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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, John L. Stoddard's Lectures, Vol. 10 (of 10),
+by John L. Stoddard
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: John L. Stoddard's Lectures, Vol. 10 (of 10)
+       Southern California; Grand Canon of the Colorado River; Yellowstone National Park
+
+
+Author: John L. Stoddard
+
+Release Date: April 2, 2005  [eBook #15526]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN L. STODDARD'S LECTURES, VOL.
+10 (OF 10)***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Sandra Brown, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+      See 15526-h.htm or 15526-h.zip:
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+
+
+
+
+
+JOHN L. STODDARD'S LECTURES, VOLUME 10 (of 10)
+
+   Southern California
+   Grand Canon of the Colorado River
+   Yellowstone National Park
+
+Illustrated and Embellished with Views of the
+  World's Famous Places and People, Being
+    the Identical Discourses Delivered
+        during the Past Eighteen
+          Years under the Title
+             of the Stoddard
+                 Lectures
+
+Boston
+Balch Brothers Co.
+Norwood Press
+J. S. Gushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith
+Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
+Macdonald & Sons, Bookbinders, Boston
+
+MCM
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Nature has carefully guarded Southern California. Ten thousand miles
+of ocean roll between her western boundary and the nearest continent;
+while eastward, her divinity is hedged by dreary deserts that forbid
+approach. Although the arid plains of eastern Arizona are frequently
+called deserts, it is not till the west-bound tourist has passed
+Flagstaff that the word acquires a real and terrible significance.
+Then, during almost an entire day he journeys through a region which,
+while it fascinates, inspires him with dread. Occasionally a flock of
+goats suggests the possibility of sustaining life here, but sometimes
+for a distance of fifty miles he may see neither man nor beast. The
+villages, if such they can be called, are merely clusters of rude
+huts dotting an area of rocky desolation. No trees are visible. No
+grazing-ground relieves the dismal monochrome of sand. The mountains
+stand forth dreary, gaunt, and naked. In one locality the train runs
+through a series of gorges the sides of which are covered with
+disintegrated rock, heaped up in infinite confusion, as if an awful
+ague-fit had seized the hills, and shaken them until their ledges had
+been broken into a million boulders. At another point, emerging from
+a maze of mountains, the locomotive shoots into a plain, forty or
+fifty miles square, and sentineled on every side by savage peaks.
+Once, doubtless, an enormous lake was held encompassed by these
+giants; but, taking advantage of some seismic agitation, it finally
+slipped through their fingers to the sea, and now men travel over its
+deserted bed. Sometimes these monsters seemed to be closing in upon
+us, as if to thwart our exit and crush us in their stony arms; but
+the resistless steed that bore us onward, though quivering and
+panting with the effort, always contrived to find the narrow opening
+toward liberty. Occasionally our route lay through enormous fields of
+cactus and yucca trees, twelve feet in height, and, usually, so
+hideous from their distorted shapes and prickly spikes, that I could
+understand the proverb, "Even the Devil cannot eat a cactus."
+
+[Illustration: LIFE ON THE DESERT.]
+
+[Illustration: THE DESERT'S MOUNTAINS.]
+
+[Illustration: DESERT VEGETATION.]
+
+As the day wore on, and we were drawn from one scene of desolation to
+another, I almost doubted, like Bunyan's Pilgrim, whether we should
+ever reach the promised land alive; but, finally, through a last
+upheaval of defiant hills which were, if possible, more desolate and
+weird than any we had seen, we gained the boundary of California and
+gazed upon the Colorado River. It is a stream whose history thrilled
+me as I remembered how in its long and tortuous course of more than a
+thousand miles to this point it had laboriously cut its way through
+countless desert canons, and I felt glad to see it here at last,
+sweeping along in tranquil majesty as if aware that all its struggles
+were now ended, and peace and victory had been secured.
+
+It was sunset when our train, having crossed this river, ran along
+its western bank to our first stopping-place in California,--the
+Needles. Never shall I forget the impression made upon me as I looked
+back toward the wilderness from which we had emerged. What! was that
+it--that vision of transfiguration--that illumined Zion radiant with
+splendor? Across the river, lighted by the evening's after-glow of
+fire, rose a celestial city, with towers, spires, and battlements
+glittering as if sheathed in burnished gold. Sunshine and distance
+had dispelled all traces of the region's barrenness, and for a few
+memorable moments, while we watched it breathlessly, its sparkling
+bastions seemed to beckon us alluringly to its magnificence; then,
+fading like an exquisite mirage created by the genii of the desert,
+it swiftly sank into the desolation from which the sun had summoned
+it, to crown it briefly with supernal glory. Turning at last from its
+cold immobility to the activity around us, I saw some representatives
+of the fallen race of California, as Indian bucks and squaws came
+from their squalid hovels to sell the trifling products of their
+industry, and stare at what to them is a perpetual miracle,--the
+passing train. Five races met upon that railroad platform, and
+together illustrated the history of the country. First, in respect to
+time, was the poor Indian, slovenly, painted and degraded, yet
+characterized by a kind of bovine melancholy on the faces of the men,
+and a trace of animal beauty in the forms of the young squaws.
+Teasing and jesting with the latter were the negro porters of the
+train, who, though their ancestors were as little civilized as those
+of the Indians, have risen to a level only to be appreciated by
+comparing the African and the Indian side by side. There, also, was
+the Mexican, the lord of all this region in his earlier and better
+days, but now a penniless degenerate of Old Castile. Among them stood
+the masterful Anglo-Saxon, whose energy has pushed aside the
+Spaniard, civilized the Negro, developed half a continent, built this
+amazing path of steel through fifteen hundred miles of desert, and
+who is king where-ever he goes. While I surveyed these specimens of
+humanity and compared them, one with another, there suddenly appeared
+among them a fifth figure,--that of Sing Lee, formerly a subject of
+the oldest government on earth, and still a representative of the
+four hundred millions swarming in the Flowery Kingdom. Strangely
+enough, of all these different racial types, the Mongol seemed the
+most self-satisfied. The Yankee was continually bustling about,
+feeding passengers, transporting trunks, or hammering car-wheels; the
+Negroes were joking with the Indians, who appeared stolidly apathetic
+or resigned; the Mexicans stood apart in sullen gloom, as if
+secretly mourning their lost estate; but Sing Lee looked about him
+with a cheerful calmness which seemed indicative of absolute
+contentment and his face wore, continually, a complacent smile. What
+strange varieties of human destiny these men present, I thought as I
+surveyed them: the Indian and the Mexican stand for the hopeless
+Past; the Anglo-Saxon and the Negro for the active Present; while
+Sing Lee is a specimen of that yellow race which is embalmed in its
+own conservatism, like a fly in amber.
+
+[Illustration: LOOKING BACK AT THE MOUNTAINS.]
+
+[Illustration: A CALIFORNIA RANCH SCENE.]
+
+[Illustration: INDIAN HUTS.]
+
+[Illustration: "A FALLEN RACE."]
+
+[Illustration: A MEXICAN HOUSE AND FAMILY.]
+
+[Illustration: THE BLOSSOMING WILDERNESS.]
+
+[Illustration: COMPLACENT MONGOLS.]
+
+[Illustration: CHARACTERISTIC SCENERY.]
+
+The unsuspecting traveler who has crossed the Colorado River and
+entered Southern California, naturally looks around him for the
+orange groves of which he has so often heard, and is astonished not
+to find himself surrounded by them; but, gradually, the truth is
+forced upon his mind that, in this section of our country, he must
+not base his calculations upon eastern distances, or eastern areas.
+For, even after he has passed the wilderness of Arizona and the
+California frontier, he discovers that the Eldorado of his dreams
+lies on the other side of a desert, two hundred miles in breadth,
+beyond whose desolate expanse the siren of the Sunset Sea still
+beckons him and whispers: "This is the final barrier; cross it, and I
+am yours." The transit is not difficult, however, in days like these;
+for the whole distance from Chicago to the coast can be accomplished
+in seventy-two hours, and where the transcontinental traveler of less
+than half a century ago was threatened day and night with attacks
+from murderous Apaches, and ran the risk of perishing of thirst in
+many a waterless "Valley of Death," the modern tourist sleeps
+securely in a Pullman car, is waited on by a colored servant, and
+dines in railway restaurants the management of which, both in the
+quality and quantity of the food supplied, even in the heart of the
+Great American Desert, is justly famous for its excellence.
+
+At San Bernardino, we enter what is called the Garden of Southern
+California; but even here it is possible to be disappointed, if we
+expect to find the entire country an unbroken paradise of orange
+trees and roses. Thousands of oranges and lemons, it is true, suspend
+their miniature globes of gold against the sky; but interspersed
+between their groves are wastes of sand, reminding us that all the
+fertile portion of this region has been as truly wrested from the
+wilderness, as Holland from the sea. Accordingly, since San
+Bernardino County alone is twice as large as Massachusetts, and the
+County of Los Angeles nearly the size of Connecticut, it is not
+difficult to understand why a continuous expanse of verdure is not
+seen. The truth is, Southern California, with a few exceptions, is
+cultivated only where man has brought to it vivifying water. When
+that appears, life springs up from sterility, as water gushed forth
+from the rock in the Arabian desert when the great leader of the
+Israelites smote it in obedience to Divine command. Hence, there is
+always present here the fascination of the unattained, which yet is
+readily attainable, patiently waiting for the master-hand that shall
+unlock the sand-roofed treasure-houses of fertility with a crystal
+key. It can be easily imagined, therefore, that this is a land of
+striking contrasts. Pass, for example, through the suburbs of Los
+Angeles, and you will find that, while one yard is dry and bare, the
+next may be embellished with a palm tree twenty feet in height, with
+roses clambering over the portico of the house, and lilies blooming
+in the garden. Of the three things essential to vegetation--soil,
+sun, and water--man must contribute (and it is all he can contribute)
+water.
+
+[Illustration: STRIKING CONTRASTS.]
+
+[Illustration: WRESTED FROM THE SAND.]
+
+[Illustration: A PALM-GIRT AVENUE, LOS ANGELES.]
+
+Once let the tourist here appreciate the fact that almost all the
+verdure which delights his eyes is the gift of water at the hand of
+man, and any disappointment he may have at first experienced will be
+changed to admiration. Moreover, with the least encouragement this
+country bursts forth into verdure, crowns its responsive soil with
+fertility, and smiles with bloom. Even the slightest tract of
+herbage, however brown it may be in the dry season, will in the
+springtime clothe itself with green, and decorate its emerald robe
+with spangled flowers. In fact, the wonderful profusion of wild
+flowers, which, when the winter rains have saturated the ground,
+transform these hillsides into floral terraces, can never be too
+highly praised. Happy is he who visits either Palestine or Southern
+California when they are bright with blossoms and redolent of
+fragrance. The climax of this renaissance of Nature is, usually,
+reached about the middle of April, but in proportion as the rain
+comes earlier or later, the season varies slightly. At a time when
+many cities of the North and East are held in the tenacious grip of
+winter, their gray skies thick with soot, their pavements deep in
+slush, and their inhabitants clad in furs, the cities of Southern
+California celebrate their floral carnival, which is a time of great
+rejoicing, attended with an almost fabulous display of flowers. Los
+Angeles, for example, has expended as much as twenty-five thousand
+dollars on the details of one such festival. The entire city is then
+gay with flags and banners, and in the long procession horses,
+carriages, and riders are so profusely decked with flowers, that they
+resemble a slowly moving throng of animated bouquets. Ten thousand
+choice roses have been at such times fastened to the wheels, body,
+pole, and harness of a single equipage. Sometimes the individual
+exhibitions in these floral pageants take the form of floats, which
+represent all sorts of myths and allegories, portrayed elaborately
+by means of statues, as well as living beings, lavishly adorned with
+ornamental grasses, and wild and cultivated flowers.
+
+Southern California is not only a locality, it is a type. It cannot
+be defined by merely mentioning parallels of latitude. We think of it
+and love it as the dreamland of the Spanish Missions, and as a region
+rescued from aridity, and made a home for the invalid and the winter
+tourist. Los Angeles is really its metropolis, but San Diego,
+Pasadena, and Santa Barbara are prosperous and progressive cities
+whose population increases only less rapidly than their ambition.
+
+[Illustration: AN ARBOR IN WINTER.]
+
+[Illustration: MAIN STREET, LOS ANGELES.]
+
+One of the first things for an eastern visitor to do, on arriving at
+Los Angeles, is to take the soft sound of _g_ out of the city's name,
+and to remember that the Spaniards and Mexicans pronounce _e_ like
+the English _a_ in fate. This is not absolutely necessary for
+entrance into good society, but the pronunciation "Angeelees" is
+tabooed. The first Anglo-Saxon to arrive here was brought by the
+Mexicans, in 1822, as a prisoner. Soon after, however, Americans
+appeared in constantly increasing numbers, and, on August 13, 1846,
+Major Fremont raised at Los Angeles the Stars and Stripes, and the
+house that he occupied may still be seen. Nevertheless, the
+importance of Los Angeles is of recent date. In 1885 it was an adobe
+village, dedicated to the Queen of the Angels; to-day, a city of
+brick and stone, with more than fifty thousand inhabitants, it calls
+itself the Queen of the State. Its streets are broad, many of its
+buildings are massive and imposing, and its fine residences
+beautiful. It is the capital of Southern California, and the
+headquarters of its fruit-culture. The plains and valleys surrounding
+it are one mass of vineyards, orange groves and orchards, and, in
+1891, the value of oranges alone exported from this city amounted to
+one and a quarter millions of dollars. It must be said, however, that
+there is less verdure here than in well-cared-for eastern towns of
+corresponding size, and that Los Angeles, and even Pasadena,
+notwithstanding their many palm trees, have on the whole a bare
+appearance, compared with a city like New Haven, with its majestic
+elms and robe of vivid green, which even in autumn seems to dream of
+summer bloom. Nevertheless, Los Angeles is clean, and poverty and
+squalor rarely show themselves; while, in the suburbs of the city,
+even the humblest dwellings are frequently surrounded by palm trees,
+and made beautiful by flowers.
+
+[Illustration: FREMONT'S HEADQUARTERS.]
+
+[Illustration: PALATIAL RESIDENCES IN LOS ANGELES.]
+
+[Illustration: LOS ANGELES.]
+
+Another charm of Los Angeles is the sudden contrasts it presents.
+Thus, a ride of three minutes from his hotel will bring the tourist
+to the remains of the humble Mexican village which was the forerunner
+of the present city. There he will find the inevitable Plaza with its
+little park and fountain, without which no Mexican town is complete.
+There, too, is the characteristic adobe church, the quaint interior
+of which presents a curious medley of old weather-beaten statues and
+modern furniture, and is always pervaded by that smell peculiar to
+long-inhabited adobe buildings, and which is called by Steele, in his
+charming "Old California Days," the national odor of Mexico.
+
+Los Angeles, also, has its Chinatown, which in its manners and
+customs is, fortunately, as distinct from the American portion of the
+city as if it were an island in the Pacific; but it gave me an odd
+sensation to be able to pass at once from the handsome, active
+settlement of the Anglo-Saxon into the stupidity of Mexico, or the
+heathenism of China.
