of view. Singly, or in groups, they extend like a belt of timber for several miles. Ncjthing in nature or art offers a par- allel to these singular objects ; but some idea of their appearance may be gained by imagining the island of New York thickly set with spires like that of Trinity Church, but many of them full twice its height." "A few miles north of Camp 39," says Captain Macomb, "is the southwestern corner of the Mesa Verde, which stretches from this point northward to our former trail, and eastward, forms the north bank of the San Joan as far as the eye can reach. It has an altitude 52 MAkrKLS OF THE XEW WEST. of two thousand feet above camp, and presents, with its many detached buttes and pinnacles, its long and lofty walls, a most grand and imposing object. On the south side of the river, now quite near to us, stand out in strong relief the picturesque basaltic pinnacles of * The Needles.' while further south the view is bounded by the high ridges of the Carisso and Tunecha mountains. " From Camp 40 we obtained a nearer and still better view of 'The Needles.' This is a mass of erupted rock, rising with per- pendicular sides from the middle of the valley. From all points where seen bv us, it has the appearance of an immense cathedral, of THE NEEDLES. rich, sombre brown color, terminating in two spires. Its altitude is about t>ne thousand feet above its base ; above the river. 2,262 feet. It is everywhere surrounded by stratified rocks, and its isolated posi- tion and peculiar form render its origin a matter of some little doubt. My conviction, however, is very decided that its remarkable relief is due to the washing away of the sediments which once surrounded it, and which formed the mold in which it was cast. In no other way can I imagine its vertical faces of one thousand feet to have been formed." "To-dav our course has been southeasterlv," continues Captain MARVELS OF NAT URIC. 53 Macomb, " approaching the southern end of the Nacimiento, through a region much like that of yesterday, except that as we have now penetrated deeply into the Middle Crustaceous shales, the surface is less broken, the hills being rounded, with long, gentle slopes ; the timber has become more sparse, the country less picturesque and inviting. We have here a fine view of all the interval between the Nacimiento and San Mateo. In the west and northwest, high mesas fill the horizon, forming the line of divide to which I have bef(jre referred. Around the base of Mount Taylor, extending many miles in every rljrcrtinn, is a i)latc:Mi of ir.-i|), which has apparently flowed from this great extinct volcano, covering all the sedimentary rocks in its vicinity. In the open valley of the Puerco stand many pictur- esque trajj buttes having a general resemblance to the needles of the San Juan. Of these the mo.st conspicuous, called by the Mexicans Cai'.azon, resembles in its outline a Spanish sombrero, but is of gigantic dimension.s, being at least fifteen hundred feet in height." The reader must bear in mind, as he examines the illustration, the great height of this butte. At least fifteen hundred feet ! A monument of rock fifteen hundred feet high, and no art about it — all nature ! 54 MAKl-EI^ OF THE XEW WEST. Most resplendent of all are the Painted Columns in this grand canon, whieh Button, in his official report to the U. S. Government, describes as "belts of brilliant red. vellow. and white, whieh are in- PAINTED COLUMNS. tensified. rather than alleviated, by alternate belts of gray. They culminate in intensity in the Permian and Lower Trias, where dark brownish reds alternate with bands of chocolate, purple, and laventler. so deep, rich, and resplendent that a painter would need to be a bold man to venture to portray them as they are." MARVELS OF NATURE. 55 ^X, "■•I'll"'* iiihiiii Mr. Cozzens, in his '•Three Years in Arizona and New Mexico," describes the scenes in the district of the Grand Canon of Colorado, which we transfer to our pages. 56 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. These remarkable formations stand out bold and high, and are situated on the " Santa Rita del Cobre," Arizona. The towers on the right are singularly artistic, and yet they are not so marvellous as the almost perfect barracks on the left. If men had no hand in these creations, and invisible spirits were not the workmen, then our material world must be under the control of as exact laws as the spiritual. Mr. Cozzens, who first brought these sandstone formations to the attention of the public, says : — "We spent several days in this vicinity, during which time we visited some remarkable sandstone formations near by. We found about forty columns, worn by the winds and rains into most singular shapes. One of them measured nearly sixty feet in height, and more closely resembled an inverted bottle than anything we coulil compare it to. At its greatest circumference it measured eighteen feet, while at its base it was scarcely three feet. Some looked like churches, towers, castles, or barracks, and others very like human beings of colossal proportions. So striking were these resemblances, that it was hard to believe the hand of man had nothing to do with their formation." The City not made with Hands, is also a sandstone formation more marvellous than that just described ; and we are indebted to Mr. Cozzens for the view. He says : — " Half-way across this vast sandy plain two or three blue specks were visible, which, our guide informed us, were salt lakes ; also, that it was from the shores of these lakes that the Spaniards formerly procured their salt, and even the present inhabitants used it to a large extent. He said that in close proximity to these lakes was a very peculiar sandstone formation, well worth seeing ; and, as all were but a few miles distant from our direct route, we determined to visit them. Bringing our glasses to bear upon that portion of the plain pointed out by the guide, we saw what seemed to us to be a large city, with its spires and domes and towers glittering in the bright sunlight, and rivalling in splendor the creations of the genii conjured by Aladdin's wonderful lamp." The next day he and his party came into the immediate vicinity of the glittering city. He continues : — " The next morning the guide called us to behold the wonderful effect of the rising sun upon the city of enchantment that we had seen from the mountain the day before. As we approached this marvellous architecture of the elements, we could not repress excla- MARVELS OF NATURE. 57 mations of wonder and delight. Stieets weie plamly visible , m issive temples with their spires and domes ; monuments of every conceiv- able shape; castles of huge proportions; tov/ers and minarets, all 5 8 MAKnCLS OF THE .VEW WEST. formed of pure white siliea, which y,iittered in the bright sunhght like walls of crystal. It was hard to persuade ourselves that art had no part in forming these graceful testimonials to the wonders of nature. " ' Surelv." saitl Dr. Parker, 'this must be a city.' " ' Ves,' replied I. 'a city, but not made with hands." " Around the whole was a massive wall ten feet in height, with arched gateways and entrances as perfect as it is possible for the imagination of man to conceive. Entering the confines of this magical spot, we were soon undeceived, for what in the distance our own imagination had conceived to be enchanted ground, was, in reality, a mass of white sandstone, worn by the winds and waters into a wonderful similitude of a magnificent city." Who wonders that explorers have become enthusiastic over the wealth of scenery in the Grand Caiion of the Colorado .? that the English vocabulary has been depleted of adjectives to express human amazement and admiration over its revelations.-' "There are," says Nordhoff, " Americans who saw Rome before they saw Niagara, who saw Mont Blanc before they saw the Yosemite, and who saw the Alps and the Pyrenees before they saw the Rockies and the Sierras. Let them have seen all of these, with the Urals, the Andes, and the Himalayas thrown in ; let them have seen the boiling geysers of Ice- land and the belching craters of /Etna and Chimborazo ; let them have looked upon the wonders of the Yellowstone and listened to the roar of Niagara ; let them have traversed all the rest of the world, and until they have seen the Grand Canon oi the Colorado, the world's greatest wonder yet awaits them. Imagine Mount Washing- ton cleft from crest to base, and the sides of the chasm pushetl apart half a mile. Then imagine enough Mounts Washington, split in like manner and put irregularly together, to form a zigzag gorge three hundred miles long, and you have some idea of what this canon is. Perpendicular walls on either side of the river five thousand to seven thousand feet in height ! Think of it ! More than a mile of rocky cliff towering above you ! Look down from the lofty brink, and you see the river, like a silver thread, following the contour of the mighty abyss. Look up from beneath through its mile-high walls, count the stars at midday, and realize that a cannon ball would hardly reach the lofty summit." Captain Button, who speaks officially for the United States Gov- ernment, says: "Those who have long and carefully studied the Grand Canon of the Colorado do not hesitate for a moment to pro- MARVELS OF NATURE. 