Front matter (continued 5)

How are we to realize these enormous depths? Those isolated peaks and mountains, of which there are hundreds, are really only details in the vast stretch of the cañon. Not one of them reaches above the level of the plain on the north side. Tourists who have traveled much are familiar with the great cathedrals of Europe. Let us drop a few of them into the cañon. First, St. Peter’s, the greatest cathedral in the world. We lower it to the level of the river, and it disappears behind the granite cliff. Let the stately Duomo of Milan follow. Its beautiful minarets and multitude of statues are lost in the distance, and though we place it on the top of St. Peter’s, it, too, is out of sight behind the cliffs. We must have something larger, so we place on top of Milan the great cathedral of Cologne, five hundred and one feet high, and the tips of its two great spires barely appear above the point from which we watched the swiftly rolling river. Now let us poise on the top of Cologne’s spires, two great Gothic cathedrals of France, Notre Dame and Amiens, one above the other, then add St. Paul’s of London, the three great towers of Lincoln, the triple spires of Lichfield, Canterbury with its great central tower, and the single spire, four hundred and four feet high, of Salisbury. We are still far from the top. These units of measurement are too small. Let us add the tallest office building in the world, seven hundred and fifty feet high, and then the Eiffel Tower, of nine hundred and eighty-six feet. We shall still need the Washington Monument, and if my calculations are correct, an extension ladder seventy-five feet long on top of that, to enable us to reach the top of the northern wall. One might amuse himself indefinitely with such comparisons. Perhaps they are futile, but it is only by some such method that one can form the faintest conception of the colossal dimensions of this, the greatest chasm in the world.

Still more bewildering is the attempt to measure the cañon in periods of time. There were two great periods in its history—first, the period of upheaval, and second, that of erosion. When the geologic movement was in process which created the continent, with the Rocky Mountains for its backbone, this entire region became a plateau, vastly higher than at present, with its greatest elevation far to the north. Then the rivers began to carry the rains and snows to the sea, carving channels for themselves through the rocky surface. The steep decline caused the waters to flow with swiftness. The little streamlets united to form larger ones, and these in turn joined their waters in still greater streams. The larger the stream and the swifter the flow, the faster the channel would be carved. The softer rocks gave slight resistance, but when the granite or harder formations were encountered, the streams would eddy and whirl about in search of new channels, the hard rocks forming a temporary dam. In this way the hundreds of buttes were formed. The Green River and the Grand unite to form the Colorado, the entire course of this great waterway stretching for two thousand miles. The two streams carry down a mighty flood—in former ages it was far mightier than now—which in its swift descent has ground the rocks into sand and silt and with resistless force carried them down to the sea. Those great buttes and strangely sculptured temples, each a formidable mountain, were not thrown up by volcanic forces, but have been carved out of the solid earth by the erosion of the waters. That river five miles away, of which we see only glimpses here and there, was the tool with which the Great Sculptor carved all this wondrous chasm. Major Powell has calculated that the amount of rock thus ground to pieces and carried away would be equivalent to a mass two hundred thousand square miles in area and a full mile in thickness. Think of excavating a mile deep the entire territory of New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia, and dumping it all into the Atlantic. Then think that this is the task the Colorado River and other geologic forces have accomplished, and pause to wonder how long it took to complete the process! If the Egyptian kings who built the pyramids had come here for material they would have seen the chasm substantially as we see it!

The geologic story of the cañon’s origin is too far beyond our comprehension. Let us turn to the Indian account. A great chief lost his wife and refused to be comforted. An Indian God, Ta-vwoats, came to him and offered to conduct him to a happier land where he might see her, if he would promise to cease mourning. Then Ta-vwoats made a trail through the mountains to the happy land and there the chief saw his wife. This trail was the cañon of the Colorado. The deity made the chief promise that he would reveal the path to no man, lest all might wish to go at once to heaven, and in order to block the way still more effectually he rolled a mad surging river through the gorges so swift and strong that it would destroy any one who dared attempt to enter heaven by that route.