+
+[Illustration: PLAZA AND ADOBE CHURCH, LOS ANGELES.]
+
+[Illustration: BROADWAY, LOS ANGELES.]
+
+"How can I distinguish here a native Californian from an eastern
+man?" I asked a resident.
+
+"There are no native Californians," was the somewhat exaggerated
+reply; "this is not only a modern, but an eastern city. Nine-tenths
+of our inhabitants came here from the East less than fifteen years
+ago, many of them less than five. We are an old people with a new
+home."
+
+Ostrich rearing is now a profitable industry of California, and farms
+have been established for this purpose at half a dozen points in the
+southern section of the State. Two of them are in the vicinity of Los
+Angeles, and well repay a visit; for, if one is unacquainted with the
+habits of these graceful birds, there is instruction as well as
+amusement in studying their appearance, character, and mode of life.
+My first view of the feathered bipeds was strikingly spectacular. As
+every one knows, the ostrich is decidedly _decollete_ as well as
+utterly indifferent to the covering of its legs. Accordingly a troop
+of them, as they came balancing and tiptoeing toward me, reminded me
+of a company of ballet dancers tripping down the stage. While the
+head of the ostrich is unusually small, its eyes are large and have
+an expression of mischief which gives warning of danger. During a
+visit to one of the farms, I saw a male bird pluck two hats from
+unwary men, and it looked wicked enough to have taken their heads as
+well, had they not been more securely fastened. It is sometimes
+sarcastically asserted that the ostrich digests with satisfaction to
+itself such articles as gimlets, nails, and penknives; but this is a
+slander. It needs gravel, like all creatures of its class which have
+to grind their food in an interior grist-mill; but though it will
+usually bite at any bright object, it will not always swallow it. I
+saw one peck at a ribbon on a lady's hat, and, also, at a pair of
+shears in its keeper's hands, but this was no proof that it intended
+to devour either. On another occasion, an ostrich snatched a purse
+from a lady's hand and instantly dropped it; but when a gold piece
+fell from it, the bird immediately swallowed that, showing how easily
+even animals fall under the influence of Californian lust for gold.
+
+[Illustration: AN OSTRICH FARM.]
+
+[Illustration: ORANGE GROVE AVENUE, PASADENA.]
+
+Sixteen miles from Los Angeles, yet owing to the clear atmosphere,
+apparently, rising almost at the terminus of the city's streets,
+stand the Sierra Madre Mountains, whose copious reservoirs furnish
+this entire region with water. An excursion toward this noble range
+brought me one day to Pasadena, the pride of all the towns which,
+relatively to Los Angeles, resemble the satellites of a central sun.
+Pasadena seems a garden without a weed; a city without a hovel; a
+laughing, happy, prosperous, charming town, basking forever in the
+sunshine, and lying at the feet of still, white mountain peaks, whose
+cool breath moderates the semi-tropical heat of one of the most
+exquisitely beautiful valleys in the world. These mountains, although
+sombre and severe, are not so awful and forbidding as those of the
+Arizona desert, but they are notched and jagged, as their name
+_Sierra_ indicates, and scars and gashes on their surfaces give proof
+of the terrific battles which they have waged for ages with the
+elements. A striking feature of their scenery is that they rise so
+abruptly from the San Gabriel Valley, that from Pasadena one can look
+directly to their bases, and even ride to them in a trolley car; and
+the peculiar situation of the city is evidenced by the fact that, in
+midwinter, its residents, while picking oranges and roses in their
+gardens, often see snow-squalls raging on the neighboring peaks of
+the Sierra.
+
+[Illustration: THREE MILES FROM ORANGES TO SNOW.]
+
+It would be difficult to overpraise the charm of Pasadena and its
+environs. Twenty-five years ago the site of the present city was a
+sheep-pasture. To-day it boasts of a population of ten thousand
+souls, seventy-five miles of well-paved streets, numerous handsome
+public buildings, and hundreds of attractive homes embellished by
+well-kept grounds. One of its streets is lined for a mile with
+specimens of the fan palm, fifteen feet in height; and I realized the
+prodigality of Nature here when my guide pointed out a heliotrope
+sixteen feet in height, covering the whole porch of a house; while,
+in driving through a private estate, I saw, in close proximity, sago
+and date palms, and lemon, orange, camphor, pepper, pomegranate, fig,
+quince, and walnut trees.
+
+[Illustration: A PASADENA HOTEL.]
+
+[Illustration: A PASADENA RESIDENCE.]
+
+[Illustration: PASADENA.]
+
+As we stood spellbound on the summit of Pasadena's famous Raymond
+Hill, below us lay the charming town, wrapped in the calm repose that
+distance always gives even to scenes of great activity; beyond this
+stretched away along the valley such an enchanting vista of green
+fields and golden flowers, and pretty houses nestling in foliage, and
+orchards bending 'neath their luscious fruits, that it appeared a
+veritable paradise; and the effect of light and color, the
+combination of perfect sunshine and well-tempered heat, the view in
+one direction of the ocean twenty miles away, and, in the other, of
+the range of the Sierra Madre only seven miles distant, with the
+San Gabriel Valley sleeping at its base, produced a picture so
+divinely beautiful, that we were moved to smiles or tears with the
+unreasoning rapture of a child over these lavish gifts of Nature. Yet
+this same Nature has imposed an inexorable condition on the
+recipients of her bounty; for most of this luxuriance is dependent
+upon irrigation. "The palm," said my informant, "will grow with
+little moisture here, and so will barley and the grape-vine; but
+everything else needs water, which must be artificially supplied."
+
+"How do you obtain it?" I asked.
+
+"We buy the requisite amount of water with our land," was the reply.
+"Do you see that little pipe," he added, pointing to an orange grove,
+"and do you notice the furrows between the trees? Once in so often
+the water must be turned on there; and, as the land is sloping, the
+precious liquid gradually fills the trenches and finds its way to the
+roots of the trees."
+
+[Illustration: A RAISIN RANCH.]
+
+Dealers in California wines declare that people ought to use them in
+preference to the imported vintage of Europe, and the warehouses they
+have built prove the sincerity of their conviction. One storehouse in
+the San Gabriel Valley is as large as the City Hall of New York, and
+contains wooden receptacles for wine rivaling in size the great tun
+of Heidelberg. We walked between its endless rows of hogsheads,
+filled with wine; and, finally, in the sample-room were invited to
+try in turn the claret, burgundy, sherry, port, and brandy.
+
+[Illustration: AN ORANGE GROVE, PASADENA.]
+
+[Illustration: A CALIFORNIA VINEYARD.]
+
+"How much wine do you make?" I asked the gentleman in charge.
+
+"In one year," was the reply, "we made a million gallons."
+
+I thought of the Los Angeles River which I had crossed that morning,
+and of its sandy bed one hundred feet in width, with a current in
+the centre hardly larger than the stream from a hose-pipe, and
+remarked, "Surely, in some portions of this land there is more wine
+than water." "Where do you sell it?" I presently inquired.
+
+"Everywhere," was the answer, "even in France; and what goes over
+there you subsequently buy, at double the price, for real French
+wine."
+
+[Illustration: AT THE BASE OF THE MOUNTAINS.]
+
+It was the old story, and I doubt not there is truth in it; but the
+products of California vineyards, owing, possibly, to the very
+richness of the soil, do not seem to me to possess a flavor equal in
+delicacy to that of the best imported wines. This will, however, be
+remedied in time, and in the comparatively near future this may
+become the great wine-market of the world. Certainly no State in the
+Union has a climate better adapted to vine-growing, and there are now
+within its borders no less than sixty million vines, which yield
+grapes and raisins of the finest quality.
+
+No visit to Pasadena would be complete without an excursion to the
+neighboring mountains, which not only furnish the inhabitants with
+water, but, also, contribute greatly to their happiness and
+recreation. For, having at last awakened to the fact that comfort and
+delight awaited them in the recesses and upon the summits of their
+giant hills, the Californians have built fine roads along the
+mountain sides, established camping-grounds and hostelries at several
+attractive points, and, finally, constructed a remarkable elevated
+railroad, by which the people of Los Angeles can, in three hours,
+reach the crest of the Sierra Madre, six thousand feet above the sea.
+Soon after leaving Pasadena, a trolley takes the tourist with great
+rapidity straight toward the mountain wall, which, though presenting
+at a distance the appearance of an unbroken rampart, disintegrates as
+he approaches it into separate peaks; so that the crevices, which
+look from Pasadena like mere wrinkles on the faces of these granite
+giants, prove upon close inspection to be canons of considerable
+depth. I was surprised and charmed to see the amount of cultivation
+which is carried to the very bases of these cliffs. Orchards and
+orange groves approach the monsters fearlessly, and shyly drop golden
+fruit, or fragrant blossoms at their feet; while lovely homes are
+situated where the traveler would expect to find nothing but desolate
+crags and savage wildness. The truth is, the inhabitants have come to
+trust these mountains, as gentle animals sometimes learn by
+experience to approach man fearlessly; and, seeing what the
+snow-capped peaks can do for them in tempering the summer heat and
+furnishing them water from unfailing reservoirs, men have discerned
+behind their stern severity the smile of friendship and benevolence,
+and have perceived that these sublime dispensers of the gifts of
+Nature are in reality beneficent deities,--their feet upon the land
+which they make fertile, their hands uplifted to receive from the
+celestial treasure-house the blessings they in turn give freely to
+the grateful earth.
+
+[Illustration: LOOKING DOWN ON THE SAN GABRIEL VALLEY.]
+
+[Illustration: THE ALPINE TAVERN.]
+
+[Illustration: THE GREAT INCLINE.]
+
+To reach their serrated crests the trolley car, already mentioned,
+conveys us through a wild gorge known as Rubio Canon, and leaves us
+at the foot of an elevated cable-road to ascend Mount Lowe. Even
+those familiar with the Mount Washington and Catskill railways, or
+who have ascended in a similar manner to Muerren from the Vale of
+Lauterbrunnen, or to the summit of Mount Pilate from Lucerne, look
+with some trepidation at this incline, the steepest part of which has
+a slope of sixty-two degrees, and, audaciously, stretches into the
+air to a point three thousand feet above our heads. Once safely out
+of the cable car, however, at the upper terminus, we smile, and think
+the worst is over. It is true, we see awaiting us another innocent
+looking electric car by which we are to go still higher; but we are
+confident that nothing very terrible can be experienced in a trolley.
+This confidence is quickly shattered. I doubt if there is anything in
+the world more "hair lifting" than the road over which that car
+conveys its startled occupants. Its very simplicity makes it the more
+horrifying; for, since the vehicle is light, no massive supports are
+deemed essential; and, as the car is open, the passengers seem to be
+traveling in a flying machine. I never realized what it was to be a
+bird, till I was lightly swung around a curve beneath which yawned a
+precipice twenty-five hundred feet in depth, or crossed a chasm by a
+bridge which looked in the distance like a thread of gossamer, or saw
+that I was riding on a scaffolding, built out from the mountain into
+space. For five appalling miles of alternating happiness and horror,
+ecstasy and dread, we twisted round the well-nigh perpendicular
+cliffs, until, at last the agony over, we walked into the mountain
+tavern near the summit, and, seating ourselves before an open fire
+blazing in the hall, requested some restorative nerve-food. Yet this
+aerial inn is only one hundred and eighty minutes from Los Angeles;
+and it is said that men have snow-balled one another at this tavern,
+picked oranges at the base of the mountain, and bathed in the bay of
+Santa Monica, thirty miles distant, all in a single afternoon. It
+certainly is possible to do this, but it should be remembered that
+stories are almost the only things in California which do not need
+irrigation to grow luxuriantly. I was told that although this
+mountain railway earns its running expenses it pays no interest on
+its enormous cost. This can readily be believed; and one marvels, not
+only that it was ever built, but that it was not necessary to go to a
+lunatic asylum for the first passenger. Nevertheless, it is a
+wonderfully daring experiment, and accomplishes perfectly what it was
+designed to do; while in proportion as one's nervousness wears away,
+the experience is delightful.
+
+[Illustration: THE CIRCULAR BRIDGE.]
+
+[Illustration: IMITATING A BIRD.]
+
+[Illustration: SWINGING ROUND A CURVE.]
+
+[Illustration: THE INNOCENT TROLLEY.]
+
+Living proofs of the progress made in California are the patient
+burros, which, previous to the construction of this railroad, formed
+the principal means of transportation up Mount Lowe. Why has the
+donkey never found a eulogist? The horse is universally admired. The
+Arab poet sings of the beauties of his camel. The bull, the cow, the
+dog, and even the cat have all been praised in prose or verse; but
+the poor donkey still remains an ass, the butt of ridicule, the
+symbol of stupidity, the object of abuse. Yet if there be another and
+a better world for animals, and if in that sphere patience ranks as a
+cardinal virtue, the ass will have a better pasture-ground than
+many of its rivals. The donkey's small size is against it. Most
+people are cruel toward dumb beasts, and only when animals have power
+to defend themselves, does caution make man kinder. He hesitates to
+hurt an elephant, and even respects, to some extent, the rear
+extremities of a mule; but the donkey corresponds to the small boy in
+a crowd of brutal playmates. It is difficult to see how these useful
+animals could be replaced in certain countries of the world.
+Purchased cheaply, reared inexpensively, living on thistles if they
+get nothing better, and bearing heavy burdens till they drop from
+exhaustion, these little beasts are of incalculable value to the
+laboring classes of southern Europe, Egypt, Mexico, and similar
+lands. If they have failed to win affection, it is, perhaps, because
+of their one infirmity,--their fearful vocal tones, which in America
+have won for them the sarcastic title of "Rocky Mountain Canaries."
+
+[Illustration: MIDWINTER IN CALIFORNIA.]
+
+[Illustration: A CALIFORNIAN BURRO.]
+
+[Illustration: ROMEO AND JULIET.]
+
+Westward from Los Angeles stretches the famous "kite-shaped" track
+which takes the traveler through the most celebrated orange and lemon
+districts of the State. Starting upon this memorable excursion, our
+route lay through the world-renowned San Gabriel Valley, a glorious
+expanse ten miles in width and seventy in length, steeped in
+sunshine, brilliant with every shade of yellow, emerald, and brown,
+and here and there enriched by spots of brighter color where beds of
+wild flowers swung their sweet bells noiselessly, or the light green
+of orange trees, with mounds of golden fruit heaped in profusion on
+the ground, relieved the sombre groves of eucalyptus whose foliage
+was so dark as to be nearly black. Occasionally, however, our train
+traversed a parched area which illustrated how the cloven-foot of the
+adversary always shows itself in spots unhallowed by the benison of
+water. In winter and spring, these sterile points would not be so
+conspicuous, but on that summer day, in spite of the closed windows,
+dust sometimes filled the cars, and for a little while San Gabriel
+Valley was a paradise lost. For seventy miles contrasts of hot sand
+and verdant orchards, arid wastes and smiling valley, followed one
+another in quick succession,--and down upon it all frowned the long
+wall of the Sierra Madre.
+
+[Illustration: SAN GABRIEL VALLEY.]
+
+[Illustration: GATHERING POPPIES AT THE BASE OF THE SIERRA MADRE.]