59 nouncc it far the most sublime of all earthly spectacles. If its sub- limity consisted only in its dimensions, it could be sufificiently set forth in a sinL;ie sentence. It is more than two hundred miles long, from five to twelve miles wide, and from five thousand to si.x thou- sand feet deejD. There are in the world valleys which are longer and a few whicli are deeper. There are valleys flanked by summits loftier than the palisades of the Kaibab. Still the (irand Canon is the su])limest thing on earth. It is not alone by virtue of its magni- tude, but by virtue of its whole, its cnscuiblc.'" YIOLLOWSroNK NATIONAL IVXRK. We might very appropriately present the marvels of this locality under the dixision of canons, since the mighty gorge of the Yellow- stcjne is a canon cjf surpassing beauty and sublimity. But an act of Congress has set apart this dcMnain for a national park, thus giving it special prominence in the public mind, so that we are disposed to give it kindri'd imjiortance in treating of its marvels. The National Park is situated in the northwestern part of the Territory of Wyoming, embracing a small section of Idaho and Mon- tana. Its area is si.\ty-five miles long and fifty-five wide, or about 3,575 square miles, ccmsiderably larger than Rhode Island and Dela- ware togethei". It is surrounded by mountain ranges which lift their lofty peaks from ten to twehe thousand feet above the sea. Nothing definite was known of this locality until 1869. True, traj:)pers and adventurers went thither before that time, but their re})orts were so incredible that no one believed them. Some of them were wholly unworthy of credence, because they were the exag- geratif)ns of the imagination, as the following will show : — " In many parts of the country petrifactions and fossils are very numerous, and, as a consequence, it was claimed that in one locality (I was not able to fi.\ it definitely) a large tract of sage is perfectly petrified, with all the leaves and branches in perfect condition, the general apjDearance of the plain being unlike (like .'') that of the rest of the country; hut all is stone; while the rabbits, sage hens, and other animals usuall}' found in such localities are still there, perfectly l)etrified, and as natural as when they were living ; and, more won- derful still, the petrified bushes bear the most wonderful fruit ; dia- monds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, etc., etc., as large as black wal- nuts, are found in abundance." Messrs. Cook and Folsom explored the Yellowstone c(;untry in 6o MARrKLS OF THE NEW WEST. 1869, and their report of its marvels awakened public attention. In 1 87 1 Captains Barlow and Keep, of the United States Service, made quite extensive explorations ; and the same year Dr. Hayden made an extended tour through it, giving the results of his researches in a report so filled with wonderful revelations as to greatly interest the members of Congress. He recommended that the Yellowstone country should be set apart for a national park ; and his recommen- dation was adopted in 1872 with little opposition. It will be seen, therefore, that the marvels of the park have re- cently become known to the public. Singular as it may appear, we have lived near this wonderful valley, and travelled around it for years, and been ignorant of its wonders. The vast extent of our country, offering such ample fields for exploration elsewhere, in the interest of fortune or pleasure, is a sufficient explanation of the fact that we have lived upon the borders of this fairyland so long with- out knowing it. An English lady, familiar with the finest scenery of lun-ope, wrote home from this region of marvels : " I am here in a place which, singularly enough, they call Wonderland. Not that the title is by any means inappropriate, for the place is, indeed, a land of wonders ; but the coincidence, at least, is somewhat remarkable, for you know what the associations of that word 'Wonderland' are to me. Well, here I am, rubbing my eyes every day, to be sure that I am not either in a dream or in a new world. You never saw, nor could you ever imagine, such strange sights as greet us here at every turn. It is not only that everything is big ; that is characteristic of the whole country, everything in nature being on a much larger scale than we are accustomed to in Europe. But besides the Rocky Mountains and a waterfall, — and a big one too, twice as high as Niagara, — there is the grandest old lot of geysers and boiling springs in the world, and a river shut in for several miles of its course by moun- tains rising hundreds of feet above it, — what they call a canon (pro- nounced canyon), the walls of which arc of such glowing colors that papa said he could compare it to nothing but the most gorgeous sunset he had ever seen." The Mammoth Hot Springs are situated a thousand feet above the banks of Gardiner River, into which their constant overflow runs. They appear in terraces, tier upon tier, as if laid out by a skilful engineer. The hot water takes up calcareous matter in its course, and deposits it below. "The slow but ceaseless operation of the springs has resulted in building up terrace after terrace of scallop- MARVELS OF NATURE. 6 1 edged, limpid pools and basins of hot water, of varied size, form, and temperature." Mr. Wisner says: "The ascent to the main terrace of active springs is not difficult. Stepping upon the first of a series of broad lllllMi ■f^U ledges which lead to the base of the terrace, the way is threaded through a maze of rills of hot water over the low scalloped rims of hmpid, steaming pools, which it seems sacrilege to tread. The nov- elty and magnificence of the scene are bewildering. Not distance, but 62 MARVELS OF THE NEW II EST. proximity, lends enchantment to the view. The brilliancy and variety of the coloring matter about the pools, as well as the delicacy and beauty of the formations, are indescribably wonderful. Terrace after terrace is thus surmounted, some of these eight or ten feet high and several yards in width ; others are mere ledges. On each of these levels the water collects in a long tier of nearly semicircular basins, of different diameters, lying close together. The higher terraces present an imposing front, the contour of their scalloped margins at once suggesting frozen water-falls. Over the rims of the basins on the topmost level the water generally pours until it finds its way into the reservoirs next below, repeating this process till the bottom of the hill is reached, where the flow is collected and carried off by several channels to the Gardiner River. "The deposits which result from evaporation at the margin of each basin are exquisite in form and color. The rims are fretted with a delicate frost-work, and the outside of each bowl is beautifully adorned with a honeycomb pattern, while the spaces between the curves are often filled with glistening stalactites. The coating of the sides of the basins and pools takes on every delicate and vivid tint, rich cream and salmon colors predominating, but these deepening near the edges into brilliant shades of red, brown, green, and yellow. The largest springs, supplying most of the water to the tiers of bowls on each of the terraces, are situated on a broad, level space covering some acres at the top of the hill. One has a basin forty feet in length by twenty-five in width. Others are nearly as great. The water is a turquoise blue, and so perfectly translucent that the most microscopic fretting deep down upon the sides and bottoms of the pools is plainly visible. This is the case with the hot spring-water everywhere. Its crystal clearness cannot be described ; it must be seen to be a])})reci- ated. The crust between the springs seems rather treacherous to the foot, and it is impossible to get about without soaking the shoes in hot water. Most of the springs have two centres of ebullition, at which, doubtless, the water is at the boiling point ; but at the edges the temperature is much lower. Around the hottest pools, in many cases, there are strung along the rim, like beads on a necklace, a row of nodules large as hazel-nuts and hard as adamant. The play of the waters as they seethe up from the cavernous throats of the pools, and undulate in miniature waves, is wonderhil. 'i'he rays of light are refracted by the agitation upon the surface, and are resolved into all the colors of the prism." There are a multitude of hot springs in the Park, many of them MARVELS OF NATURE. 