I have often been asked which is the greater wonder, the Grand Cañon of the Colorado River or the Yellowstone National Park. The question is unanswerable. One might as well attempt to say whether the sea is more beautiful than the sky. If mere size is meant, the Grand Cañon is vastly greater. If all the geysers of the Yellowstone were placed down in the bottom of the Grand Cañon at the level of the river, and all were to play at once, the effect would be unnoticed from Hopi Point. The cañon of the Yellowstone River, impressive as it is, would be lost in one of the side cañons of the Colorado.

The Grand Cañon and the Yellowstone are creations of a totally different kind.

The Yellowstone is a garden of wonders. The Grand Cañon is a sublime spectacle.

The Yellowstone is a variety of interesting units. The Grand Cañon is a unit of infinite variety.

The Yellowstone contains a collection of individual marvels, each wondrous in structure and many of them exquisite in beauty. The Grand Cañon is one vast masterpiece of unimagined architecture, limitless grandeur, and ever-changing but splendidly harmonious brilliancy of color.

The Yellowstone fills the mind with wonder and amazement at all the varied resources of Nature. The Grand Cañon fills the soul with awe and reverence as one stands in silence upon the brink and humbly reflects upon the infinite power of God.

THE END

INDEX

INDEX

Alcott, A. Bronson, 192, 193.

Alcott, Louisa M., 193.

Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 207-20.

Amiel, Henri Frédéric, 118; 124-27.

Anderson, Mary, 110, 112, 113.

Appledore, 222, 223, 232.

Arbury Hall, 20-28.

Arizona, The Grand Cañon of, 271-96.

Arnold, Thomas, 52, 98, 99.

Arona, 156.

Authari, the Long-haired, 164.

Ayrshire, 46-48.

Bashkirtseff, Marie, 132, 133.

Bastien-Lepage, 133.

Battlefield of Concord, 186, 187.

Belgirate, 155-56.

Bellagio, 168.

Borromeo, Carlo, 156, 161.

Borromeo, Count Vitaliano, 154.

Bruce, Robert, 85, 90, 91.

Burns, Robert, 43-48.

Burroughs, John, A Day with, 233-50.

Burroughs, John, 227, 228.

Byron, Lord, 143, 144.

Cadenabbia, 158, 159.

Cañon of the Yellowstone, the, 267-69.

Carlyle, Thomas, 41, 44, 66.

Caroline, Queen, 168.

Catskill Mountains, 237, 238, 239, 242, 243, 246.

Channing, Ellery, 186.

Coleridge, Hartley, 62.

Coleridge, Samuel T., 51, 61, 62.

Colorado River, the, 282-88; 293-95.

Colvin, Sir Sidney, 19-21.

Como, City of, 165, 168.

Como, Lake, 95-98; 137; 138; 150; 158-68.

Concord, Massachusetts, 179-95.

Deffand, Marquise du, 140.

De Quincey, Thomas, 52, 59, 63, 64.

Drummond, William, 77-84.

Ecclefechan, 41-44.

Eliot George, 20-35.

Ellastone, original of “Hayslope,” 31.

Emerson, Lidian, 188, 190.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 17; 181-92; 249.

Esk, Vale of the, 75-92.

Esthwaite, Lake, 56.

Evans, Rev. Frederick R., 28-29.

Fields, James T., 199, 200.

Gaeta vase, 170.

Gallio, Cardinal, 168.

Gould, Jay, 236, 237.

Grand Cañon of Arizona, the, 271-96.

Grant, Gen. U. S., 244.

Grasmere, 59, 60, 61, 65, 66.

Gravedona, palace of Cardinal Gallio, 168.

Great Britain, Literary Rambles in, 15-48.

Green, Thomas H., 117, 118, 122, 123, 124, 127.

Haines, George, 170-74.

Hawthorne, Elizabeth, 198, 199.

Hawthorne, Madam, 198, 200.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel; in Concord, 179-95; in Salem, 196-206.

Hawthorne, Sophia Peabody, 180, 185; 198; 199.

Hawthornden to Roslin Glen, From, 73-92.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 17.

“House of the Seven Gables, The,” 196, 202-06.