+
+It is a wonderful experience to ride for such a distance in a
+perfectly level valley, and see an uninterrupted range of mountains,
+eight thousand feet in height, rising abruptly from the plain like
+the long battle-line of an invading army. What adds to its
+impressiveness is the fact that these peaks are, for the entire
+country which they dominate, the arbiters of life and death. Beyond
+them, on one side, the desert stretches eastward for a thousand
+miles; upon the other, toward the ocean, whose moisture they receive
+and faithfully distribute, extends this valley of delight. The height
+of the huge granite wall is generally uniform, save where, like
+towers on the mighty rampart, old San Antonio and the San Bernardino
+Brothers lift their hoary heads two miles above the sea,--their
+silvery crowns and dazzling features standing out in the crystalline
+clearness of the atmosphere as if they had been carved in high
+relief.
+
+[Illustration: AN ADOBE HOUSE.]
+
+[Illustration: A PASADENA LEMON TREE.]
+
+We sped along, with feelings alternating between elation and
+dejection, as the scenery was beautiful or barren, till, suddenly,
+some sixty miles from Los Angeles, our train drew up before a city,
+containing asphalt pavements, buildings made of brick, and streets
+embowered in palms. This city which, in 1872, was a sheep-ranch, yet
+whose assessed valuation, in 1892, was more than four million
+dollars, is called Riverside; but, save in the rainy season, one
+looks in vain for the stream from which it takes its name. The
+river has retired, as so many western rivers do, to wander in
+obscurity six feet below the sand. "A providential thing," said a wag
+to me, "for, in such heat as this, if the water rose to the surface
+it would all evaporate." The sun was, indeed, ardent as we walked
+through the town, and we were impressed by the fact that the
+dwellings most appropriate for this region are those which its first
+settlers seem to have instinctively adopted; for the white,
+one-storied adobe house, refreshing to the eye, cool in the heat,
+warm in the cold, caressed by clinging vines and overhung with trees,
+is surely the ideal residence for Southern California. Such buildings
+can, of course, be greatly varied and embellished by wealthy owners;
+but modern houses of red brick, fanciful "Queen Annes," and
+imitations of castles, seem less suited to this land of sun and sand,
+where nothing is so much to be desired as repose in form and color. I
+always welcomed, therefore, genuine southern dwellings and, in the
+place of asphalt pavements, natural roadways domed by arching trees.
+
+[Illustration: A HOUSE MODELED AFTER THE OLD MEXICAN FASHION.]
+
+[Illustration: THE IDEAL HOME.]
+
+The pride of Riverside is its far-famed Magnolia Avenue, fifteen
+miles in length, with two broad driveways lined with pepper and
+eucalyptus trees. Beyond these also are palm-girt sidewalks twenty
+feet in breadth; while, here and there, reflecting California's
+golden sunshine from their glistening leaves, stand groups of the
+magnificent magnolias which give the avenue its name.
+
+"Why did you make this splendid promenade?" I asked in mingled
+curiosity and admiration.
+
+"It is one of our ways of booming things," was the reply; "out of the
+hundreds of people who come to see it, some stay, build houses, and
+go into business. Without it they might never have come at all."
+
+"Was not the cost of laying it out enormous?" I inquired.
+
+"Not so great as you would naturally suppose," was the answer, "for
+after this country has once been irrigated, whatever is planted on
+watered land will grow like interest, day and night, summer and
+winter."
+
+[Illustration: MAGNOLIA AVENUE, RIVERSIDE.]
+
+[Illustration: A MAGNOLIA BLOSSOM.]
+
+Riverside's fortunes were made in orange culture, and there was a
+time when every one who planted orange trees was prosperous; but now,
+under inevitable competition, this enterprise is rivaled in value by
+other large industries, particularly the cultivation of lemons and
+olives. Thousands of acres of olive orchards are now flourishing in
+Southern California, and are considered a sure and profitable
+investment.
+
+Another celebrated "orange city" is Redlands, where the visitor
+ceases to wonder at nature, and devotes himself to marveling at man.
+How can he do otherwise when, in a place that was a wilderness ten
+years ago, he drives for twenty miles over well-curbed roads, sixty
+feet wide and as hard as asphalt, or strolls through handsome streets
+adorned with palms and orange trees, and frequently embellished with
+residences worthy of Newport? No doubt it is a surprise to many
+tourists to find such elegant homes in these cities which were born
+but yesterday; for Americans in the East, though far from
+conservative themselves, do not, as a rule, appreciate the wonderful
+growth of these towns which but a few years since had no existence.
+Occasionally some neighbor goes out to the Pacific coast, and tells
+his friends on his return what he has seen; but it makes little
+impression until they go themselves. They think he is exaggerating.
+
+"Would you like to see a converted mountain?" inquired my guide.
+
+"What do you mean?" I asked incredulously.
+
+"You will see," he replied, "and in ten minutes we shall be there."
+
+[Illustration: PART OF THE "CONVERTED MOUNTAIN," REDLANDS.]
+
+Accordingly, up we drove over magnificent, finely graded roads, till
+we arrived at what appeared to be a gentleman's private park. The
+park, however, seemed to have no limit, and we rode on through a
+bewildering extent of cemented stone walls, umbrageous trees,
+luxuriant flowers, trailing vines, and waving palms. At last we
+reached the summit, and what a view unrolled itself before us!
+Directly opposite, the awful wall of the Sierra swept up to meet our
+vision in all its majesty of granite glory, like an immense,
+white-crested wave, one hundred miles in length, which had by some
+mysterious force been instantaneously curbed and petrified, just as
+it was about to break and overwhelm the valley with destruction.
+Beneath it, for seventy miles in exquisitely blended hues, stretched
+the wonderful San Gabriel intervale, ideal in its tranquil
+loveliness. Oh, the splendor, opulence, and sweetness of its
+countless flowers, whose scarlet, gold, and crimson glowed and melted
+into the richest sheen of velvet, and rendered miles of pure air
+redolent with perfume, as grapes impart their flavor to good wine!
+
+In gazing on this valley from a distance one would fain believe it to
+be in reality, as in appearance, an idyllic garden of Arcadian
+innocence and happiness, and, forgetting the disillusions of maturer
+years, dream that all human hearts are as transparent as its
+atmosphere, and that all life is no less sweet and pure.
+
+[Illustration: A DRIVEWAY IN REDLANDS.]
+
+But, presently, I asked again, "What do you mean by a _converted_
+mountain?"
+
+"Eight years ago," was the reply, "this elevation on which we stand
+was a heap of yellow sand, like many unconverted mountains that we
+see about us; now it has been transformed into a dozen miles of
+finished roads and extensive gardens enclosing two fine residences."
+
+"Pardon me," I exclaimed, "here are trees thirty feet high."
+
+"All grown in eight years," he answered.
+
+"Still," I again protested, "here are stone walls, and curbed and
+graded roads."
+
+"All made in eight years," he reiterated.
+
+"But, in addition to this mountain, how about the twenty miles of
+orange groves surrounding it, the thirty thousand dollar public
+library of Redlands, and its miles of asphalt streets?"
+
+"All in eight years," he said again, as if, like Poe's raven, he had
+been taught one refrain.
+
+[Illustration: THE SIERRA MADRE AND THE SAN GABRIEL VALLEY.]
+
+[Illustration: A FEW "UNCONVERTED MOUNTAINS," NEAR REDLANDS.]
+
+In fact, it should be said that this entire mountain was purchased by
+two wealthy brothers who now come every winter from the East to this
+incomparable hill, the whole of which has been, as if by magic,
+metamorphosed into an estate, where visitors are allowed to find
+instruction and delight upon its lofty terraces of forest and of
+flowers. Is it strange, then, that such sudden transformations of
+sterile plains and mountains into bits of paradise make tourists in
+Southern California wildly enthusiastic? They actually see fulfilled
+before their eyes the prophecy of Isaiah, "The desert shall rejoice,
+and blossom as the rose." The explanation is, however, simple. The
+land is really rich. The ingredients are already here. Instead of
+being worthless, as was once supposed, this is a precious soil. The
+Aladdin's wand that unlocks all its treasures is the irrigating
+ditch; its "open sesame" is water; and the divinity who, at the call
+of man, bestows the priceless gift, is the Madre of the Sierras. A
+Roman conqueror once said that he had but to stamp upon the earth and
+legions would spring up to do his bidding. So Capital has stamped
+upon this sandy wilderness, and in a single generation a civilized
+community has leaped into astonished life. Yet do we realize the
+immense amount of labor necessitated by such irrigation? This
+mountain, for example, is covered with water pipes, as electric wires
+are carried through our houses. Every few rods a pipe with a faucet
+rises from the ground; and as there are miles of roads and hundreds
+of cultivated acres, it can with difficulty be imagined how many of
+these pipes have been laid, and how innumerable are the little
+ditches, through which the water is made to flow. Should man relax
+his diligence for a single year, the region would relapse into
+sterility; but, on the other hand, what a land is this for those who
+have the skill and industry to call forth all its capabilities! What
+powers of productiveness may still be sleeping underneath its soil,
+awaiting but the kiss of water and the touch of man to waken them to
+life! Beside its hidden rivers what future cities may spring forth
+to joyous being; and what new, undiscovered chemistry may not this
+mingling of mountain, sun, and ocean yet evolve to prove a permanent
+blessing to mankind!
+
+[Illustration: GROUNDS OF THE SMILEY BROTHERS ON THE "CONVERTED
+MOUNTAIN."]
+
+[Illustration: IRRIGATING DITCHES.]
+
+One hundred and twenty-six miles southwest of Los Angeles, one could
+imagine that he had reached the limit of the civilized world:
+eastward, the desert stretches far away to the bases of the San
+Jacinto Mountains; westward, thousands of miles of ocean billows
+shoulder one another toward the setting sun; southward, extends that
+barren, almost unknown strip of earth, the peninsula of Lower
+California; yet in this _cul-de-sac_, this corner between mountain,
+desert, and sea, rises a charming and inspiring picture,--San Diego.
+
+[Illustration: SAN DIEGO.]
+
+The beautiful harbor of this city is almost closed, on one side, by a
+bold majestic promontory called Point Loma; and on the other, by a
+natural breakwater, in the form of a crescent, twelve miles long,
+upon the outer rim of which the ocean beats a ceaseless monody. At
+one extremity of this silver strand, directly opposite Point Loma and
+close to the rhythmic surf, stands the Hotel Coronado; its west front
+facing the Pacific, its east side looking on the azure of the
+peaceful bay, beyond which rises San Diego with a population of
+twenty thousand souls. To reach this hotel, the tourist crosses the
+harbor from the city by a ferry, and then in an electric car is
+whirled for a mile along an avenue which he might well suppose was
+leading him to some magnificent family estate. The pavement is
+delightfully smooth and hard; on either side are waving palms and
+beds of radiant flowers; two charming parks, with rare botanical
+shrubs and trees, are, also, visible and hold invitingly before him
+the prospect of delightful hours in their fragrant labyrinths; and,
+finally, out of a semi-tropical garden, the vast extent of which he
+does not comprehend at first, rises the far-famed hostelry which,
+itself, covers about four and a half acres of ground, at the extreme
+southwestern corner of the Union, and on a spot which yesterday was a
+mere tongue of sand. In the tourist season this palatial place of
+entertainment presents a brilliant throng of joyous guests who have,
+apparently, subscribed to the motto: "All care abandon ye, who enter
+here." It is one of the few spots on this continent where the great
+faults of our American civilization--worry and incessant work--are
+not conspicuous. Men of the North too frequently forget that the
+object of life is not work, but that the object of work is life. In
+lands like Southern California, however, where flowers fill the air
+with fragrance, where fruits are so abundant that starvation is
+impossible, and where the nerves are not continually whipped by
+atmospheric changes into restless energy, men live more calmly,
+probably more rationally. Sunshine, roses, and the throbbing tones of
+the guitar would seem to be the most appropriate sources of amusement
+here. Meanwhile the northern millionaire breaks down from overwork
+and leaves his money to be squandered by his relatives. Yet he also,
+till the last gasp, claims that he is happy. What is happiness?
+_Quien sabe_?
+
+[Illustration: POINT LOMA.]
+
+[Illustration: HOTEL CORONADO.]
+
+[Illustration: COURTYARD OF THE HOTEL.]
+
+The country about San Diego is a miniature reproduction of the plains
+of Arizona and New Mexico, and just above the city rises a genuine
+_mesa_, which, though comparatively small, resembles the large
+table-lands of the interior, and was formed in the same way. Cutting
+it, here and there, are little canons, like that through which the
+Colorado rolls, not a mile deep, but still illustrative of the
+erosion made here by the rivers of a distant age; for these gashes
+are the result of rushing water, and every stone upon this small
+plateau has been worn round and smooth by friction with its fellows,
+tossed, whirled, and beaten by the waves of centuries. Strange, is
+it not, that though, like many other areas of our continent, this
+region was once fashioned and completely ruled by water, at present
+it has practically none; and men must often bring the precious liquid
+fifty miles to crown the soil with beauty and fertility.
+
+[Illustration: VIEW FROM THE TABLE-LAND.]
+
+[Illustration: PACHANGO INDIANS AT HOME.]
+
+[Illustration: A CHRISTIANIZED INDIAN.]
+
+[Illustration: THE MISSION BELLS.]
+
+The old town of San Diego, four miles north of the present city, is
+now almost abandoned. Only a dozen adobe buildings kept in fair
+repair, and as many more in ruins, mark the site. The little chapel
+is still used for worship, and from an uncouth wooden frame outside
+its walls hang two of the old Mission bells which formerly rang out
+the Angelus over the sunset waves. My guide carelessly struck them
+with the butt of his whip, and called forth from their consecrated
+lips of bronze a sound which, in that scene of loneliness, at first
+seemed like a wail of protest at the sacrilege, and finally died away
+into a muffled intonation resembling a stifled sob. Roused by the
+unexpected call, there presently appeared an Indian who looked as if
+he might have been contemporary with Methuselah. No wrinkled leaf
+that had been blown about the earth for centuries could have appeared
+more dry and withered than this centenarian, whose hair drooped from
+his skull like Spanish moss, and whose brown hands resembled lumps of
+adobe.
+
+[Illustration: AN AGED SQUAW.]
+
+"I am glad to have you see this man," said the guide, "for he has
+rung these bells for seventy years, and is said to be more than a
+hundred years old."
+
+I could not obtain a portrait of this decrepit bell-ringer, for many
+Indians are superstitiously opposed to being photographed; but I
+procured the picture of an equally shriveled female aged one hundred
+and thirty who might have been his sister.
+
+[Illustration: RELICS OF AN ANCIENT RACE.]
+
+[Illustration: "ECSTATIC BATHERS."]
+
+"This," remarked my guide with a smile, "is what the climate of San
+Diego does for the natives."