63 sufficiently hot for cooking all sorts of game. Tourists amuse them- selves by pulling fish out of Yellowstone Lake, and without removing them from the hooks, dropping them into a boiling spring near by, where they are soon cooked sufficiently for the table. Nature's culi- nary arrangements appear to be about as fine here as the wildest imagination could invent. Mr. Wisner adds : " This calcareous deposit covers an area of three square miles. Of this, the recent deposits, on which the springs are at present found, occupy about one hundred and seventy acres. Along the river bank there are still many active boiling springs. For a mile up the hillside there is terrace after terrace of extinct springs. Then comes the principal point of present activity, which extends with gradually waning power over a distance of a mile into the dense woods on the top of the mountain. There are fourteen well-defined terraces within the bounds mentioned, which are now, or have been at one time, the scene of boiling-spring activity." From the foot of the Upper Falls the river turns somewhat abruptly to the left, pursuing its impetuous way through a pine- clad gorge, over a rocky bed, towards the Grand Caiion, into which the Great Falls plunges with a roar and majesty indescribable. The fall is at least three hundred feet, or twice that of the world-renowned Niagara. Mr. Wisner says : " The scene from the brink of the fall, looking into the profound depth of the canon, is of strange majesty and indescribably awe-inspiring. A roomy platform at the edge of the fall, with a staunch railway on the river side, affords a very good view of the river preparing for its leap. The advancing volume of water flows rapidly but solidly to the brink, and falls with a tremen- dous shock into a large circular foaming caldron, bounded by steep cliffs eight hundred feet high. The masses of water seem to break into fleecy columns and sheets of glistening foam as they descend ; but they nevertheless strike the surface of the pool below with a con- cussion so heavy that they are forced upwards in fountains of spray and clouds of mist which wash the sides of the canon, nourishing a rank growth of mosses and algae of every grade of green, ochre, orange, saffron, red, scarlet, and brown." Mr. Gannett speaks as follows of the height of the falls : — " My measurement of the Lower Fall was not as simple in method, and allows more room for error than in the case of the Upper Fall. I found a point by means of the clinometer on the eastern wall of the canon, and very near the fall, at the same level as its top. Thence I stretched the line down the canon wall to the level of the 64 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. foot of the fall, rcachiiii;- it at a point st) close that we received a thorou-'h clixMU-hin-- iVmu ilu- si-r.ix. TIilmi, willi a clinonu'ler. I aREAT falls of the YELLOWSTONE. measured as aecuralcly as possible the ani;le of iiulinalion of the line. This y,ave as the heii;ht two hundred antl ninety-seven feet. MAKl'I'.LS OF NAJURI:. 65 Though this result cauuot be regarded as strietly accurate, still its error njust be small, and, in round numbers, three hundred feet may be regarded as a close approximation to tlie true height. Ludlow measured this fall directly by means of a sounding-line, ob- taining three hundred and ten feet as the height, a result agreeing quite closely with mine, especially when one reflects on the (lifficiilty of determining when the weight was at the base of the fall, in the cloud of mist and the rushing river. Most of the other measure- ments are barometric. .Such was that of Captain Jones, who gave a height of 328.7 feet." We are able to furnish a view of the Grand Canon of the Yellow- stone where the waters of the (ireat h'all tumble into it. Let the n-uler study this remarkable pictuix', to see what wf)nderful sculpturing nature has done here, and what towers and pilasters and s|;ires and |)i]lars the (jireat Architect has reared within this awful gorge. It is not only the colcssal grandeur of colonnade rising eight hundred feet and more above tlie foaming cataract ; but all the colors of the rainbow are painted upon those fretted walls, often blending in harmonious shades, t(^ vie with the finest work which the artist s[)reads ui)on canvas. Rev. Dr. Wayland Iloyt most graphically described the canon as he beheld it, as follows : — "And now, where shall 1 begin, and how sh;dl I, in any wise, describe this tremendous sight — its overpowering grandeur, and, at the same time, its impressible beauty.' "Look yonder — those are the Lower Lalls of the Yellowstone. They are not the grandest in the world, but there are none more beautiful. There is not the breadth and dash of Niagara, nor is there the enormous depth of leap of some of the falls of the Yoscmite. But here is majesty of its own kind, and beauty too. On either side are vast pinnacles of sculptured rock. There, where the rock opens for the river, its waters are compressed from a width of two hundred feet between the Upper and Lower 1^'alls to one hundred feet where it takes the ])lunge. The shelf of rock over which it lea])s is absolutely level. 'I'he water seems to waif a moment on its verge ; then it passes with a single bound of three hundred feet into the gorge below. It is a sheer, unbroken, compact, shining mass of silver foam. But your eyes are all the time distracted from the fall itself, great and beautiful as it is, 1o its marvellous setting — to the surprising overmastering cafion into which the river leaps and through which it flows, dwindling to but a foamy libbon there in its appalling depths. As you cling here to 66 ALlATh'LS QF THE NEW WEST. GRAND CANON OF THE YELLOWSTONE. MARVJiLS ()/'' NAIUNI-:. 6 J this juttin;^ rock the falls arc already many hundred feet below you. 'I"hc ialls unroll their whiteness down amid the caiion glooms. . . . Ihcse rocky sides are almost pcr])endicular ; indeed, in many places th(j boiling springs have gouged them out so as to leave f;verhanging cliffs and tables at the top. Take a stone and throw it over — you must wait long before you hear it strike. Nothing more awful have I ever seen than the yawning of that chasm. And the stillness, solemn as midnight, jorofound as death ! The water dashing there, as in a kind of agony, against those rocks, you cannot hear. The mighty distance lays the finger of its silence on its white li];s. You are oppressed with a sense of danger. It is as tjiough the vastness would soon force you from the rock to which you cling. The silence, the sheer depth, the ghtom, burden you. It is a relief to feel the firm earth beneath your feet again, as you carefully crawl back frtnii your perching place. "But this is not all, nor is the half yet told. As sofjn as you can stand it, go out on that jutting rock again and mark the sculpturing of Ciod upon those vast and solemn walls. By dash of wind and wave, by forces of the frost, by file of snow plunge and glacier and mountain torrent, by the hot breath oi boiling springs, th(;se walls have been cut into the most various and sur])rising shapes. I have seen the Middle Age castles along the Khine : there thf^se castles are reproduced exactly. I have seen the soaring summits of the great cathedral spires in the country beyond the sea : there they stand in prototype, only loftier and sublimer. "And then, of course, and almost beyond all else, you are fasci- nated by the magnificence and utter opulence of color. Those are not simply gray and hoary depths and reaches and domes and pinna- cles of sullen rock. The whole gorge flames. It is as though rain- bows had fallen out of the sky and hung themselves there like gloricjus banners. The underlying c(jlor is the clearest yellow ; this flushes onward into orange. Down at the base the deepest mosses unroll their draperies (A the most vivid green ; browns, sweet and soft, do their blending ; white rocks stand spectral ; turrets of rock shoot i\\) as crimson as though they were drenched through with blood. It is a wilderness of color. It is impossible that even the pencil of an artist can tell it. What you would call, accustomed to the .softer tints of nature, a great exaggeration, would be the utmost tameness compared with the reality. It is as though the most glori- ous sunset you ever .saw had been caught and held upon that resplen- dent, awful gorge. 68 .]/.lKl'ELS OF THE IVEH' WEST. " Through nearly all the hours of that afternoon until the sunset shadows came, and afterwards, amid the moonbeams, I waited there, clinging to the rock, jutting out into that overpowering, gorgeous chasm. I was appalled and fascinated, afraid and yet compelled to cling there. It was an epoch in my life." Glass Cliffs are not usual. Sight-seers are usually satisfied with sandstone or granite ones, provided they are tall enough. But here are cliffs composed of volcanic glass, with a glass road along their base. Nature made the cliffs just as they are, but man made the road of materials which nature furnished. Mr. Wisner describes the cliffs thus : — BSIDIAN CLIFFS. "These cliffs rise like basalt in almost venical columns from the eastern shores of Beaver Lake, and are probably unequalled in the world. They are from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty feet in height and one thousand feet in length, although there are croppings of the same material to be traced as far as the Lake of the Woods, two miles beyond. This volcanic glass glis- tens like jet, but is quite opaque. Sometimes it is variegated with streaks of red and yellow. Large blocks of it have been, from time to time, detached, forming a sloping barricade at an angle of 45° to the hot springs at the margin of Beaver Lake. It was necessary to build a carriage road over these blocks. This was MARVELS OF NATURE. 