Il Medeghino, 160-63.

Iron Crown of Lombardy, 165.

Isles of Shoals, the, 222-32.

Isola Bella, 152-55.

Isola dei Pescatori, 155.

Isola Madre, 155.

Italian Lakes, A Tour of the, 147-74.

Jonson, Ben, 81-84.

Lacus Larius. See Como.

Lacus Verbanus. See Maggiore.

“Lady Wentworth,” scenes of, 220, 221.

Laighton, Oscar, 229.

Lamb, William and Caroline, 141-44.

Lasswade, 75-76.

Lecco, Lake, 95, 96.

Lespinasse, Julie de, 139-41.

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 17; 159; 220; 221.

Lowell, James Russell, 17; 55; 232.

Lugano, Lake, 96, 151, 157, 159.

Luino, 156, 157.

Maggiore, Lake, 96, 149, 150, 152-56, 159.

Mammoth Hot Springs, 255-57.

Medici, Gian Giacomo de (Il Medeghino), 160-63.

Melbourne, Lord, 141-44.

Menaggio, 160.

Minute-Man, the, Concord, 186, 187.

Monument, the, on battlefield of Concord, 186, 187.

Musketaquid, river at Concord, 185.

New England, Literary Landmarks of, 175-232.

Nuneaton, 20, 22, 29, 30.

Nutter House, the, 207-16.

Old Faithful, 254; 262-65.

Old Manse, the, 179-86.

Oxford, 99-100.

Passmore Edwards Settlement, London, 103-09, 127.

Pattison, Mark, 100; 117-21; 126, 127.

Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer, 198.

Peabody, Mary (Mrs. Horace Mann), 198.

Peabody, Dr. Nathaniel, 197.

Peabody, Sophia. See Hawthorne, Sophia Peabody.

Pliny, the Elder, 160, 166.

Pliny, the Younger, 166, 167.

Pogliaghi, Lombard decorator, 170, 171.

Portsmouth, N.H., 207-21.

Powell, Major John W., 283-87.

Ripley, Rev. Ezra, 182.

Ripley, Rev. Samuel, 182.

“Robert Elsmere,” 102, 109, 110-27.

Roslin Castle, 86-88.

Roslin Chapel, 88, 90.

Roslin Glen, 75-92.

St. Clair family, of Roslin, 87, 88, 91, 92.

Salem, Massachusetts, 196-206.

Salpion, Greek sculptor, 170.

“Scarlet Letter, The,” 201-02.

Scott, Sir Walter, 37, 38, 39, 45, 46, 75, 76, 89, 90, 239.

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, 187-89.

Southey, Robert, 51.

Thaxter, Celia, 221, 223-32.

Theodelinda, Queen of the Lombards, 163-65.

Thoreau, Henry D., 182-91; 228.

Tower of London, 18.

Tremezzo, 168.

Varenna, 163.

Victoria Monument, London, 40.

Villa Bonaventura, 169.

Villa Carlotta, 168, 169.

Villa d’Este, 168.

Villa Maria, 169-74.

Villa Pliniana, 167, 168.

Walden Pond, 191.

Ward, Mrs. Humphry, The Country of, 93-146.

Ward, Mrs. Humphry, scenes of novels, 36, 37, 111-17; 128-31; 134-38; 145; 169.

Washburn, Gen. Henry D., 253.

Wayside, the, Hawthorne’s house in Concord, 193, 194.

Wentworth House, 220-21.

Westmoreland, 51-72; 98; 131; 134; 135; 136; 239; 241.

White, Gilbert, 228.

Wilson, John (Christopher North), 52.

Windermere, Lake, 54; 68; 70; 98.

Windermere village, 51.

Wordsworth’s Country, A Day in, 49-72.

Wordsworth, Dorothy, 41, 63, 64, 65.

Wordsworth, Mrs., 63.

Wordsworth, William, 41; 51-72; 98; 158; 239-43.

Yellowstone, Glimpses of the, 251-69.

Yellowstone Lake, the, 261; 267.

Yellowstone National Park, the, 295, 296.

Yellowstone River, the, 267, 268.

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