+
+"The glorious climate of California" has been for years a theme of
+song and story, and a discussion of its merits forms one of the
+principal occupations of the dwellers on the Pacific coast. It is
+indeed difficult to see how tourists could pass their time here
+without this topic of conversation, so infinite is its variety and so
+debatable are many of the conclusions drawn from it. It is the Sphinx
+of California; differing, however, from the Sphinx of Egypt in that
+it offers a new problem every day. The literature that treats of the
+Pacific coast fairly bristles with statistics on this subject, and
+many writers have found it impossible to resist the temptation of
+adorning their pages with tables of humidity, temperature, and
+rainfall. Some hotels even print in red letters at the top of the
+stationery furnished to their guests:
+
+          "The temperature to-day is ----."
+
+Among the photographs of San Diego are several which represent groups
+of ecstatic bathers, ranging from small boys to elderly bald-headed
+gentlemen, apparently ready to take a plunge into the Pacific; while
+beneath them is displayed the legend, "January 1, 18--." Candor
+compels me, however, to state that, as far as I was able to
+ascertain, these pictured bathers rarely pay a New Year's call to
+Neptune in his mighty palace, but content themselves in winter with
+going no further than his ante-chambers,--the sheltered, sun-warmed
+areas of public bath-houses.
+
+[Illustration: MIDWINTER AT LOS ANGELES.]
+
+"I believe this to be the best climate in the world," said a
+gentleman to me in San Diego, "but I confess that, when strangers are
+visiting me, it occasionally does something it ought not to do."
+
+The truth is, there are several climates in Southern California, some
+of which are forced upon the resident, while others can be secured by
+going in search of them in a trolley car or a railway carriage. The
+three determining factors in the problem of temperature are the
+desert, the ocean, and the mountains. Thus, in midsummer, although
+it may be fiercely hot in the inland valleys, it is invariably cool
+in the mountains on account of their altitude, and near the shore
+because the hot air rising from the desert invites a daily ocean
+breeze. Even at a distance from the comfortable coast, humanity never
+passes into that abject, panting, and perspiring condition in which
+the inhabitants of the Eastern States are usually seen when the
+mercury goes to ninety. The nights are always cool; although not
+quite as much so in July as the enthusiasts tell us who have never
+seen the country later in the season than the month of May, and who
+weary us with the threadbare tale of never sleeping without a
+blanket.
+
+"Is it true, madam," I said to a lady of San Diego, "that here one
+must always take a blanket to bed with him?"
+
+"Hush," she replied, "never ask that question unless you are sure
+that there are no tourists within hearing."
+
+[Illustration: PIER AT SANTA MONICA.]
+
+[Illustration: AVALON, SANTA CATALINA ISLAND.]
+
+Three statements are, I think, unquestionably accurate: first, that
+for many months of the year the residents need not take into
+consideration for a moment the possibility of rain; second, that on
+account of this drought there must inevitably be during that period a
+superfluity of dust; and, third, that every day there will be felt "a
+cool refreshing breeze," which frequently increases to a strong wind.
+My memory of California will always retain a vivid impression of this
+wind, and the effect of it upon the trees is evident from the fact
+that it has compelled most of them to lean toward the east, while one
+of the last sights I beheld in San Diego was a man chasing his hat.
+Nevertheless, acclimated Californians would no more complain of their
+daily breeze, however vigorous, than a man would speak disrespectfully
+of his mother.
+
+As in most semi-tropical countries, there is a noticeable difference
+in temperature between sun and shade. In the sun one feels a genial
+glow, or even a decided heat; but let him step into the shade, or
+stand on a street-corner waiting for a car, and the cool wind from
+the mountains or the ocean will be felt immediately. People
+accustomed to these changes pay little heed to them; but to
+new-comers the temperature of the shade, and even that of the
+interiors of the hotels and houses, appears decidedly cool.
+
+[Illustration: NOT AFRAID OF THE SUN.]
+
+One day, in June, I was invited to dine at a fruit-ranch a few miles
+from Pasadena. The heat in the sun was intense, and I noticed that
+the mercury indicated ninety-five degrees; but, unlike the atmosphere
+of New York in a heated term, the air did not remind me of a Turkish
+bath. The heat of Southern California is dry, and it is absolutely
+true that the highest temperature of an arid region rarely entails as
+much physical discomfort as a temperature fifteen or twenty degrees
+lower in the Eastern States, when accompanied by humidity. The
+moisture in a torrid atmosphere is what occasions most of the
+distress and danger, the best proof of which is the fact that while,
+every summer, hundreds of people are prostrated by sunstroke near the
+Atlantic coast, such a calamity has never occurred in New Mexico,
+Arizona, or California. Moreover, when the mercury in Los Angeles
+rises, as it occasionally does, to one hundred degrees, the
+inhabitants of that city have a choice of several places of refuge:
+in two or three hours they can reach the mountains; or in an hour
+they can enjoy themselves upon Redondo Beach; or they may take a
+trolley car and, sixty minutes later, stroll along the sands of Santa
+Monica, inhaling a refreshing breeze, blowing practically straight
+from Japan; or, if none of these resorts is sufficiently attractive,
+three hours after leaving Los Angeles they can fish on Santa Catalina
+Island, a little off the coast; or linger in the groves of Santa
+Barbara; or, perhaps, best of all can be invigorated by the saline
+breath of the Pacific sweeping through the corridors of the Coronado.
+Santa Catalina Island is, in particular, a delightful pleasure-resort,
+whose beautiful, transparent waters, remarkable fishing-grounds, and
+soft, though tonic-giving air, which comes to it from every point of
+the compass over a semi-tropic sea, are so alluring that thousands of
+contented people often overflow its hotels and camp in tents along
+the beach.
+
+[Illustration: IN COTTONWOOD CANON, SANTA CATALINA.]
+
+[Illustration: LILIPUTIAN AND GIANT.]
+
+[Illustration: ON THE BEACH AT SANTA CATALINA.]
+
+That the winter climate of Southern California, not only on the
+coast, but in the interior, is delightful, is beyond question. What
+was healthful a hundred years ago to the Spanish monks who settled
+here, proved equally so to those adventurous "Forty-niners" who
+entered California seeking gold, and is still more beneficial to
+those who now come to enjoy its luxuries and comforts. Flowers and
+fruit are found here throughout the entire year. The rainy days are
+few, and frosts are as ephemeral as the dew; and to the aged, the
+invalids, the fugitives from frost, and the "fallen soldiers of
+civilization," who are no longer able to make a courageous fight
+with eastern storms and northern cold, San Diego is a climatic
+paradise. Accordingly, from early October until April the overland
+trains roll westward from a land of snow and frost to one of sun and
+flowers, bearing an annually increasing multitude of invalids and
+pleasure-seekers, some of whom have expensive permanent homes and
+costly ranches here--like that of Mr. Andrew McNally, at
+Altadena--while others find abundant comfort in the fine hotels.
+
+[Illustration: AN OLD CALIFORNIAN TRADING POST.]
+
+[Illustration: A BIT OF NATURE ON THE COAST.]
+
+Perhaps the principal secret of the charm of the winter climate of
+Southern California, as well as that of its wonderfulhealth-restoring
+properties, lies in the fact that its dry, pure air and even
+temperature make it possible for one to live continuously out of
+doors. Yet, though not cold, it is a temperature cool enough to be
+free from summer languor.
+
+[Illustration: CALIFORNIAN PALMS.]
+
+Especially attractive to the visitors from the North are the palms of
+Southern California. Many of these resemble monstrous pineapples
+terminating in gigantic ferns. What infinite variety the palm tree
+has, now dwarfed in height, yet sending out on every side a mass of
+thick green leaves; now rising straight as an obelisk from the desert
+sand, and etching its fine feathery tufts against the sky; now
+bearing luscious fruit of different kinds; now furnishing material
+for clothing, fishing-nets, and matting; or putting forth those
+slender fronds, frequently twenty feet in length, which are sent
+North by florists to decorate dwellings and churches for festivals
+and weddings! The palm is typical of the South, as the pine is of the
+North. One hints to us of brilliant skies, a tropic sun, and an easy,
+indolent existence; the other suggests bleak mountains and the
+forests of northern hills, and symbolizes the conflict there between
+man and nature, in which both fortitude and daring have been needful
+to make man the conqueror. One finds a fascination in contrasting
+these two children of old Mother Earth, and thinks of Heine's lines:
+
+  "A pine tree standeth lonely
+    On a northern mountain's height;
+  It sleeps, while around it is folded
+    A mantle of snowy white.
+
+  "It is dreaming of a palm tree
+    In a far-off Orient land,
+  Which lonely and silent waiteth
+    In the desert's burning sand."
+
+[Illustration: HERMIT VALLEY NEAR SAN DIEGO.]
+
+On my last day at San Diego, I walked in the morning sunshine on
+Coronado Beach. The beauty of the sea and shore was almost
+indescribable: on one side rose Point Loma, grim and gloomy as a
+fortress wall; before me stretched away to the horizon the ocean
+with its miles of breakers curling into foam; between the surf and
+the city, wrapped in its dark blue mantle, lay the sleeping bay;
+eastward, the mingled yellow, red, and white of San Diego's buildings
+glistened in the sunlight like a bed of coleus; beyond the city
+heaved the rolling plains, rich in their garb of golden brown, from
+which rose distant mountains, tier on tier, wearing the purple veil
+which Nature here loves oftenest to weave for them; while, in the
+foreground, like a jewel in a brilliant setting, stood the Coronado.
+
+[Illustration: THE PACIFIC.]
+
+The fascination of Southern California had at last completely
+captured me. Its combination of ocean, desert, and mountain, its
+pageantry of color, and its composite life of city, ranch, and beach
+had cast over me a magic spell. It was, however, a lonely sea that
+spread its net of foam before my feet. During my stay I had not seen
+a single steamer on its surface, and only rarely had a few swift
+sea-birds, fashioned by man's hand, dotted the azure for a little
+with their white wings, ere they dipped below the horizon's rim.
+Hence, though the old, exhilarating, briny odor was the same, I felt
+that, as an ocean, this was unfamiliar. The Atlantic's waves are
+haunted by historic memories, but few reminders of antiquity rise
+ghostlike from the dreary waste of the Pacific. Few battles have been
+fought, few conquests made upon these shores. On the Atlantic coast
+one feels that he is looking off toward civilized and friendly lands,
+across a sea which ocean greyhounds have made narrow; but here three
+purple islands, floating on the limitless expanse, suggest mysterious
+archipelagoes scattered starlike on its area, thousands of miles
+away, before a continent is reached; and one vaguely imagines
+unknown races, coral reefs, and shores of fronded palms, where
+Nature smiles indulgently upon a pagan paradise. Nevertheless its
+very mystery and vastness give to the Pacific a peculiar charm, which
+changeful Orient seas, and even the turbulent Atlantic, never can
+impart. Instinctively we stand uncovered in the presence of the
+mightiest ocean on our planet. It is at once the symbol and the fact
+of majesty; and the appalling sense of trackless space which it
+inspires, the rhythm of unmeasured and immeasureable waves, together
+with the moaning of the surf upon the sand, at times completely
+overwhelm us with suggestions of the Infinite, until no language
+seems appropriate, unless it shapes itself in prayer.
+
+[Illustration: "A SEA-BIRD FASHIONED BY MAN'S HAND."]
+
+[Illustration: A LONELY OCEAN.]
+
+In Helen Hunt Jackson's novel, "Ramona," the romance of this region
+has found immortality. What "Romola" is to mediaeval Florence,
+"Ramona" is to Southern California. It has embalmed in the memory of
+the nation a lost cause and a vanished race. Less than one hundred
+years ago, where the Anglo-Saxon has since built railroads, erected
+manufactories, and created cities, a life was lived, so different in
+its character from all that followed or preceded it, that only a
+story like "Ramona" could make it appear real. At that time about
+twenty "Missions"--which were in reality immense ecclesiastical
+farms--bordered the coast for seven hundred miles. For when the New
+World had been suddenly revealed to the astonished gaze of Europe, it
+was not merely the adventurous conqueror who hastened to these
+shores. The priest accompanied him, and many enthusiastic soldiers of
+the Cross embarked to bear to the benighted souls beyond the sea the
+tidings of salvation. Missionary enterprises were not then what they
+are to-day. Nothing was known with certainty of the strange tribes on
+this side of the globe, and there was often a heroism in the labors
+of self-sacrificing missionaries to America, which far surpassed the
+courage of the buccaneer. Many exploring expeditions to this western
+land received the blessing of the Church, and were conducted, not
+alone for obtaining territory and gold, but for the conversion of
+the inhabitants. In Mexico and Peru the priests had followed, rather
+than led the way; but in California, under the lead of Father
+Junipero, they took the initiative, and the salvation of souls was
+one of the principal purposes of the invaders. This did not, however,
+prevent the Franciscans, who took possession of the land, from
+selecting with great wisdom its very best locations; but, having done
+so, they soon brought tens of thousands of Indians under spiritual
+and temporal control. These natives were, for the most part, as
+gentle and teachable as the Fathers were patient and wise; and, in
+1834, a line of Missions stretched from San Diego to Monterey, and
+the converted Indians numbered about twenty thousand, many of whom
+had been trained to be carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, saddlers,
+tailors, millers, and farmers. Three-quarters of a million cattle
+grazed upon the Mission pastures, as well as sixty thousand horses;
+fruits, grain, and flowers grew in their well-cultivated valleys
+until the country blossomed like the Garden of the Lord; and in the
+midst of all this industry and agricultural prosperity the native
+converts obeyed their Christian masters peacefully and happily, and
+came as near to a state of civilization as Indians have ever come.
+
+[Illustration: RAMONA'S HOME.]
+
+[Illustration: THE CHAPEL, RAMONA'S HOME.]
+
+[Illustration: PALMS NEAR SAN FERNANDO MISSION.]
+
+[Illustration: CORRIDOR, SAN FERNANDO MISSION.]
+
+Presently the Mexicans made their appearance here; but, though they
+held and managed enormous ranches, the situation was comparatively
+unchanged; for they maintained harmonious relations with the
+Missions, and had no serious difficulties with the Indians. Thus life
+went on for nearly half a century, and seemed to the good Fathers
+likely to go on forever; for who, they thought, would ever cross the
+awful eastern plains to interfere with their Arcadian existence, or
+what invading force would ever approach them over the lonely sea? But
+history repeats itself. The Missions soon became too rich not to
+excite cupidity; and those who coveted their lands and herds
+declared, as an excuse for violence, that the poor Indians were held
+in a state of slavery, and should be made to depend upon themselves.
+At length, in 1833, the Mexican Government by a decree of
+secularization ruined the Missions; but the Indians, although not so
+prosperous and well treated as under the Fathers, still kept, through
+Mexican protection, most of their privileges and the lands they
+owned. Finally came the Anglo-Saxon, and, under the imperious
+civilization that poured into California from 1840 to 1860, the
+pastoral age soon disappeared. The Missions, which had already lost
+much of their property and power under the Mexican Government,
+quickly shrank after this new invasion into decrepitude. The
+practical Anglo-Saxon introduced railroads, electricity, commerce,
+mammoth hotels, and scientific irrigation, all of which the Fathers,
+Mexicans, and Indians never would have cared for. Nevertheless, with
+his arrival, the curtain fell upon as peaceful a life-drama as the
+world had seen.
+
+[Illustration: SANTA BARBARA.]
+
+[Illustration: SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO.]
+
+[Illustration: GROUP OF FRANCISCAN FRIARS.]