69 accomplished by Colonel Norris, late superintendent of the Park, by building great fires upon the largest masses, which, after they had been sufficiently expanded by the heat, were suddenly cooled by dashing cold water over them. This had the effect of fracturing the blocks into fragments which could be handled, and a glass carriage- way a quarter of a mile in length was made. Without doubt this is the only piece of glass road in the world. Blocks of obsidian are to be found along the Gardiner River for a few miles below the cliffs, and the whole region from Paradise Valley, in the Upper Yellow- stone, southward, is strewn with chips and pebbles of this material. On the bays of the Yellowstone Lake, and in many of the clear stream beds, tiny fi agments of obsid- ian are to be seen glittering like L,ems. " Obsidian is a species of lava, which, according t(i Pliny, was first tound in Iiithiopia. 1 he name, how- ever, seems to have been applied by the ancients to Chian marble, and IS probably a false spelling of the ( i r e e k opsianiis, signifying to re- flect images, be- ■^"^ I cause the Chian hudIl was a-5 hard to cut as the \oltanic glass and was Used loi miiiois ■• rhe Indians used this glass in making arrow-heads, weapons, and tools. Relics of this sort, which tourists find, seem to be made of the superior quality of obsidian which was procured at the cliffs. An impure variety, black, with white flecks, is common at other points within the Park, notably near the Great Falls of the Yellow- TOWER FALLS. yo MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. stone, at the cascade at Crystal Trills, near Shoshone Lake, on the Continental Divide. " It is twenty-one miles from the Mammoth Hot Si)rini;-s to Tower Falls, and a very good wagon road leads thither. The distance between the two localities is crowded with marvels, such as the lava beds of Blacktail Deer, and t)ther creeks, Hell-roaring Creek, Dry Canon, and down the mountain slope of two thousand feet into Pleasant Valley and Baronette's Bridge, at the forks of the Yellow- stone River. "The Falls are surrounded by columns of volcanic breccia, rising fifty feet above them, standing like the towers upon some mediaeval fortress." The fall is one hundred and thirty-two feet. Mr. Langford, superintendent of the Park, says : " Some resemble towers, others the spires of churches, and others still shoot up little and slender as the minarets of a mosque. Some of the loftiest of these formations, standing ujion the \cry brink of the Falls, are accessible to an expert and adventurous climber. The position attained on one of these narrow summits, amid the uproar of waters, to the height of two lumdred feet above the boiling chasm, as the writer can affirm, requires a steady head arid strong nerves ; yet the view which rewards the temerity of the exploit is full of compensations. Below the fall the stream descends in numerous rapids with frightful velocity, through a gloomy gorge, to its union with the Yellowstone. Its bed is filled with enormous bowlders, against which the rushing waters break with great fury. Many of the capricious formations wrought from the shale excite merriment as well as wonder. Of this kind especially is the huge mass, sixty feet in height, which, from its supposed resemblance to the proverbial foot of his Satanic Majesty, is called the Devil's Hoof. The scenery of mountain, rock, and forest, surrounding the Falls, is very beautiful. The name of Tower Falls was, of course, suggested by some of the most conspic- uous features of the scenery." Lieutenant Doane, in his report to the United States Govern- ment, says: "The sides of the chasm are worn into caverns, lined with various tinted mosses, nourished by clouds of spray which rise from the cataract ; while above, and to the left, a spur from the great ]-)lateau rises over all, with a perpendicular front of four hundred feet. Nothing can be more chastely beautiful than this lovely cas- cade, hidden away in the dim light of overshadowing rocks and woods, its verv voice hushed to a low murmur, unheard at the dis- tance of a few hundred yartls. Thousands might pass within a half A/.lA'l7-:/.S ()/■• NATURIC. '/I mile, and not dream of its existence ; but once seen, it passes to the list of most pleasant memories." KEPLER'S CASCADES ON THE FIREHOLE RIVER. A marvel indeed ! It is one of the things of nature which can- not he extravagantly described. After making large drafts upon the "King's I^nglish," there is still some margin left for accurate por- 72 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. trayal. The symmetry of these cascades is one of their chief attrac- tions, so exact to the demands of Art has Nature been. Mr. Wisner has the following about them : — " These beautiful cascades are situated about two miles eastward of Old Faithful Geyser. They consist of a succession of eight or ten cascades of varying height, the highest, perhaps, fifty feet. The water has cut a narrow channel through the basaltic rock, forming a profound canon, through which the torrent frets and fumes in wild tumult. From the best point of observation, a high and rocky plateau some distance below the principal cascade, the scene is quite romantic and picturesque. The foaming waters rush down the gorge, roaring and tumbling against the solid walls of rock which hem them in. The canon is very deep, and its sheer descent is broken by rough and jagged crags which beetle over the stream. Slender, symmetrical pines, straight as lances, grow on the brink of the canon, and on the inclosing mountain slopes, as far as the vision reaches. They also cling to every nook and cranny on the sides of the terrible gorge, standing like sentinels on every moss-clad point of vantage. Westward lie the purple mountains, majestic in outline, and clothed with the virgin forest of sombre pine. In the middle distance arise filmy columns of vapor from the geysers and hot springs of the Upper Basin, floating upward, and fading into space, as an incense offering to the Creator of the wondrously beautiful scene. Kepler's Cascades are really quite bewitching in their loveli- ness, the harmony of the picture leaving nothing to be desired, as the romantic is here picturesquely perfect, the colors of the vegeta- tion on the rocks in contrast to the foaming water delighting the eye. The visitor reluctantly leaves this idyllic spot." Yellowstone Park can boast of one of the most wonderful buttes known, as the illustration proves (p. 'j'^^. Nature has built up here a stone palace, of which Art itself might well be proud. It is remark- able workmanship, when we consider that it was built without square or compass or the sound of a hammer. Its size, form, and symmetry impress the beholder as onl)- a marvel can. (;i:vsi;rs. The geysers are the great marvels of the Yellowstone Park. They are very numerous, and many of them are beautiful and grand beyond description. The most important ones are found in "The Upper MARVELS OF NATURE. On the Line of U. P. Railroad. PALACE BUTTE, 74 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. Geyser Basin," which extends "from Old Faithful down the main Firehole River to a point just below the mouth of the Little Firehole River, and along Iron Spring Creek, a branch of the last-named stream." This basin is four miles square, but the chief geysers are sit- uated on both sides of the riv- er w i t h i n a half-mile. 1 1 is surrounded by mountains rising fifteen hundred feet, their sides be- ing cjuite heavi- !)• timbered. Here opens a scene of splen- dor. " Clouds of steam hang as a i)all over the ]^asin, and columns of \a- por float UJ1- ward like water wraiths from between the tree-tops of the s u r r u n ding forests. The earth is full of rumbling ] and gurgling sounds, anel the air is laden )f boiling water, heiirhts, like cas- ln^ with sulphurous fumes. Stupendous fount; veiled in spray, shoot toward heaven, at varying :ades reversed, glinting and coruscating and scintillating in the sun- MARVELS OF NATURE. 