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J. W. Powell - Canyons of the Colorado
conglomerate, a paving of pebbles has been left, - a mosaic of many colors, polished by the drifting sands
and glistening in the sunlight.
After the canyons, the most remarkable features of the country are the long lines of cliffs. These are bold
escarpments scores or hundreds of miles in length, - great geographic steps, often hundreds or thousands
of feet in altitude, presenting steep faces of rock, often vertical. Having climbed one of these steps, you
may descend by a gentle, sometimes imperceptible, slope to the foot of another. They thus present a
series of terraces, the steps of which are well-defined escarpments of rock. The lateral extension of such
a line of cliffs is usually very irregular; sharp salients are projected on the plains below, and deep
recesses are cut into the terraces above. Intermittent streams coming down the cliffs have cut many
canyons or canyon valleys, by which the traveler may pass from the plain below to the terrace above. By
these gigantic stairways he may ascend to high plateaus, covered with forests of pine and fir.
The region is further diversified by short ranges of eruptive mountains. A vast system of fissures - huge
cracks in the rocks to the depths below - extends across the country. From these crevices floods of lava
have poured, covering mesas and table-lands with sheets of black basalt. The expiring energies of these
volcanic agencies have piled up huge cinder cones that stand along the fissures, red, brown, and black,
naked of vegetation, and conspicuous landmarks, set as they are in contrast to the bright, variegated rocks
of sedimentary origin.
These canyon gorges, obstructing cliffs, and desert wastes have prevented the traveler from penetrating
the country, so that until the Colorado River Exploring Expedition was organized it was almost
unknown. In the early history of the country Spanish adventurers penetrated the region and told
marvelous stories of its wonders. It was also traversed by priests who sought to convert the Indian tribes
to Christianity. In later days, since the region has been under the control of the United States, various
government expeditions have penetrated the land. Yet enough had been seen in the earlier days to foment
rumor, and many wonderful stories were told in the hunter's cabin and the prospector's camp - stories of
parties entering the gorge in boats and being carried down with fearful velocity into whirlpools where all
were overwhelmed in the abyss of waters, and stories of underground passages for the great river into
which boats had passed never to be seen again. It was currently believed that the river was lost under the
rocks for several hundred miles. There were other accounts of great falls whose roaring music could be
heard on the distant mountain summits; and there were stories current of parties wandering on the brink
of the canyon and vainly endeavoring to reach the waters below, and perishing with thirst at last in sight
of the river which was roaring its mockery into their dying ears.
The Indians, too, have woven the mysteries of the canyons into the myths of their religion. Long ago
there was a great and wise chief who mourned the death of his wife and would not be comforted, until
Tavwoats, one of the Indian gods, came to him and told him his wife was in a happier land, and offered
to take him there that he might see for himself, if, upon his return, he would cease to mourn. The great
chief promised. Then Tavwoats made a trail through the mountains that intervene between that beautiful
land, the balmy region of the great west, and this, the desert home of the poor Numa. This trail was the
canyon gorge of the Colorado. Through it he led him; and when they had returned the deity exacted from
the chief a promise that he would tell no one of the trail. Then he rolled a river into the gorge, a mad,
raging stream, that should engulf any that might attempt to enter thereby.
CHAPTER II. MESAS AND BUTTES.
From the Grand Canyon of the Colorado a great plateau extends southeastward through Arizona nearly to
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