+
+To the reader, thinker, and poet the memories and associations of
+these Missions form, next to the gifts of Nature, the greatest charm
+of Southern California; and, happily, although that semi-patriarchal
+life has passed away, its influence still lingers; for, scattered
+along the coast--some struggling in poverty, some lying in
+neglect--are the adobe churches, cloisters, and fertile
+Mission-fields of San Juan Capistrano, San Fernando Rey, Santa
+Monica, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz, all of which still preserve
+the soft and gracious names, so generously given in those early days,
+and fill us with a genuine reverence for the sandaled monks, who by
+incessant toil transformed this barren region into a garden, covered
+these boundless plains with flocks and herds, and dealt so wisely
+with the Indians that even their poor descendants, to-day, reverence
+their memory.
+
+[Illustration: CHIEF OF A TRIBE OF MISSION INDIANS.]
+
+The Saxon has done vastly more, it is true; but, in some ways, he has
+done much less. The very names which he bequeathed to places not
+previously christened by the Spaniards, such as Gold Gulch, Hell's
+Bottom, and Copperopolis, tell a more forcible, though not as
+beautiful a tale, as the melodious titles, San Buenaventura, San
+Francisco Dolores, Santa Clara, San Gabriel, and La Purissima.
+
+[Illustration: INDIAN WOMEN.]
+
+It is not, therefore, the busy streets and handsome dwellings of Los
+Angeles and Pasadena, but the adobe ruins, the battered statues, the
+cracked and voiceless bells, the poor remnants of the Indian tribes,
+and even the old Spanish names, behind which lies a century of
+sanctity and romance, which give to Southern California an atmosphere
+of the Old World and harmonize most perfectly with its history.
+
+[Illustration: SAN DIEGO MISSION.]
+
+Most of the Mission buildings are in a sad condition. Earthquakes
+have shattered some; neglect and malice have disfigured others; but a
+society, composed alike of Catholics and Protestants, is now, in the
+interest of the past, endeavoring to rescue them from utter ruin. It
+is a worthy task. What subjects for a painter most of them present!
+How picturesque are their old cloisters, looming up dark, grand, and
+desolate against the sky! How worn and battered are they by the
+storms of years! How tremblingly stands the Cross upon their ancient
+towers, as if its sacred form had become feeble like the fraternity
+that once flourished here! What witnesses they are of an irrevocable
+past! Their crumbling walls, if they could speak, might grow
+sublimely eloquent, and thrill us with inspiring tales of heroism,
+patience, tact, and fortitude exhibited when these Missions bloomed
+like flowery oases on the arid areas of the South and West, and
+taught a faith of which their melancholy cloisters are the sad
+memorials.
+
+Ten miles from Los Angeles, the Southern Pacific railroad passes a
+long edifice, the massive walls of which might lead us to suppose it
+was a fortress, but for its cross and a few antiquated bells. It is
+the church of the San Gabriel Mission. All other buildings of the
+institution have disappeared; but this old edifice remains, and,
+unless purposely destroyed by man, may stand here for five centuries
+more, since its enormous walls are five feet thick, and the mortar
+used in their construction has rendered them almost as solid as if
+hewn from rock. As I descended, at the station a quarter of a mile
+away, a little barefooted Mexican boy approached and shyly offered me
+his hand. "Are you the Father," he asked?
+
+"No," I said, "I am not the Father, but I have come to see the
+church; can you show it to me?"
+
+"But Padre Joaquin said I was to meet a Father."
+
+"Well," I answered, "I am the only passenger who has come by this
+train, so you had better walk back with me."
+
+[Illustration: SAN GABRIEL MISSION CHURCH.]
+
+The Mexican boys seem to be the best part of what Mexico has left in
+California. This lad, for example, was attending an American school,
+and appeared bright and ambitious, though so extremely courteous and
+respectful that he seemed almost timid. The little hut in which he
+lived was opposite the church, and he seemed perfectly familiar with
+the sacred structure. "See," he said, pointing to some mutilated
+wooden statues in the poor, scantily furnished sacristy, "here are
+some images which cannot be used, they are so broken, and here are
+more," he added, opening some drawers and displaying four or five
+smaller figures in various stages of dilapidation. Thus, for some
+time he continued to call my attention to different curious relics
+with such interest and reverence that I was almost sorry when Father
+Joaquin appeared. It was sad to see the altar of the church defaced
+and cracked, and its statues, brought a hundred years ago from
+Spain, scarcely less battered than those which the boy had shown me
+in the sacristy. Yet it was plain that worshipers as well as vandals
+had been here. The basins for holy water, cut in the solid wall, were
+worn, like the steps of an ancient building, with countless fingers,
+long since turned to dust. There, also, were two old confessionals,
+one of which was so hopelessly infirm that it had been set aside at
+last, to listen to no more whispered tales of sin and sorrow. The
+doors of the church at first looked ancient, but wore a really modern
+air, when compared with the original portals, which, no longer able
+to stand upright, had been laid against the wall, to show to
+tourists. Yet, eighty years ago, this church stood proudly at the
+head of all the Missions, and reared its cross above the richest of
+their valleys. According to Father Joaquin's estimate, the Fathers of
+San Gabriel must have had twenty thousand acres under cultivation,
+and, in 1820, this Mission alone possessed one hundred and sixty
+thousand vines, two thousand three hundred trees, twenty-five
+thousand head of cattle, and fifteen thousand sheep. "It was all
+ours," he said, with a sweep of his hand, "we had reclaimed it from
+the desert, and, by the treaty between the United States and Mexico,
+we were allowed to retain all lands that we had cultivated. Yet of
+those twenty thousand acres, one hundred and fifty are all that are
+left us!"
+
+The Padre accompanied me to the station. "How large is your parish,
+Father?" I asked.
+
+"It is thirteen miles long," was his reply, "and I have in it eight
+hundred souls, but most of them live too far away to walk to church,
+and are too poor to ride."
+
+"And how many Indians have you?"
+
+"Perhaps a hundred," he answered, "and even they are dying off."
+
+"What of their character?" I asked.
+
+"They have sadly fallen away," was the response. "True, they are
+Christians as far as they are anything, but they are hopelessly
+degraded, yet they respect the Church, and are obedient and
+reverential when under its influence."
+
+[Illustration: DISCARDED SAINTS, SAN GABRIEL.]
+
+[Illustration: MUTILATED STATUES.]
+
+[Illustration: THE BAPTISMAL FONT.]
+
+[Illustration: SAN GABRIEL, FROM THE SOUTHEAST.]
+
+Most of the Californian Missions are really dead, and near that of La
+Purissima may still be seen the rent in the ground made by the
+earthquake which destroyed it. Others, like San Gabriel and San Juan
+Capistrano, are dragging out a moribund existence, under the care of
+only one or two priests, who move like melancholy phantoms through
+the lonely cloisters, and pray among the ruins of a noble past. The
+Mission of Santa Barbara, however, is in fairly good repair, and a
+few Franciscan Fathers still reside there and carry on a feeble
+imitation of their former life.
+
+[Illustration: A DEGENERATE.]
+
+It is on his way to this Mission that the traveler passes the reputed
+residence of Ramona. There is, it is true, another structure near San
+Diego which, also, claims this distinction; but the ranch on the
+route from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara perfectly corresponds to
+"H.H.'s" descriptions of her heroine's home, with its adjoining brook
+and willows, and hills surmounted by the cross. The house is almost
+hidden by the trees with which a Mexican ordinarily surrounds his
+dwelling, and is, as usual, only one story high, with a projecting
+roof, forming a porch along the entire front. As we learn in
+"Ramona," much of the family life in those old days--sewing,
+visiting, and siesta-taking--went on in the open air, under the shade
+of the porticos which were wide and low. Here it was that Alessandro
+brought Felipe back to health, watching and nursing him as he slept
+outdoors on his rawhide bed; and we may see the arbor where the
+lovers met, the willows where they were surprised by Senora Moreno,
+and the hills on which the pious lady caused wooden crosses to be
+reared, that passers-by might know that some good Catholics were
+still left in California.
+
+[Illustration: THE CROSS ON THE HILL.]
+
+[Illustration: SANTA BARBARA MISSION.]
+
+The Mission of Santa Barbara is of solid brick and stone, with walls
+six feet in thickness. Its cloisters look sufficiently massive to
+defy an earthquake, and are paved with enormous bricks each twelve
+inches square. The huge red tiles of the roof, also, tell of a
+workmanship which, although rude, was honest and enduring. The
+interior, however, is of little interest, for the poor relics which
+the Fathers keep are even less attractive than those displayed at the
+Mission of San Gabriel; yet there are shown at least two enormous
+missals which are no less than four feet long by two feet wide,
+and beautifully inscribed on parchment.
+
+[Illustration: SANTA BARBARA MISSION FROM THE FARM.]
+
+[Illustration: WHERE THE FATHERS WALKED.]
+
+"What is the Mission's income?" I asked the gentle monk who acted as
+my guide.
+
+"Alas!" he answered, "we have very little. You know our lands are
+gone. We have barely twenty-five acres now. Moreover, we are outside
+the village; and, as there is another church, most Catholics go
+there. We receive, indeed, occasional offerings from travelers; but
+we are very poor."
+
+"Who cultivates your twenty-five acres?" I inquired.
+
+"According to our ability, we are all busy," was the answer, "some
+till the garden; others train young men for the priesthood; one of
+our number is a carpenter; and another," he added, evidently laughing
+at his own expense, "knows just enough about machinery to make a bad
+break worse."
+
+"And the Indians?" I said.
+
+"Not one is left," was the reply. "Though once the Mission counted
+them by thousands, they are all dead and gone. There are their
+monuments," he added, pointing to the fragments of a mill and one or
+two industrial shops.
+
+[Illustration: THE CEMETERY, SANTA BARBARA.]
+
+I looked and saw the remnants of a giant wheel which formerly had
+been turned by water, brought from the hills to feed the Fathers'
+lands. The water was still flowing, but the wheel lay, broken,--symbolic
+of the link which bound the Mission to the vanished past.
+
+The first Roman Catholic Bishop of California and some of the early
+Fathers are buried in the chapel of the monastery, but interments are
+now made in a neighboring cemetery, strictly reserved for members of
+the Mission, each of whom has there his predestined place. Yet even
+in this humble Campo Santo life will not yield entirely to death. The
+hum of droning insects breaks the stillness of the empty cloisters;
+occasionally a lizard darts like a tongue of flame along the walls;
+grasses and trailing plants adorn impartially the ground containing
+human dust, and that which still awaits an occupant; while round a
+stately crucifix, which casts its shadow like a benediction on the
+sleeping dead, sweet wild flowers bloom throughout the year, and from
+their swinging censers offer incense to the figure of the Saviour
+with each passing breeze. The hush of melancholy broods over the
+entire place. The mountains, gazing down upon it in stony silence,
+are haggard and forbidding; below it lies the modern town; while from
+a neighboring hillside the inmates of a villa look directly into the
+monastery garden, on which the earlier Fathers little dreamed a
+female eye would ever rest. A little life, however, was still visible
+about this Santa Barbara Mission. Two brown-robed monks were hoeing
+in the field; occasionally, visitors came and went; and, just as I
+was leaving, one of the priests, in obedience to a summons, hurried
+away to minister to the sick; yet over all there hung an atmosphere
+of unreality and sadness. I felt myself the guest of an anachronism.
+
+[Illustration: DREAMING OF OTHER DAYS.]
+
+A fashionable city has risen at the feet of these old monks, but they
+regard it not. A trolley car brings curious tourists to their doors;
+but the ways of the Santa Barbara Fathers are those of long ago. Like
+aged pilgrims, dreaming by their firesides, they seem to be living in
+the past; they certainly have no present worthy of the name; and when
+I sought to draw forth from my priestly guide some idea of their
+future, he answered me by pointing to a grave.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+GRAND CANON OF THE COLORADO RIVER
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+While the Old World is better able than the New to satisfy the
+craving of the mind for art and history, no portion of our globe can
+equal the North American continent in certain forms of natural
+scenery which reach the acme of sublimity. Niagara, the Yosemite, the
+Yellowstone National Park, and the Grand Canon of the Colorado in
+Arizona are the four great natural wonders of America. Niagara is
+Nature in the majesty of liquid motion, where, as the outlet of vast
+inland seas, a mighty river leaps in wild delirium into a gorge two
+hundred feet below, and boils and seethes tumultuously till its
+heart is set at rest and its fever cooled by the embrace of Lake
+Ontario. The Yosemite is Nature pictured, in a frame of granite
+precipices, as reclining on a carpet woven with a million flowers,
+above which rise huge trees three centuries old, which, nevertheless,
+to the spectator, gazing from the towering cliffs, appear like waving
+ferns. The Yellowstone Park is the arena of an amphitheatre in which
+fire and water, the two great forces which have made our planet what
+it is, still languidly contend where formerly they struggled
+desperately for supremacy. But the Grand Canon of Arizona is Nature
+wounded unto death, and lying stiff and ghastly with a gash, two
+hundred miles in length and a mile in depth, in her bared breast,
+from which is flowing fast a stream of life-blood called the
+Colorado.
+
+[Illustration: A PETRIFIED FOREST, ARIZONA.]
+
+[Illustration: PACK-MULES OF THE DESERT.]
+
+[Illustration: EVIDENCES OF EROSION.]
+
+[Illustration: THE NAVAJO CHURCH.]
+
+[Illustration: FANTASTIC FORMS.]
+
+The section of country through which one travels to behold this
+last-named marvel is full of mystery and fascination. It is a land
+where rivers frequently run underground or cut their way through
+gorges of such depth that the bewildered tourist, peering over their
+precipitous cliffs, can hardly gain a glimpse of the streams flowing
+half a mile below; a land of colored landscapes such as elsewhere
+would be deemed impossible, with "painted deserts," red and yellow
+rocks, petrified forests, brown grass and purple grazing grounds; a
+land where from a sea of tawny sand, flecked here and there with
+bleached bones, like whitecaps on the ocean, one gazes upon mountains
+glistening with snow; and where at times the intervals are so brief
+between aridity and flood, that one might choose, like Alaric, a
+river-bed for his sepulchre, yet see a host like that of Pharaoh
+drowned in it before the dawn. In almost every other portion of the
+world Nature reveals her finished work; but here she partially
+discloses the secrets of her skill, and shows to us her modes of
+earth-building. Thus, the entire country is dotted with _mesas_, or
+table-lands of sandstone, furrowed and fashioned in a tremendous
+process of erosion, caused by the draining through this area of a
+prehistoric ocean, whose rushing, whirling, and receding waters
+molded the mountains, carved the canons, and etched innumerable
+grotesque figures and fantastic forms. A feeling of solemnity steals
+over us, as we reflect upon the lapse of geologic time which such a
+record covers, unnumbered ages before man's advent on this planet;
+and these deep canons and eroded valleys, whose present streams are
+only miniature representatives of those which formerly wrought havoc
+here, teach lessons of patience to the restless mortals who behold
+them; while some of the singular formations on the cliffs present
+perplexing problems which Nature, as it were in mocking humor, bids
+us solve.
+
+[Illustration: A SPECIMEN OF NATURE'S HANDIWORK.]