75 light until their force is expended, when they fall in showers of flash- ing pearls with a shock that shakes the ground. Of course, the vari- ous geysers of the Basin are never simultaneously in action. The periods of eruption of each one of them are more or less irregular. Many geysers which now exist will, doubtless, sooner or later cease operation, and new ones will form to take the place of those which dwindle away." We rely chiefly upon the report of the United States Geological Survey, under the direction of Dr. F. V. Hayden, for a description of the principal geysers. The eruptions of the Old Faithful geyser are so regular that a favorable opportunity is offered the tourist for careful observation. It played once an hour for the benefit of the United States Survey, who highly appreciated their opportunity. It was this characteristic of the geyser which led the Survey to christen it " Old 1^'aithful." The eruption begins with from six to twelve spurts, continuing about four minutes, growing more powerful, and then followed by a remark- able succession of jets, accompanied by a startling roar and clouds of steam, the water shooting upward into the air one hundred and fifty feet at its maximum. Lieutenant Doane, of the expedition, wrote: "Close around the opening are built up walls eight feet in height, of spherical nodules from six inches to three feet in diameter. These, in turn, are covered on the surface with minute globules of calcareous [silicious] stalag- mite(?), encrusted with a thin glazing of silica. The rock at a dis- tance appears the color of ashes of roses, but near at hand shows a metallic gray, with pink and yellow margins of the utmost delicacy. Being constantly wet, the colors are brilliant beyond description. Sloping gently from this rim of the crater in every direction, the rocks are full of cavities in successive terraces, forming little pools, with margins of silica the color of silver, the cavities being of irreg- ular shape, constantly full of hot water, and precipitating delicate coral-like beads of a bright saffron. These cavities are also fringed with rock around the edges in meshes as delicate as the finest lace. Diminutive yellow columns rise from their depths, capped with small tablets of rock, and resembling flowers growing in the water. Some of them are filled with oval pebbles of a brilliant white color, and others with a yellowish frost-work which builds up gradually in solid stalagmites (.^). Receding still farther from the crater, the cavities become gradually larger and the water cooler, causing changes in the brilliant colorings, and also in the formation of the deposits. . . . 76 MARTELS OF THE NEir WEST. The deposits arc apparently as delicate as the down on the butterfly's wing, both in texture and coloring, yei are firm and solid beneath the tread. . . . Those who have seen the stage representations of 'Aladdin's Cave' and the 'Home of the Dragon-Fly,' as produced in a first-class the- atre, can form an idea of the won- derful coloring, but not of the in- tricate frost-work of this fairy-like yet solid mound of rock, growing up amid clouds of steam and showers of boiling water. One instinctively touches the hot ledges with his hands, and sounds with a stick the depths of the cavi- ties in the slope, in utter doubt in the evidence of his own eyes. The beauty of the scene takes away one's breath. It is over- powering, tran- scending the vis- ions of the Mos- lem's Paradise." Dr. Hay den wrote : " With lit- tle or no prelimi- nary warning, it shot up a column of water about six feet in diameter to the height of one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet, and by a succession of impulses seemed to hold it up steadily for the space of fifteen min- utes, the great mass of the water falling directly back into the basin, IVE GEYSER. MARVELS O/- NATURJL 77 and flowing over the edges and down the sides in large streams. When the action ceases, the water recedes beyond sight, and nothing is heard but the occasional escape of steam until another exhibition occurs. This is one of the most accommodating geysers in the basin, and during our stay ]jlayed once an hour quite regularly." Bee Hive Geyser was so named because of the resemblance of its cone to an old-fashioned straw beehive. Its cone is from three to five feet in height, and five feet in diameter at its base. A mem- ber of the survey party says of it : " Not one of our company sup- posed that it was a geyser, and among so many wonders it had almost escaped notice. While we were at breakfast, upon the morning of our departure, a column (;f water, entirely filling the crater, shot from it, which, by accurate triangular measurement, we found to be two hundred and nineteen feet in height. The stream did not deflect more than foui" or five feet from a vertical line, and the eruption lasted eighteen minutes." Another member of the expedition wrote : " It is beautifully coated with beaded silica. There is no surrounding terraced deposit, as there is about most of the craters. This is probably due to the fact that very little water falls arownd it. The orifice on the summit of the cone measures two feet by three, anrl a line droj>ped into the tube reaches a depth of twenty-one feet. Just outside of the cone are several vents or steam-holes, one of which acts as a sort of pre- liminary vent or signal for the eruption of the geyser. The eruption of the Bee Hive is very fine and peculiar to itself, no other geyser in the basin acting in the same manner. It is preceded by a slight escape of steam in a steady stream of great force, much as water is projected from the nozzle of hose used with steam fire-engines. The column is somewhat fan-shaped, and keeps a high average height. The ground is shaken during the action. The geyser acts certainly once in twenty-four hours, and occasionally oftencr." On the i8th of September, 1882, the writer observed two fine eruptions with an interval of only fourteen hours. The height of the column varies from a hundred and seventy to two hundred and nineteen feet ; and when the spray is between the beholder and the sun, a magnificent rainbow is visible. The Giantess Geyser has no cone. It is situated four hundred feet from the Bee Hive, higher up, and spouts from the top of the ground. Its aperture is twenty-four by thirty-four feet. The depth of its basin is sixty-three feet. The eruption occurs once in fourteen days, and it sends up a mighty column two hundred and fifty feet into 78 MARl'KLS OF THE NEW WEST. m a feet colli m ; and the air, which assumes the form of separate fountains, one above the other. The eruption is accompanied with deep rumbling and trembling of the earth, which is startling indeed, especially in the night, when its greatest activity- appears. Mr. Langford reported : " No water could be discovered, but we could distinctly hear it gurgling and boiling at a great dis- tance below. Suddenly it ■ began to rise, boiling and spluttering, and sending out huge masses of steam, causing a general stam- pede of our company, driving us some distance from our point of observa- tion. When within about forty feet of the surface it became stationary, and we returned to look down upon it. It was foaming and surging at a terrible rate, occasionally emitting small jets of hot water nearly to the mouth of the orifice. All at once it seemed seized with a fear- ful spasm, and rose with incredible rapidity, hardly affording us time to flee to a safe distance, when it burst from the orifice with terrific momentum, rising n the full size of this immense aperture to the height of si.xty through and out of the apex of this vast aqueous mass five or THE GIANTESS GEYSER. MARVELS OF NATURE. 79 six lesser jets or round columns of water, varying in size from six to fifteen inches in diameter, were projected to the marvellous height of two hundred and fifty feet. These lesser jets, so much higher than the main column, and shooting through it, doubtless proceed from auxiliary pipes leading into the principal orifice near the bottom, where the explosive force is greater. . . . This grand eruption con- tinued for twenty minutes, and was the most magnificent sight we ever witnessed. We were standing on the side of the geyser nearest the sun, the gleams of which filled the sparkling columns of water and spray with myriads of rainbows, whose arches were constantly changing, dipping and fluttering hither and thither, and disappearing only to be succeeded by others, again and again, amid the aqueous column, while the minute globules, into which the spent jets were diffused when falling, sparkled like a shower of diamonds ; and around every shadow which the denser clouds of vapor, interrupting the sun's 8o MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. rays, cast upon the column, could be seen a luminous circle, radiant with all the colors of the prism, and resembling the halo of glory represented in paintings as encircling the head of Divinity. All that we had previously witnessed seemed tame in comparison with the perfect grandeur and beauty of this display. Two of these wonderful eruptions occurred during the twenty-two hours we remained in the valley. This geyser we named the Giantess." The Fan Geyser is very beautiful. Its eruptions are frequent, and last from ten to twenty minutes. It discharges five radiating jets to the height of sixty feet, the falling drops and spray giving the appearance of a fan. Forty feet distant, a rent discharges a great volume of vapor, rising sixty feet or more into the air, attended by loud, sharp reports. Lieutenant Doane says : — " First the steam would rush from the upper crater, roaring vio- lently, then this would suddenly cease, to be followed by a fan-like jet of water rising from the lower crater to the height of over forty feet, playing for perhaps two minutes ; then this would suddenly stop flowing, and the steam would again rush forth for a time. Occasion- ally the small crater threw a transverse stream, alternating with the others ; and thus they played on for hours, after which all would sub- side to a gentle bubbling." Without absorbing more space on the subject of geysers, \vc only add, that these considered are not, perhaps, the most marvellous ones in the Park. Dr. Hayden claims that there are more than ten thou- sand hot springs and geysers in the Yellowstone district. The illus- trations furnished give a correct idea of the characteristics of all. So that we only add a table showing the time of action of the principal geysers in the Upper Basin : — 1. Old Faithful 2. Bee Hive . . 