+
+Was Nature ever really sportive? In the old days, when she produced
+her uncouth monsters of the deep, was she in manner, as in age, a
+child? Did she then play with her continents, and smile to see them
+struggle up from the sea only to sink again? Was it caprice that made
+her wrap her vast dominions in the icy bands of glaciers, or pour
+upon them lava torrents, and frequently convulse them with a mighty
+earthquake? If so, New Mexico and Arizona must have been her favorite
+playgrounds. At many points her rock formations look like whimsical
+imitations of man's handicraft, or specimens of the colossal
+vegetation of an earlier age. Some are gigantic, while others bear a
+ludicrous resemblance to misshapen dwarfs, suggesting, as they stand
+like pygmies round their mightier brethren, a group of mediaeval
+jesters in a court of kings. In the faint dusk of evening, as one
+flits by them in the moving train, their weird, uncanny forms appear
+to writhe in pain, and he is tempted to regard them as the material
+shapes of tortured souls.
+
+[Illustration: A MESA.]
+
+The _mesas_ of New Mexico and Arizona are, usually, regular in
+outline, sometimes resembling in the distance cloud-banks on the edge
+of the horizon, but oftener suggesting mighty fortresses, or ramparts
+to resist invasion, like the wall of China. These are not only
+beautiful in form and color, but from the fact that they recall the
+works of man, we gaze at them with wonder, and find in them a
+fascinating interest. They prove that Nature needs some human
+association to appeal strongly to us, and how man's history of smiles
+and tears gives pathos, mystery, and romance to scenes which
+otherwise would be merely coldly beautiful or terribly sublime. It is
+for this reason, doubtless, that we are always endeavoring to
+personify Nature. We think of solitary trees as lonely, of
+storm-tossed waves as angry, and of a group of mountains as members
+of one family. Thus some of the Arizona mountains are called
+brothers. No doubt their birth was attended by the same throes of
+Mother Earth, and they possess certain family resemblances in their
+level summits, huge square shoulders, and the deep furrows in their
+rugged cheeks; while all of them evince the same disdain for
+decoration, scorning alike the soft rich robes of verdure and the
+rough storm-coats of the pines.
+
+[Illustration: A GROUP OF MESAS.]
+
+[Illustration: ON THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL.]
+
+The idea of companionship in Nature is not wholly fanciful. Is not
+the fundamental law of the universe the attraction which one mass of
+matter has for another? Even the awful distances in interstellar
+space form no exception to this rule; for telescopic scrutiny reveals
+the fact that planets, suns, and systems move in harmony, on paths
+which indicate that they are all associated in the stupendous drama
+of the skies. The human interest connected with the mountains and the
+_mesas_ of New Mexico and Arizona is not very great. No mediaeval
+mystery haunts these castles sculptured by the hand of Nature. No
+famous romancer has lighted on their cliffs the torch of his poetic
+fancy. No poet has yet peopled them with creatures of his
+imagination. We can, unfortunately, conjure up from their majestic
+background no more romantic picture than that of some Pueblo Indian
+wooing his dusky bride. Yet they are not without some reminiscences
+of heroism; for valiant men, a half century ago, following the
+westward moving star of empire, braved almost inconceivable hardships
+in their shadow, when, after four thousand years, American pioneers
+repeated the old, old story, begun upon the plains of Shinar, as the
+"Sons of the East" went westward in their quest of fortune. How few
+of us think of those unrecorded heroes now, as we cross this region
+in luxurious cars! To most of us the dead, whose bones once whitened
+many of these lonely plains, are nothing more than the last winter's
+snowdrifts melted by the sun; yet how effectively the Saxon has
+succeeded in his conquest of the continent we have continual evidence
+as we glide swiftly, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, through
+glowing grain fields, prosperous cities, and states that rival
+empires in size. Where formerly the Spanish conquerors, in their
+fruitless search for the reputed Seven Cities glittering with gold,
+endured privations and exhibited bravery which have hardly been
+surpassed in the entire history of the world; and where, too, as if
+it were but yesterday, the American Argonauts toiled painfully for
+months through tribes of hostile Indians, across desert wastes and
+over cloud-encompassed mountains, we find ourselves the inmates of a
+rolling palace, propelled by one of Nature's tireless forces, and
+feel at times in our swift flight as if we were the occupants of a
+cushioned cannon-ball of glass. Even the crossing of one of the many
+viaducts along our route is a reminder of how science has been
+summoned to assist the invader in his audacious enterprise of
+girdling a continent with steel.
+
+[Illustration: AN ARIZONA CLOUD-EFFECT.]
+
+[Illustration: OLD HOME OF KIT CARSON, TAOS, N.M.]
+
+[Illustration: GRAVE OF KIT CARSON, TAOS, N.M.]
+
+[Illustration: THE BRIDGE OF CANON DIABLO.]
+
+The art of bridge-building in some form or other is one of the
+earliest necessities of civilization. Even the apes in equatorial
+regions will link themselves together, and swing their living line
+across a stream to trees on the opposite bank, thus forming a
+connected path of bodies along which other monkeys pass in safety.
+Bridges of ropes or reeds are, also, made by the most primitive of
+men; while viaducts of stone rose gradually in perfection, from the
+rude blocks heaped up by savages to the magnificent structures
+fashioned by the Romans. But with the introduction of iron and steel
+into their composition, bridges are now constructed quickly, with
+consummate skill, and in a multitude of different forms assist in
+making possible the safe and rapid transit of our great Republic.
+
+[Illustration: HOMES OF CLIFF DWELLERS.]
+
+[Illustration: SKULLS OF CLIFF DWELLERS.]
+
+In addition to all the wonderful natural features of Arizona and New
+Mexico, the insight into ancient and modern Indian life which they
+afford is of extraordinary interest, particularly as aboriginal
+civilization, evidently, reached a higher level here than was
+attained by any of the tribes which roamed throughout the regions now
+known as the Middle and Eastern States. The natives of the arid
+regions of the great Southwest, though subdivided into numerous
+tribes, are usually known under the general title of Pueblos. The
+name itself, bestowed upon them by the Spaniards, is significant;
+since _pueblo_ is the Spanish word for village, and this would seem
+to prove that the race thus designated three hundred and fifty years
+ago was not nomadic, but had been settled here for many years.
+
+[Illustration: LAGUNA.]
+
+[Illustration: CLIFF PALACES.]
+
+Antiquity and mystery impart a charm to these Pueblo Indians. They
+are foundlings of history. We see their immemorial settlements, and
+know that, centuries before Columbus landed on San Salvador, a number
+of advantageously situated places in the western portion of this
+continent served as the homes of powerful tribes, whose towns and
+villages formed the scenes of warfare and barbaric splendor. But of
+the men who built those villages we know comparatively nothing. Their
+origin is almost as trackless as the sand which hides so many of
+their relics in a tawny sepulchre. We may be certain, however, that
+the remnants who survive are the representatives of myriads who once
+made most of the American valleys palpitant with life, but over whom
+oblivion has swept like a huge tidal wave, leaving the scattered
+fragments of their history like peaks rising from a submerged world.
+
+[Illustration: A TWO-STORY CLIFF PALACE.]
+
+The best conclusions of scientists in regard to the geological
+periods of our planet consider that the Glacial Epoch began about two
+hundred and forty thousand, and ended about eighty thousand, years
+ago. Traces of the existence of men in North America during that
+glacial period have been found in abundance, and make it probable
+that a human population existed, toward the close of that era, all
+the way from the Atlantic Coast to the Upper Mississippi Valley.
+Where these men of the Ice Age originally came from is a matter of
+conjecture; but it seems probable that they migrated hither from the
+Old World, since it is certain that during the various elevations and
+depressions of the two continents, it was possible, several times,
+for men to go from Europe or from Asia into America without crossing
+any ocean, either by the northwestern corner of Alaska, which has
+been repeatedly joined to Siberia through the elevation of the
+shallow Bering Sea, or by the great Atlantic ridge which more than
+once has risen above the ocean between Great Britain and Greenland.
+Yet, though the first inhabitants of America, in all probability,
+came thus from the Old World at a very distant period of antiquity,
+it is believed by the best students of the subject that, until within
+the last few centuries, there had been no intercourse between America
+and either Europe or Asia, for at least twenty thousand years. Hence
+the Aborigines of this continent developed in the course of ages
+peculiarities which distinguish them from other races, and justify
+their being regarded as, practically, native to the soil.
+
+[Illustration: AN EARLY PLACE OF SHELTER.]
+
+The Indians of New Mexico and Arizona were, probably, fugitives from
+more fertile lands, whence they had been expelled by the ancestors of
+the bloodthirsty and cruel Apaches. The country to which they came,
+and where they made a final stand against their predatory foes, was
+well adapted to defense. For hundreds of square miles the land is
+cleft with chasms, and dotted with peculiar, isolated table-lands
+hundreds of feet in height, with almost perfectly level surfaces and
+precipitous sides. The origin and formation of these _mesas_, due to
+erosion through unnumbered centuries, by water draining from an
+inland sea, has been already referred to, and it can be readily seen
+that they originally formed ideal residences for the peace-loving
+Pueblos, who either made their homes as Cliff Dwellers in the
+crevices of canon walls, or took advantage of these lofty rocks,
+already shaped and fortified by Nature, and built on them their
+dwellings. These in themselves were no mean strongholds. Their thick
+walls, made of rock fragments cemented with adobe, constituted a
+natural fortress, against which weapons such as savages used before
+they acquired fire-arms could do little harm; and even these houses
+the Indians constructed like the cliffs themselves, lofty and
+perpendicular, tier above tier, and, save for ladders, almost as
+inaccessible as eagles' nests. Again, since these _pueblos_ stood on
+table-lands, the approach to which could be easily defended, they
+were almost impregnable; while their isolation and elevation, in the
+treeless regions of New Mexico, enabled watchmen to discover the
+approach of an enemy at a considerable distance and to give warning
+for the women, children, and cattle roaming on the plain to be
+brought to a place of safety. The instinct of self-preservation and
+even the methods of defense are, after all, almost identical in every
+age and clime; and the motive which led the Indians to the summits of
+these _mesas_ was, no doubt, the same that prompted the Athenians to
+make a citadel of their Acropolis, and mediaeval knights to build
+their castles on the isolated crags of Italy, or on the mountain
+peaks along the Rhine.
+
+[Illustration: "CREVICES OF CANON WALLS."]
+
+[Illustration: THE SUMMIT OF A MESA.]
+
+[Illustration: THE MESA ENCANTADA.]
+
+As times became more peaceful, the Pueblos located their villages
+upon the plains, and one of these, called Laguna, is now a station
+of the Santa Fe railway. But a mere glance at this, in passing, was
+far too brief and unsatisfactory for our purpose, aside from the fact
+that its proximity to the railroad had, naturally, robbed the
+settlement of much of its distinctive character. We therefore
+resolved to leave our train, and go directly into the interior, to
+visit a most interesting and typical _pueblo,_ known as Acoma.
+Arriving at the station nearest to it, early in the morning, we found
+a wagon and four horses waiting to receive us, and quickly started
+for our destination over a natural road across the almost level
+prairie. At the expiration of about two hours we saw before us, at a
+distance of three miles, a _mesa_ of such perfect symmetry and
+brilliant pinkish color, that it called forth a unanimous expression
+of enthusiasm. Although the form of this "noblest single rock in
+America" changes as one beholds it from different points of view, the
+shape which it presented, as we approached it, was circular; and
+this, together with its uniform height and perpendicular walls,
+reminded me of the tomb of Caecilia Metella on the Appian Way,
+magnified into majesty, as in a mirage. It was with added interest,
+therefore, that we learned that this was the Enchanted Mesa, about
+which there had been recently considerable scientific controversy.
+Enchanting, if not enchanted, it certainly appeared that morning,
+and, as we drew nearer, its imposing mass continued to suggest old
+Roman architecture, from Hadrian's Mausoleum by the Tiber to the huge
+circle of the Colosseum.
+
+[Illustration: HOUSES AT LAGUNA.]
+
+[Illustration: THE MESA FROM THE EAST.]
+
+The Indian name of this remarkable cliff is _Katzimo_, and the title
+_Haunted Mesa_ would be a more appropriate translation of the Spanish
+name, _Mesa Encantada_, than _Enchanted;_ for the people of Acoma
+believe its summit to be haunted by the spirits of their ancestors. A
+sinister tradition exists among them that one day, many centuries
+ago, when all the men of the village were at work upon the plain, a
+mass of rock, detached by the slow action of the elements, or else
+precipitated by an earthquake shock, fell into the narrow cleft by
+which alone an ascent or descent of the _mesa_ was made, and
+rendered it impassable. The women and children, left thus on the
+summit of a cliff four hundred and thirty feet in height, and cut off
+from communication with their relatives and friends, who were unable
+to rejoin and rescue them, are said to have slowly perished by
+starvation, and their bones, pulverized in the course of centuries,
+are believed to have been, finally, blown or washed away. To test the
+truth of this tradition, at least so far as traces of a previous
+inhabitancy of the _mesa_ could confirm it, Mr. Frederick W. Hodge,
+in 1895, made an attempt to reach the summit; but, though he climbed
+to within sixty feet of the top, he could on that occasion go no
+higher. He found, however, along the sides of the cliffs enormous
+masses of _debris_, washed down by the streams of water which, after
+a tempest, drain off from the summit in a thousand little cataracts.
+Not only did Mr. Hodge discover in this rubbish several fragments of
+Indian pottery, but he, also, observed certain holes in the cliff
+which seemed to him to have been cut there specially for hands and
+feet. These he believed to be traces of an ancient trail. Stimulated
+by the announcement of this discovery, Professor William Libbey, of
+Princeton College, in July, 1896, made the ascent of the Enchanted
+Mesa by means of a life line fired over the mound from a Lyle gun.
+Stout ropes having then been drawn over the cliffs and made secure,
+the adventurous aeronaut was actually hauled up to the summit in a
+boatswain's chair, as sailors are sometimes pulled ashore from a
+sinking ship. On his descent, however, he declared that he had found
+nothing to indicate that the crest had ever been inhabited, or even
+previously visited. Nothing daunted by this statement, a few weeks
+later Mr. Hodge again attempted the ascent in which he had failed the
+year before. This time he was successful, and scaled the cliff by
+means of an extension ladder and several hundred feet of rope. But
+very different were the conclusions reached by him as to the probable
+authenticity of the tradition; for after having been on the _mesa_
+only a short time, he found a piece of ancient pottery, and, during a
+search of twenty hours, not only were several more fragments of
+earthenware discovered, but also two stone ax-heads, an arrow-point
+of flint, and part of a shell bracelet. Moreover, a little monument
+of stone, arranged with evident design, was found on the edge of the
+cliff. Mr. Hodge and his party concluded, therefore, that beyond a
+doubt the Mesa Encantada had once been inhabited, and that the legend
+of the destruction of its last occupants may be true.
+
+[Illustration: LOOKING THROUGH A CREVICE OF THE ENCHANTED MESA.]
+
+[Illustration: THE LYLE GUN AND ROPES.]
+
+[Illustration: MAN IN BOATSWAIN'S CHAIR.]