3. Lioness . . . 4. Lion . . . . 5. Ciiantcss . . 6. Saw Mill . . 7. C.r.ind . . . . S. I'ui^an . . . 9. Castle . . . . 10. Giant . . . . iNTIiKVAL OR PERIOD. DURATION OF EkITTION. 50 to 70 minutes , 7 to 25 hours . . Not known . . . Not known . . . 14 (lays \'cry frc(iuent . . 16 to \\ hours . 3 to 5 minutes . . 3 to 18 minutes . About 3 minutes . .\lK)ut 5 minutes . 12 hours 1^4 to 3 hours . . 10 to 42 minutes . Heu;ht of Colf About 15 minutes . 15 seconds to 5 min. Once in 48 hours . 30 minutes Once in 4 days . . i^ hours to 3 hours 75 to 150. 200 to 219. 60. 75- 250. 15 to 20. 95 to 200. 25- nrARVELS OF NATURE. 8i Name of Geyser. Interval or Period. Duration of Eruption. Height of Column. 11. Young Paithful 12. Oblong .... 10 to 30. Once or twice daily 6 minutes 13. .Splendid . . . About 3 hours . . . 4 to 10 minutes . . . 200. 14. Grotto .... Several times a day 30 minutes 20 to 60. 15. Fan Three times daily . 5 to 9 minutes .... About 60. 16. Riverside . . . Three times daily . 10 to 13 minutes . . . About 60. A tourist say.s of the Geyser Basin : "It looked as if it had been built up of old refuse matter from foundries ; as if for centuries men had sifted ashes and thrown out clinkers and bad coal and waste stones and junk and every conceivable sort of scorched metallic thing into this chasm ; and as if several apothecary shops had burnt down there too, for there was a new color and worse odor at every other step. And the little guide, striking his cane or fingers into bank after bank, kept bringing forth crumbs and powders, and offering them to us to taste or smell, with, ' Here is pure alum ' ; ' Here is Epsom salts ' ; ' Here is sulphur ' ; ' Here is cinnebar ' ; ' Here is soda,' till we felt as if we were in the wholesale drug-shop of the universe. Meantime, he skipped along from rock to rock like a chamois ; and we followed on as best we might, through the hot steam, which came up hissing and fizzing out of every hole and from beneath every stone. A brook of hot water running swiftly over and among rocks ; pools and cauldrons of hot water boiling and bubbling by dozens all around ; black openings, most fearful of all where no water can be seen, but from which roaring jets of steam come out, — this is the bottom of the Geyser Canon. You think you will plant your stick on the ground to steady yourself for a spring from one hot stone to another, and down goes your stick, down, down into soft, smoking, sulphurous, gravelly sand, so far and so suddenly that you almost fall on your face. You draw the stick up and out, and a small column of hot steam follows it. Next you make a misstep, and involuntarily catch hold of a projecting point of rock with one hand. You let go, as if it were fire itself. It does not absolutely blister you, but it is too hot to hold. Your foot slips an eighth of an inch out of the guide's footsteps, which you are following as carefully as if life and death depended on it, and you go in over shoes in water, so hot that you scream and think you are scalded. You are not ; but if you had slipped a few inches further to right or to left, you would 82 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. have been, for on each side inky-black water is boiling so that it bub- bles aloud. All this while, besides the hissing and fizzing of the steam and boiling and bubbling of the water which you see, there is a deep violoncello undertone of boiling and bubbling and hissing and fizzing of water and steam which you do not see, which are deep down under your feet, — deep down to right of you, deep down to left of you, — making the very caiion itself throb and quiver. How thick the crust may be, nobody knows. That it can be thick at all seems improbable when, prick it where you may, with ever so slender a stick, the hot steam rushes out." A tourist remarked, after having taken in the pleasures of the Yellowstone, "See Yellowstone Park, and die!" It is very foolish advice ; for the man who has beheld its marvels ought to desire to live all the more, to glorify the Great Architect, who builds so grandly even where the wild beast only dwells. Looking " through Nature up to Nature's God" can be done easily in this "Wonderland," and the overwhelming influence may help one to live better all his life. See Yellowstone Park, and live ! is better counsel for the human race. All of its impressions are grand and ennobling in the highest degree, — just the inspiring elements which lift the soul into honor, and beget lofty aims. YOSEMITE VALT.F.Y. The marvels of the Yosemite Valley stand pre-eminent among the wonders of the New West. Europeans who have explored this valley are surprised that Americans should go abroad to enjoy Alpine scen- ery, when California can introduce them to grander sights. The Yosemite Valley was not visited by a white man until 1850. Then, two adventurers penetrated it in search of gold mines ; and the Indians, who held possession of all that region, murdered them. It is only thirty-two years (1855) since a party of tourists entered the val- ley. Since then, writers and painters from all parts of the world have explored it, to tell of its marvels to astonished nations. In 1857 Yosemite was formally opened to the jniblic ; and in 1864 it was set apart forever as a national ])ark. It is situated one hundred and fifty miles east of San Francisco, about midway of the State from north to south. Formerly it was quite difficult of access, but now it can be easily reached. A tourist writes of this valley of enchantment as follows : — "The Yo.semite ! As well interpret God in thirty-nine articles as MARVELS OF NATURE. S3 portray it to you by word of mouth or pen. As well reproduce cas- tle or cathedral by a stolen frieze or broken column as this assem- blage of natural wonder and beauty by photograph or painting. The overpowering sense of the sublime, of awful desolation, of transcend- ing marvellousness and unexpectedness, that swept over us, as we reined our horses sharply out of green forests, and stood upon the high jutting rock that overlooked this rolling, upheaving sea of gran- ite mountains, holding far down its rough lap this vale of beauty of meadow and grove and river, — such tide of feeling, such stoppage of ordinary emotions, comes at rare intervals in any life. It was the confrontal of God face to face, as in great danger, in solemn, sudden death. It was Niagara magnified. All that was mortal shrank back ; all that was immortal swept to the front and bent down in awe. We sat till the rich elements of beauty came out of the majesty and the desolation, and then, eager to get nearer, pressed tired horses down the steep, rough path into the valley. "And here we wandered and wondered and worshipped for four days. Under sunshine and shadow ; by rich, mellow moonlight ; by stars opening double wide their eager eyes ; through a peculiar August haze, delicate, glowing, creamy, yet hardly perceptible as a distinct element, — the New England Indian summer haze doubly refined, — by morning and evening twilight, across camp-fires, up from beds upon the ground through all the watches of the night, have we seen this, the great natural wonder of our western world. Indeed, it is not too much to say that no so limited space in all the known world offers such majestic and impressive beauty. Niagara alone divides honors with it in America. Only the whole of Switzerland can surpass it ; no one scene in all the Alps can match this so viv- idly before me now in the things that mark the memory and impress all the senses for beauty and for sublimity." "Yosemite" is a chasm rather than a valley; averaging one-half mile in width, and from six to eight miles in length, completely sur- rounded by a perpendicular granite wall from a half-mile to a mile in height. At " Inspiration Point " the wonders of the valley burst upon the view. If the tourist's head is level, he can look straight down five thousand feet. "Cathedral Rock" lifts its peak high into the air, and stands out prominently in the grand panorama. The " Rock " is two thousand six hundred and eighty feet high, and its loftiest peak rises five hun- dred feet higher, its magnificent proportions presenting a scene of sur- prising grandeur. Six Washington monuments, one upon another. 84 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. scarcely cover the height of these tremendous "Rocks." The writer just quoted says : — " Here and there are grand massive domes, as perfect in shape as Boston's state-house dome, and bigger than the entire of a dozen State-houses. The highest rock of the valley is a perfect half-dome. CATHEDRAL ROCK. split shar]:) and square in the middle, and rising near a mile (or five thousand feet), — as high as Mount Washington is above the level of the sea, — over the little lake which perfectly mirrors its majestic form at its foot. Perfect pyramids take their places in the wall ; then these pyramids come in families, and mount away one after and above the other, as ' The Three Brothers.' 'The Cathedral Rocks' and 'The Cathedral Spires' unite the great impressivencss, the MARVELS OF NATURE. 85 EL CAPITAL. 86 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. beauty, and the fantastic forms of the gothic architecture. F'rom their shape and color alike, it is easy to imagine, in looking upon them, that you are under the ruins of an old gothic cathedral, to which those of Cologne and Milan are but baby-houses." BRIDAL VEIL FALL. Stupendous as "Cathedral Rock" i.s, "El Capitan " is still more massive and imposing. It is three thousand three hundred feet high, aud projects squarely out into the valley, rising vertically. Not a sprig or spear of vegetation appears upon its sides, only bare, rugged granite. It is difficult to appreciate the size of this rock ; but some idea of its dimensions may be acquired from the fact, that, in a clear MARVELS OF NATURE. 8/ day, it can be seen from San Joaquin plains, from fifty to sixty miles away. A writer says : — • " You descend by a zigzag- trail to the valley. It seems like descending into a grave. You feel imprisoned, for all about there is no exit except over the precipitous sides. You are four thousand feet above the sea, and nearly a mile below the surrounding moun- tains, which environ this sombre valley. The trees look stunted. They are two hundred feet high. The mere ribbon, the Bridal Veil Falls, is found quite a torrent, and from the new view seems a single fall of nine hundred feet. El Capitan, half-mile away, you think you can hit with a pebble. Grasp its height ! It is giant masonry most matchless, and for clean-cut bulk is without example. If it toppled over, one hundred and sixty acres would be covered by the prostrate mass. It is as lofty as the heaped-up spires of twelve Trinity churches. St. Peter's is four hundred and forty-eight feet high. It would take eight to gain the altitude of El Capitan's crest. The top- most pinnacle of Strasburg Cathedral glitters in the sun four hundred and sixty-eight feet above its foundation walls. It is less than one- seventh as high as El Capitan." Bridal Veil Fall can be seen so far away that it appears like a mere ribbon. On approaching it, however, it becomes a torrent tumbling six hundred and thirty feet at the first leap, continuing three hundred feet more in beautiful cascades. (3n the other side of the valley, directly opposite, "The Virgin's Tears Creek" makes a fall of one thousand feet. But this fall, unlike the Bridal Veil, is in operation only a portion of the year, as the Creek dries up early in the season. In volume of water, height of fall, beauty, and grandeur, it is far superior to the celebrated " Stanbach " of Switzerland ; and yet it is hardly noticed by travellers in the Yosemite Valley because there are so many grander ones. Bentley, who has seen the Bridal Veil, with its majestic surroundings, at night, says : — "Thousands of travellers and tourists make pilgrimage to it each year, and yet no pen, brush, camera, nor tongue has ever, nor ever can, describe it in all its variety of grandeur and interest, so satisfac- torily as it reveals itself to the visitor. Who can paint its dark and ever-changing shadows, sweetly nestling under those grim and awe- inspiring walls .-* Who can write the sweet, yet dream-like story of its cascades, falls, and deep, crystal pools, among those cliffs and rock-ribbed, sky-piercing gray giants, or set to music the plaintive cadence of the summer wind through those proud pines and firs .'' Can you trip to step so fairy as yon meadov; brook delights itself 88 .]/ARrj:LS OJ- THE NEW WEST. among its bordering grass and trailing sedge, or laugh as it, as bound- ing o'er each rocky ledge ? Did ever mirror give back beauty's smile YOSEMITE FALLS. as that mirror lake, or make grim mountain peak more grim ? Where does early morning linger more lovingly, or e\'cning shade more grateful seem ? Oh, where does night seem more solemn than in MARVELS OF NATURE. 89 Yosemite ? The roaring cataract, the foamy flutter of the ' Bridal Veil,' gleaming like a silver band in the soft moonlight, yon lamps of heaven glossed over by fleecy clouds, half secreting, now half dis- closing, the tender murmur of balsam-freighted night wind ; gurgling- brooklet, and shrill alarm of owl or dove, are of the legion of voices in which kind nature salutes you in this valley of the valleys, Yo- semite ! " Niagara's descent is only one hundred and sixty feet ; that of Yosemite is two thousand six hundred and thirty-four. Sixteen Niagaras added together only equal the stupendous plunge of Yo- semite Falls. It is the grandest waterfall in the whole world, when the volume of water which it pours is estimated, l^entley's " Hand- book " says : — " The Yosemite Fall is produced by a creek of the same name, which heads on the west side of the Mount Hoffman Group about ten miles northeast of the valley. Being fed by melting snows exclusively, and running through its whole course over almost bare granite rock, its volume varies greatly at different times and seasons, according to^ the amount of snow remaining unmelted, the tempera- ture of the air, and the clearness or cloudiness of the weather. In the spring, when the snow first begins to melt with rapidity, the volume of water is very great ; as ordinarily seen by visitors in the most favorable portion of the season — -say from May to July — the quan- tity will be less ; still later, it shrinks down to a very much smaller volume. The vertical height of the lip of the fall, above the valley, is, in round numbers, two thousand six hundred feet. The lip or edge of the fall is a great rounded mass of granite, polished to the last degree, on which it was found to be a very hazardous matter to move. The fall is not in one perpendicular sheet ; there is first a vertical descent of one thousand five hundred feet, when the water strikes on what seems to be a projecting ledge, but which, in reality, is a shelf or recess, almost a third of a mile back from the front of the lower portion of the cliff. From here the water finds its way, in a series of cascades, down a descent equal to six hundred and twenty- five feet perpendicular, and then gives one plunge of about four hun- dred feet on to a low talus of rocks at the base of the precipice. The whole arrangement and succession of the different parts of the fall can be easily understood by ascending to the base of the Upper Fall, which is a very interesting and not a difificult climb, or from Sentinel Dome, on the opposite side of the valley, where the specta- tor is at a considerable distance (two and a half miles) above its edge. 90 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. As the various portions of the fall are near))- in one vertical plane, the effect of the whole is nearly as grand, and perhaps even more picturesque, than it would be if the descent were made in one leap from the to]) of the cliff to the level of the valley. Nor is the gran- deur or beaut)- of the fall perceptibly diminished by even a very con- siderable diminution of the quantity of water from its highest stage." Bentley says: "The Nevada Fall is, in every respect, one of the grandest waterfalls in the world, whether we consider its vertical height, the purity and volume of the river which forms it, or the stu- pendous scenery by which it is environed. The fall is not quite per- pendicular, as there is, near the summit, a ledge of rock which receives a por- tion of the water and throws it off with a pe- culiar twist, adding con- siderably to the general picturesque effect. A de- termination of the height of the fall was not easy, on account of the blinding spray at the bottom, and the uncertainty of the ex- act spot where the water strikes. Indeed, this seems to vary in the Nevada as well, although not so much as in the Vernal Fall. To call the Vernal four hun- dred and the Nevada one near enough to the truth. LIBERTY CAP. hundred feet, in round numbers, will be The descent of the rixer in the rapids, between the two falls, is nearly three hundred feel. Within the val- ley are other wonderful falls, other stupendous cliffs, overtopped by lofty cloud-capped mountains behind whose rock}- shoulders slumber great fields of snow ; while around are the liighest mountain peaks within the United States, a vast panorama of mountains, dark-wooded valleys and smiling landscapes, everywhere." The towering dome seen beyond the brink of the fall is " Liberty Cap," in itself an object of surpassing interest in the Yosemite. Its summit is two thousand feet higher than the fall, five thousand feet above the valley below, and nine thousand above the level of the sea. MARVELS OF NATURE. 