+
+[Illustration: THE HODGE PARTY.]
+
+[Illustration: INDIAN RELICS.]
+
+The discovery of pieces of pottery here does not of itself prove
+great advancement in the race that made them; for, curiously enough,
+the manufacture of rude pottery is one of the first steps taken by
+man from a savage to a semi-civilized state. The various races of
+mankind have usually reached this art soon after their discovery of
+fire. In fact, such an invention is almost inevitable. Thus, an early
+method of cooking food has always been to put it into a basket
+smeared with clay, which is supported over a fire. The clay served
+the double purpose of preventing liquids from escaping and protecting
+the basket from the flame. Now, even the dullest savage could not
+have failed to notice, after a time, that the clay became hardened by
+the fire, and in that state was sufficient for his purpose without
+the basket. Simple as it seems, the discovery of this fact marks an
+important epoch in the progress of every primitive race, and some
+authorities on ethnology distinguish the two great divisions of
+Savagery and Barbarism by placing in the lower grade those who have
+not arrived at the knowledge of making pottery.
+
+[Illustration: THE TOP OF THE MESA ENCANTADA.]
+
+[Illustration: THE APPROACH TO ACOMA.]
+
+Soon after passing this haunted rock, and driving further over the
+_mesa_-dotted plain, we came in sight of the weird city of the sky
+called Acoma. It occupies the summit of a table-land, the ascent to
+which is now a winding defile, flanked by frowning cliffs. Even this
+path, though readily ascended on horseback, is too precipitous and
+sandy for a wagon. Accordingly, as none of our party that day enjoyed
+the privilege of being an equestrian, we left our vehicle at the foot
+of the _mesa,_ and completed the journey on foot. Some adventurous
+spirits, however, chose a short cut up the precipice along a natural
+fissure in the rocks, which, having been transformed with loose
+stones into a kind of ladder, was formerly, before these peaceful
+times, the only means of access to the summit. A steeper scramble
+would be hard to find. I must confess, however, that before taking
+either of these routes, we halted to enjoy a lunch for which the
+drive had given us the keenest appetite, and which we ate _al fresco_
+in the shadow of a cliff, surrounded by a dozen curious natives.
+Then, the imperious demands of hunger satisfied, we climbed three
+hundred and fifty feet above the surrounding plain, and stood in what
+is, with perhaps the exception of Zuni, the oldest inhabited town in
+North America. Before us, on what seemed to be an island of the air,
+was a perfect specimen of the aboriginal civilization found here by
+the Spanish conqueror, Coronado, and his eager gold-seekers, in 1540.
+For now, as then, the members of the tribe reside together in one
+immense community building. It is rather droll to find among these
+natives of the desert the idea of the modern apartment house; but, in
+this place, as in all the settlements of the Pueblo Indians, communal
+dwellings were in existence long before the discovery of America, and
+the _mesa_ of Acoma was inhabited as it now is, when the Pilgrims
+landed upon Plymouth Rock.
+
+[Illustration: RAIN WATER BASIN, ACOMA.]
+
+[Illustration: THE COURTYARD OF ACOMA.]
+
+An Indian _pueblo_ is really a honeycomb of adobe cells, built up in
+terraces. The outer walls, being the most exposed, are the highest,
+and from them toward the centre of the village, projecting stories
+descend in such a way that the balcony of one series of rooms forms a
+roof for the next below it. Finally, in the heart of the _pueblo_ is
+an open area where horses are corralled. When the space on the summit
+of the _mesa_ is sufficient, these apartment dwellings may be
+increased indefinitely by adding cells to the original mass, till it
+is six or seven stories high, and may contain one hundred, five
+hundred, or even a thousand persons, according to the size of the
+tribe. Formerly there were no doorways in the lowest stories; but in
+these peaceful days they are now introduced occasionally by Indian
+architects. Where they do not exist, the only means of entering the
+ground-floor rooms is by climbing a ladder from the courtyard to the
+first terrace, and thence descending by another ladder through a hole
+in the roof. The upper stories, being safer from attack, are more
+liberally supplied with doors and windows, the latter being
+sometimes glazed with plates of mica. At present, panes of glass are
+also used, though they were pointed out to us as special luxuries. At
+night, and in times of danger, the ladders in these _pueblos_ used
+always to be drawn up after the last climbers had used them; since
+these industrious and sedentary Indians were ever liable to raids
+from their nomadic enemies, who coveted their stores of food and the
+few treasures they had gradually accumulated. This precaution on the
+part of the Pueblos again reminds us that human nature, in its
+primitive devices for self-protection, is everywhere very much the
+same. Thus, there is no connection between the Swiss Lake Dwellers
+and the Indians of New Mexico; yet as the latter, on retiring to
+their houses, draw up their ladders after them, so the old occupants
+of the villages built on piles in the Swiss lakes pulled after them
+at night the bridges which connected them with the land.
+
+[Illustration: HOUSE OF A PUEBLO CHIEF.]
+
+[Illustration: A GROUP OF PUEBLO INDIANS.]
+
+[Illustration: A PUEBLO TOWN.]
+
+One can well imagine that the people of Acoma do not spend many of
+their waking hours in their apartments. In this warm climate, with
+its superb air and almost rainless sky, every one lives as much as
+possible out of doors, and a true child of the sun always prefers the
+canopy of heaven to any other covering, and would rather eat on his
+doorstep and sleep on his flat roof, than to dine at a sumptuous
+table or recline on a comfortable bed. Nature seems to be peculiarly
+kind and indulgent to the people of warm climates. They need not only
+less clothing but less food, and it is only when we travel in the
+tropics that we realize on how little sustenance man can exist. A few
+dates, a cup of coffee, and a bit of bread appear to satisfy the
+appetites of most Aridians, whether they are Indians or Arabs. In
+the North, food, clothing, and fire are necessities of life; but to
+the people of the South the sun suffices for a furnace, fruits give
+sufficient nourishment, and clothing is a chance acquaintance. Yet
+life is full of compensation. Where Nature is too indulgent, her
+favorites grow shiftless; and the greatest amount of indoor luxury
+and comfort is always found where Nature seems so hostile that man is
+forced to fight with her for life.
+
+[Illustration: CHARACTERISTIC PUEBLO HOUSES.]
+
+[Illustration: IN THE PUEBLO.]
+
+Most of the cells which we examined in the many-chambered honeycomb
+of Acoma had very little furniture except a primitive table and a few
+stools, made out of blocks of wood or trunks of trees. Across one
+corner of each room was, usually, stretched a cord on which the
+articles of the family wardrobe had been thrown promiscuously. The
+ornaments visible were usually bows and arrows, rifles, Navajo
+blankets, and leather pouches, hung on wooden pegs. Of beds I could
+find none; for Indians sleep by preference on blankets, skins, or
+coarse-wool mattresses spread every night upon the floor. When we
+consider that the forty millions of Japan, even in their
+comparatively high degree of civilization, still sleep in much the
+same way, we realize how unnecessary bedsteads are to the majority
+of the human race. In a few rooms I discovered wooden statuettes of
+saints, one or two crucifixes, and some cheap prints, which were
+evidently regarded with great veneration. The floors, which were not
+of wood, but of smooth adobe nearly as hard as asphalt, were in every
+instance remarkably clean.
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF A PUEBLO APARTMENT.]
+
+It is an interesting fact, in the domestic economy of the Indian life
+led in these aerial villages, that the woman is always the complete
+owner of her apartment and its contents; for it is the women of the
+tribe who build the dwellings. Accordingly, the position of a Pueblo
+woman is extraordinary; and should her husband ill-treat her, she has
+the right and power to evict him, and to send him back to his
+original home. On the other hand, the man is sole possessor of the
+live stock of the family and of the property in the field; but when
+the crops are housed, the wife is at once invested with an equal
+share in their ownership. Pueblo children, too, always trace their
+descent through the mother and take her clan name instead of the
+father's. I noticed that at Acoma the children seemed to be obedient
+to their parents and respectful to age, as I have invariably found
+them to be in all partially civilized countries of the world; for,
+paradoxical as it may seem, it is only in highly civilized
+communities, where individualism is cultivated at the expense of
+strict discipline and parental control, that children become
+indifferent to their fathers and mothers, and insolent to their
+superiors in age and wisdom.
+
+[Illustration: PUEBLO WATER-CARRIERS.]
+
+We lingered for some time upon this citadel of Acoma, profoundly
+interested in the life and customs of a people that asks no aid of
+the United States, but is, to-day, as self-supporting as it has
+always been. The number of Pueblo Indians was never very large. It is
+probable that there were in all about thirty thousand of them at the
+time of the Spanish conquest, in 1540, and there are now about
+one-third that number scattered through more than twenty settlements.
+In an arid land where the greatest need is water, it is not strange
+that the dwellers on these rocky eyries should be called in the
+Indian dialect "Drinkers of the dew," for it would seem as if the dew
+must be their only beverage. But there are springs upon the
+neighboring plains whose precious liquid is brought up the steep
+trail daily on the heads of women, in three or five gallon jars, the
+carrying of which gives to the poise of the head and neck a native
+grace and elegance, as characteristic of Pueblo women as of the girls
+of Capri. Moreover, on the summit of the _mesa_ there are, usually,
+hollows in the rock, partly natural, partly artificial, which serve
+as reservoirs to retain rain water and keep it fresh and cool.
+
+[Illustration: AN ESTUFA.]
+
+Besides the communal apartment-house, every _pueblo_ contains two
+characteristic edifices. One is as ancient as the tribe itself and
+thoroughly aboriginal, the other is comparatively modern and bears
+the imprint of the Spaniard; they are the _estufa_ and the Roman
+Catholic church. The _estufa_ has always played a prominent part in
+the history of these Indians. It is a semi-subterranean council hall,
+where matters of public business are discussed by the chiefs. The
+government of the Pueblos is practically the same as when the Spanish
+found them. Each village seems to be completely independent of its
+neighbors, and no member of one tribe is allowed to sell real estate
+to members of another, or to marry into another clan without
+permission from his own. Each settlement is governed by a council,
+the members of which, including its chief, are chosen annually.
+Heredity counts for nothing among them, and official positions are
+conferred only by popular vote. Even their war-chieftains are elected
+and are under the control of the council. All matters of public
+importance are discussed by this body in the _estufa_, the walls of
+which are usually whitewashed; but a more dismal place can hardly be
+imagined, not only from the dubious light which there prevails, but
+from the fact that it contains no furniture whatever, and no
+decoration. Sometimes a village will have several _estufas_, each
+being reserved for a separate clan of the tribe. In any case, whether
+many or few, they are used exclusively by men, women never being
+allowed to enter them except to bring food to their male relatives.
+As we approached the Acoma _estufa_, it presented the appearance of a
+monstrous bean pot, from the opening of which a ladder rose to a
+height of twenty feet. This proved to be the only means of descending
+into an enclosure, to which we were politely but firmly denied
+admission. Peering into the aperture, however, and noting the warm,
+close air which came from it, I understood why the Spanish word
+_estufa_, or oven, was applied to these underground cells by their
+European discoverers; for neither light nor ventilation is obtainable
+except through the one opening, and in summer the temperature of the
+shallow cavern must be warm indeed.
+
+[Illustration: ESTUFA AND SURROUNDINGS.]
+
+[Illustration: MEXICAN OVENS.]
+
+[Illustration: THE OLD CHURCH AT ACOMA.]
+
+The only other notable structure in Acoma is the Roman Catholic
+church, the walls of which are sixty feet in height and ten feet
+thick. One can realize the enormous amount of labor involved in its
+construction, when he reflects that every stone and every piece of
+timber used in building it had to be brought hither on the backs of
+Indians, over the plains, from a considerable distance, and up the
+desperately difficult and narrow trail. Even the graveyard, which
+occupies a space in front of the church, about two hundred feet
+square, is said to have required a labor of forty years, since the
+cemetery had to be enclosed with stone walls, forty feet deep at one
+edge and filled with earth brought in small basket-loads up the steep
+ascent from the plain below. The church itself is regarded by the
+Indians with the utmost reverence, although it must be said that
+their religion is still almost as much Pagan as Christian. Thus,
+while they respect the priests who come to minister to them, they
+also have a lurking reverence for the medicine man, who is known as
+the _cacique_. He is really the religious head of the community, a
+kind of augur and prophet, who consults the gods and communicates to
+the people the answers he claims to have received. This dignitary is
+exempt from all work of a manual kind, such as farming, digging
+irrigation-ditches, and even hunting, and receives compensation for
+his services in the form of a tract of land which the community
+cultivates for him with more care than is bestowed on any other
+portion of their territory, while his crops are the first harvested
+in the autumn. He also derives an income in the form of grain,
+buckskin, shells, or turquoises, from those who beg him to fast for
+them, and to intercede with the gods in case of sickness. On the
+other hand, the _cacique_ must lodge and feed all the strangers who
+come to the village, as long as they stay, and he is, also, the
+surgeon and the nurse of the community.
+
+[Illustration: THE ALTAR.]
+
+[Illustration: DANCE IN THE PUEBLO.]
+
+While, therefore, the Pueblos go to church and repeat prayers in
+accordance with Christian teaching, they also use the prayer-sticks
+of their ancestors, and still place great reliance on their dances,
+most of which are of a strictly religious character, and are not only
+dedicated to the sun, moon, rainbow, deer, elk, and sheep, but are
+usually performed for the specific purpose of obtaining rain.
+Formerly, too, when their lives were far less peaceful than they are
+to-day, the Pueblos indulged in war and scalp dances; but these are
+now falling into disuse. The most remarkable exhibition of dancing,
+still in vogue, is the repulsive Snake Dance of the Moquis of
+Arizona, which takes place every year alternately in four villages
+between the 10th and the 30th of August according to the phase of the
+moon. The origin of this extraordinary custom is not intelligible now
+even to the Indians themselves, but the object in performing it is to
+obtain rain, and the dance, itself, is the culmination of a religious
+ceremonial which continues for nine days and nights. During that time
+only those who have been initiated into the Sacred Fraternities of
+the tribe may enter the _estufa_, on the floor of which weird
+pictures have been made with colored sand.
+
+[Illustration: PUEBLO GIRLS.]
+
+[Illustration: THREE SNAKE PRIESTS.]
+
+In the tribe of Moquis there are two fraternities known as the
+Antelopes and the Snakes, Each has from twenty to thirty members,
+some of whom are boys who serve as acolytes. When the open air
+ceremony of the Snake Dance begins, the members of these brotherhoods
+appear scantily clothed, with their faces painted red and white, and
+with tortoise-shell rattles tied to their legs. The Antelope
+fraternity first enters the square, preceded by a venerable priest
+carrying two bags filled with snakes. These serpents, which have been
+previously washed and covered with sacred meal, are deposited by the
+priest in a small leaf-embowered enclosure called the _kisi_. Around
+this the Antelopes now march, stamping with the right foot violently,
+to notify the spirits of their ancestors (presumably in the lower
+world) that the ceremony has begun. After making the circuit of the
+enclosure four times, they halt, and stand in line with their backs
+turned toward it. Then the Snake fraternity appears, headed by its
+priest, and performs the same ceremony. Then they too form a line,
+facing the Antelopes, and all of them, for about five minutes, wave
+their wands and chant some unintelligible words. Suddenly one
+Antelope and one Snake man rush to the _kisi_, and the priest who is
+presiding over the serpents presents them with a snake. The Snake man
+immediately places the wriggling reptile in his mouth, and holds it
+by the centre of its body between his teeth, as he marches around the
+little plaza, taking high steps. Meantime the, Antelope man
+accompanies him, stroking the snake continually with a wand tipped
+with feathers. Then all the members of the two fraternities follow in
+couples and do the same thing. Finally, each Snake man carries at
+least two snakes in his mouth and several in his hands; and even
+little boys, five years old, dressed like the adults, also hold
+snakes in their hands, fearlessly. Once in a while a snake is
+purposely dropped, and a man whose special duty it is to prevent its
+escape rushes after it and catches it up.