91 The " Fall " and " Liberty Cap " together create a scene over which painter and poet become surcharged with enthusiasm. Sentinel Rock is shaped somewhat like an obelisk, its striking resemblance to a watch-tower suggesting its name. The obelisk form continues down one thousand feet frt^n its summit ; and below that point it unites with the wall of the valley. Its height above the SENTINEL ROCK. river is three thousand and forty-three feet, — one of the most majes- tic masses of rock in the Yosemite Valley. The illustration locates the Hotel Leidigs on a beautiful spot which the towering sentinel overlooks from its lofty altitude. Ludlow, in liis "Heart of the Continent," discusses the process of formation of these quaint obelisks as follows : — " I ascended one of the most practicable hills among the number 92 MAR\-ELS OF THE XKW WEST. crowned by sculpturesque formations. The hill was a mere mass of sand and debris from deea)ed rocks, about a hundred feet high, coni- cal, and bearing on its summit an irregular group of pillars. After a protracted examination, I found the formation to consist of a peculiar friable conglomerate, which has no precise parallel in any of the eastern strata. Some of the pillars were nearly cylindrical, others were long cones, and a number were spindle-shaped, or like a buoy set on end. With hardly an exception, they were surmounted by capitals of remarkable projection beyond their base. These I found slightly different in composition from the shafts. The conglomerate of the latter was an irregular mixture of fragments from all the hypo- gene rocks of the range, including quartzose pebbles, pure crystals of silex, various crytalline sandstones, gneiss, solitary hornblende and feldspar, nodular ironstones, rude agates and gun-flint, the whole loosely cemented in a matrix composed of clay lime (most likely from the decomposition of gypsum) and red oxide of iron. The disk which formed the largely projecting capital seemed to represent the origi- nal diameter of the pillar, and apparently retained its proportions in virtue of a much closer texture and larger per cent of iron in its com- position. These were often so apparent that the pillars had a con- tour of the most rugged description, and a tinge of pale cream yellow, v/hile the capitals were of a brick-dust color, with excess of red oxide, and nearly as uniform in their granulation as fine millstone-grit. The shape of these formations seemed, therefore, to turn on the com- parative resistance to atmospheric influences possessed by their vari- ous parts. Many other indications led me to reason down all the hypothetical agencies which might have produced them, to a single one — air, in its chemical and mechanical operations, and usually in both. . . . One characteristic of the Rocky Mountains is the sys- tem of vast indentations, cutting through from the top to the bottom of the range. Some of these take the form of funnels, others are deep, tortuous galleries, known as passes, or canons ; but all have their openings towards the plains. The descending masses of air fall into these funnels or sinuous canals, as they slide down, concentrat- ing themselves and acquiring a vertical motion. When they issue from the mouth of the gorge at the base of the range, they are gigan- tic augers, with a revolution faster than man's cunningest machinery, and a cutting-edge of silex obtained from the first sand-heap caught up by their fury. Thus armed with their own resistless motion, and an incisive thread of the hardest mineral next to the tliamond. they MARVELS OF NATURE. 93 sweep on over the plains to excavate, pull down, or carve in new forms, whatever friable formation lies in their way." Ahhoii-Ii the marvels of Yoscmite fill us with wonder, California has yet other sights equally novel. Her " Hk, 'J'rkks " must be classed with the wonders of the world. A journey from Maine U) California to sec them alone is honored witli interest by the sight. Trees four hundred and fifty feet high, and forty feet in diameter, m u s t be c a t a - logued with first- class marvels. They were dis- co\ered in iung cotton- woods in one space, a strong young hemlock lifting green symmetrical arms from some high rocky cleft in another, or a miniature forest ot dwarfed evergreens climbing- half way up some craggy ]Mle. This can be told, but the massivcness of sky-piled ma- ^i.** sonry, the almost infernal v mixture of grandeur and gro tesqueness, are beyond ex- pression. After the first few uk one sinks into an awed silence." Dr. Blake referred to a rock on a pi\ot, jM-obabh- meaning " Bal- ance Rock," as seen in the cut. It is a huge affair, and \ct appears to be so delicately balanced that a child might rock it. Ow trial, however, it is found to be immovable — a \-cry ponderous thing, defying all attempts to move it. (Juite an exact profile of "the human face divine " is seen o\\ one side of this rock — eyes, nose, and mouth very properly adjusted, while the chin is elongated into almost too much of a good thing. The toji of the head does not exactly tally with the chart of the phrenologist, but it is cpiite in harmony with the oddities and tpieer objects scattereil about. unents of wiUl exclamation points MARVELS OF NATURE. 103 Dr. 1^. V. Taylor e.\i)rc.ssc(l himself very osing. It stands sentinel over the MARVliLS OF NATURE. 19 little city which nestles under its shadow, between its base and the river. Altogether, this butte and its surroundings presents a scene which, in some particulars, can scarcely be matched in the whole 120 M.IK I -ELS OF THE NEW It EST. land. The artist could not pass it without stopping to make a faith- ful sketch. " Wa<;-on Wheel (iap " is located in Southwestern Colorado, on the Rio Grande Del Norte, twenty-nine miles west of Del Norte, and AfARVKLS OF ALATURE. 122 J/.IA'I'A'/.S or THE XEW WEST. sixtv-nino troni Aliniosa. It is in a chasm ot the numntain rang-o, whicli extoiuls a humlrod miles north and south, a gateway cut by rusliing waters sometime in the past centuries, with vertical cliffs shooting upwanls from the luiiuhed to fifteen hundred feet. The place is called •" Wagon Wheel Gap"' in consequence of decaying wheels and other trum]->ei\\- found there bv pioneers a few \ears since. At first, it was supposed t h e relics discovered were all that remained of an exploring party massacretl by Indians. It was subsequently fountl. however, that Fremont wintered tliere t>nce in his explorations, and was obliged to aban- don his wagons and most of his outfit to save his p a r t v from starvation and death. The illustration on the preceding page rep- resents the scene that opens to the tourist as the railway train, wiiich follows along the ri\or. moves into the gap antl up to the station. On the right haml, the pali- sailes or nunmtains of rock rise from twehe hundretl ti^ fifteen hun- dred feet above the track, continuing their wavy line (^f unsurpassed grandeur for several miles. These stupendous walls are of reiklish gray sandstone, with only room enough at their base for the river and railway. On the left hand of the track, the mountains rise over twenty-three hundred feet in solemn majesty above the track. The whole scene is one of unparalleleil majesty. The beholder alone can fullv appreciate it. RHODA S ARCH. Savvatch Range, South River, near Antelopo Park. mari-j-:ls (jjr NATURj-:. J 23 Castcllatcrl Rocks rise several hu.Hln.l feet alon^^ the hanks of the river, and extend for miles. They present one of the grand- est spectacles which th.- tr.urist enjoys in the New West 'I'hev are called "The Green River Shales," and their prevailin-/ color is a grayish huff. (;ther colors, as red, green, and white, nnnHe here and there, contrihuting heauty to the imposing scene. Like huge walls of granite, laid hlock upon hlock in symmetrical proportions until they tower higher than the tallest church .sj.ire in the land these castellated rocks challenge the surprise and wonrler of m