+
+[Illustration: THE SNAKE DANCE.]
+
+All the time that this hideous ceremony is going on, a weird chant is
+sung by the men and women of the tribe; and, at last, the chief
+priest draws on the ground a mystic circle with a line of sacred
+meal, and into this the men unload their snakes until the whole space
+becomes a writhing mass of serpents. Suddenly the members rush into
+this throng of squirming reptiles, most of which are rattlesnakes,
+and each, grabbing up a handful of them, runs at full speed down the
+_mesa_ and sets them at liberty, to act as messengers to carry to the
+gods their prayers for rain. This ends the ceremony for the snakes,
+but not for the men; for after they have liberated the reptiles, the
+members of the brotherhoods return and bathe themselves in a kind of
+green decoction, called Frog-water. Then they drink a powerful
+emetic, and having lined up on the edge of the _mesa_, vomit in
+unison! This is to purge them from the evil effects of snake-handling;
+and lest it should not be sufficiently effectual, the dose is
+repeated. Then they sit down, and eat bread, given them by the women
+as a kind of communion or religious rite.
+
+[Illustration: AFTER THE EMETIC.]
+
+[Illustration: CHIEF SNAKE PRIEST.]
+
+The seventy or eighty snakes used in this dance are treated from
+first to last with the utmost kindness and respect, especially the
+rattlesnakes, a dozen of which will frequently be squirming on the
+ground at once. It is noticeable that the Indians never pick up a
+rattlesnake when coiled, but always wait until it straightens itself
+out under the feather stroking, for it is claimed that the
+rattlesnake cannot strike uncoiled. At all events, when one is at its
+full length, the Indians not only catch it up fearlessly, but carry
+it with impunity in their mouths and hands. As might be supposed,
+however, the Moquis are said to possess an antidote against the
+poison of a rattlesnake, which, if a man is bitten, is given to him
+at once; and it is said that none of them ever dies from the effects
+of a snake-bite.
+
+[Illustration: WHERE THE SNAKES ARE KEPT.]
+
+The religious element in all these ceremonies should not be lost
+sight of, for the life of the Pueblo Indians is permeated with
+religion, or superstition, to the minutest details. Thus, it is an
+interesting fact that vicarious atonement has been a custom among
+them from time immemorial, and their _cacique_ is compelled to fast
+and do penance in many ways for the sins of his people. In some of
+the villages, also, certain men and women are chosen to expiate the
+wrongdoings of the tribe; and for more than a century there has been
+in New Mexico an order of Penitents, who torture themselves by
+beating their bodies with sharp cactus thorns, by carrying heavy
+crosses for great distances, and even by actual crucifixion. The
+severest of these cruel rites have, finally, been suppressed by the
+Roman Catholic church, but it encountered great difficulty in so
+doing, and the last crucifixion took place in 1891.
+
+[Illustration: RELICS OF CLIFF DWELLERS.]
+
+[Illustration: SUMMIT OF A MOQUI MESA.]
+
+Such, then, are the Pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona; a race uniting
+aboriginal Pagan rites with Christian ceremonies: cherishing at the
+same time their idols and their churches; using to-day their rifles,
+and to-morrow their bows and arrows; pounding occasionally with a
+hammer, but preferably with a stone; and handling American money for
+certain purchases, while trading beads, shells, and turquoises for
+others. Sometimes we wonder that they have not made more progress
+during the centuries in which they have been associated with
+Europeans; but it is hard to realize the difficulties which they have
+encountered in trying to comprehend our civilization, and in grasping
+its improvements. Even the adoption of the antique Spanish plow, the
+clumsy two-wheeled cart, the heavy ax and the rude saw, which are
+still found among them, caused them to pass at one stride from the
+Stone to the Iron Age, which, but for the intervention of the
+Spaniards, they would not naturally have reached without centuries of
+patient plodding. Moreover, before the arrival of the Europeans, the
+Aborigines of America had never seen horses, cows, sheep, or dogs,
+and the turkey was the only domestic animal known to them. Hence, in
+ancient American society there was no such thing as a pastoral stage
+of development; and the absence of domestic animals from the western
+hemisphere is a very important reason why the progress of mankind in
+this part of the world was not more rapid. Still it is a remarkable
+fact that the most ancient race, of which we have any actual
+knowledge on this continent, is, also, the most peaceful,
+self-supporting, and industrious, subsisting principally on the sale
+of their curiously decorated pottery, and the products of their arid
+soil. We saw here a young man who had been educated in the Government
+School at Carlisle; but, like most of his race, after returning to
+his village he had reverted to the ways of his ancestors,
+disqualified by his birth and instincts of heredity from doing
+anything else successfully.
+
+[Illustration: MOQUI CART AND PLOW.]
+
+[Illustration: MOQUI CHILDREN.]
+
+It was late on the night succeeding our visit to Acoma that we
+arrived at Flagstaff, and our entire party was asleep. Suddenly we
+were aroused by a prolonged shout and the discharge of half a dozen
+revolvers. Five minutes later there came a general fusillade of
+pistol shots, and near and distant cries were heard, in which our
+half-awakened faculties could distinguish only the words: "Hurry up!"
+"Call the crowd!" "Down the alley!" Then a gruff voice yelled just
+beneath my window: "Let her go," and instantly our locomotive gave a
+whistle so piercing and continuous that all the occupants of our car
+sprang from their couches, and met in a demoralized group of
+multicolored pajamas in the corridor. What was it? Had the train been
+held up? Were we attacked? No; both the whistle and the pistol shots
+were merely Flagstaff's mode of giving an alarm of fire. We hastily
+dressed and stepped out upon the platform. A block of buildings just
+opposite the station was on fire, and was evidently doomed; yet
+Flagstaff's citizens, whose forms, relieved against the lurid glow,
+looked like Comanche Indians in a war dance, fought the flames with
+stubborn fury. The sight of a successful conflagration always thrills
+me, partly with horror, partly with delight. Three hundred feet away,
+two buildings formed an ever-increasing pyramid of golden light. We
+could distinguish the thin streams of water thrown by two puny
+engines; but, in comparison with the great tongues of fire which they
+strove to conquer, they appeared like silver straws. Nothing could
+check the mad carousal of the sparks and flames, which danced,
+leaped, whirled, reversed, and intertwined, like demons waltzing with
+a company of witches on Walpurgis Night. A few adventurous men
+climbed to the roofs of the adjoining structures, and thence poured
+buckets of water on the angry holocaust; but, for all the good they
+thus accomplished, they might as well have spat upon the surging,
+writhing fire, which flashed up in their faces like exploding bombs,
+whenever portions of the buildings fell. Meantime huge clouds of
+dense smoke, scintillant with sparks, rolled heavenward from this
+miniature Vesuvius; the neighboring windows, as they caught the
+light, sparkled like monster jewels; two telegraph poles caught fire,
+and cut their slender forms and outstretched arms against the jet
+black sky, like gibbets made of gold. How fire and water serve us,
+when subdued as slaves; but, oh, how terribly they scourge us, if
+ever for a moment they can gain the mastery! Too interested to
+exchange a word, we watched the struggle and awaited the result. The
+fury of the fire seemed like the wild attack of Indians, inflamed
+with frenzy and fanaticism, sure to exhaust itself at last, but for
+the moment riotously triumphant. Gradually, however, through want of
+material on which to feed itself, the fiery demon drooped its shining
+crest, brandished its arms with lessening vigor, and seemed to writhe
+convulsively, as thrust after thrust from the silver spears of its
+assailants reached a vital spot. Finally, after hurling one last
+shower of firebrands, it sank back into darkness, and its hereditary
+enemy rushed in to drown each lingering spark of its reduced
+vitality.
+
+[Illustration: FLAGSTAFF STATION.]
+
+[Illustration: PACKING WOOD.]
+
+[Illustration: A MEXICAN HOME.]
+
+[Illustration: OUR CAR AT FLAGSTAFF.]
+
+[Illustration: THE HEAVENS FROM THE OBSERVATORY, FLAGSTAFF.]
+
+[Illustration: TWILIGHT.]
+
+Upon a hill near Flagstaff stands an astronomical observatory from
+which distinguished students of the midnight skies search for the
+secrets of the moon and stars. Few better sites on earth could have
+been chosen for this purpose, since Arizona's atmosphere is so
+transparent that the extent of celestial scenery here disclosed is
+extraordinary. We visited the structure at the solemn hour that marks
+the hush between two days, when the last sound of one has died away,
+and before the first stir of the other thrills the morning air. Then,
+gazing through the lenses of its noble telescope, we welcomed the
+swift waves of light pulsating toward us from the shoreless ocean we
+call space. There is a mysterious beauty about the radiance of a star
+that far surpasses that of the moon. The latter glitters only with
+reflected light; but a star (that is to say a distant sun), when seen
+through a telescope, frequently scintillates with different colors
+like a diamond, and quivers like a thing of life. Moreover, the moon,
+forever waxing, waning, or presenting almost stupidly its great flat
+face, is continually changing; but the fixed star is always there. It
+fills the thoughtful soul with awe to look upon the starry heavens
+through such an instrument as that at Flagstaff. Space for the moment
+seems annihilated. We are apparently transported, as observers, from
+our tiny planet to the confines of our solar system, and, gazing
+thence still farther toward infinity, we watch with bated breath the
+birth, the progress, and the death of worlds. To one of the most
+distant objects in the depths of space, known as the Ring Nebula, the
+author addressed the following lines:
+
+TO THE RING NEBULA.
+
+  O, pallid spectre of the midnight skies!
+    Whose phantom features in the dome of Night
+  Elude the keenest gaze of wistful eyes
+    Till amplest lenses aid the failing sight,
+  On heaven's blue sea the farthest isle of fire.
+  From thee, whose glories it would fain admire,
+  Must vision, baffled, in despair retire!
+
+  What art thou, ghostly visitant of flame?
+    Wouldst thou 'neath closer scrutiny dissolve
+  In myriad suns that constellations frame,
+    Round which life-freighted satellites revolve,
+  Like those unnumbered orbs which nightly creep
+  In dim procession o'er the azure steep,
+  As white-wing'd caravans the desert sweep?
+
+  Or, art thou still an incandescent mass,
+    Acquiring form as hostile forces urge,
+  Through whose vast length a million lightnings pass
+    As to and fro its fiery billows surge,
+  Whose glowing atoms, whirled in ceaseless strife
+  Where now chaotic anarchy is rife.
+  Shall yet become the fair abodes of life?
+
+  We know not; for the faint, exhausted rays
+    Which hither on Light's winged coursers come
+  From fires which ages since first lit their blaze,
+    One instant gleam, then perish, spent and dumb!
+  How strange the thought that, whatsoe'er we learn,
+  Our tiny globe no answer can return,
+  Since with but dull, reflected beams we burn!
+
+  Yet this we know; yon ring of spectral light,
+    Whose distance thrills the soul with solemn awe,
+  Can ne'er escape in its majestic might
+    The firm control of omnipresent law.
+  This mote descending to its bounden place.
+  Those suns whose radiance we can scarcely trace,
+  Alike obey the Power pervading space.
+
+[Illustration: NIGHT.]
+
+[Illustration: THE SAN FRANCISCO VOLCANOES.]
+
+[Illustration: STARTING FOR THE GRAND CANON.]
+
+One glorious September morning, leaving our train at Flagstaff, we
+started in stage-coaches for a drive of sixty-five miles to the Grand
+Canon. I had looked forward to this drive with some misgiving,
+dreading the heat of the sun, and the dust and sand which I had
+supposed we should encounter; but to my astonishment and delight it
+was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. It was only eleven hours in
+duration, and not only was most of the route level, but two-thirds of
+it lay through a section of beautifully rolling land, diversified
+with open glades and thousands upon thousands of tall pines and
+cedars entirely free from undergrowth. It is no exaggeration to say
+that we drove that day for miles at a time over a road carpeted with
+pine needles. The truth is, Arizona, though usually considered a
+treeless and rainless country, possesses some remarkable exceptions;
+and the region near Flagstaff not only abounds in stately pines, but
+is at certain seasons visited by rainstorms which keep it fresh and
+beautiful. During our stay at the Grand Canon we had a shower every
+night; the atmosphere was marvelously pure, and aromatic with the
+odors of a million pines; and so exhilarating was exercise in the
+open air, that however arduous it might be, we never felt
+inconvenienced by fatigue, and mere existence gave us joy. Decidedly,
+then, it will not do to condemn the whole of Arizona because of the
+heat of its arid, southern plains; for the northern portion of the
+state is a plateau, with an elevation of from five thousand to seven
+thousand feet. Hence, as it is not latitude, so much as altitude,
+that gives us healthful, pleasing temperature, in parts of Arizona
+the climate is delightful during the entire year.
+
+[Illustration: THE DRIVE THROUGH THE PINES.]
+
+[Illustration: THE SAN FRANCISCO MOUNTAIN.]
+
+A portion of this stage-coach journey led us over the flank of the
+great San Francisco Mountain. The isolated position, striking
+similarity, and almost uniform altitude of its four peaks, rising
+nearly thirteen thousand feet above the sea, have long made them
+famous. Moreover, they are memorable for having cast a lurid light
+upon the development of this portion of our planet. Cold, calm, and
+harmless though they now appear, the time has been when they
+contained a molten mass which needed but a throb of Earth's uneasy
+heart to light the heavens with an angry glare, and cover the
+adjoining plains with floods of fire. Lava has often poured from
+their destructive cones, and can be traced thence over a distance of
+thirty miles; proving that they once served as vents for the volcanic
+force which the thin crust of earth was vainly striving to confine.
+But their activity is apparently ended. The voices with which they
+formerly shouted to one another in the joy of devastation have been
+silenced. Conquered at last, their fires smolder now beneath a
+barrier too firm to yield, and their huge forms appear like funeral
+monuments reared to the memory of the power buried at their base.
+Another fascinating sight upon this drive was that of the Painted
+Desert whose variously colored streaks of sand, succeeding one
+another to the rim of the horizon, made the vast area seem paved with
+bands of onyx, agate, and carnelian.
+
+[Illustration: THE LUNCH STATION.]
+
+About the hour of noon we reached a lunch-station at which the
+stages, going to and from the Canon, meet and pass. The structure
+itself is rather primitive; but a good meal is served to tourists at
+this wayside halting-place, and since our appetites had been
+sharpened by the long ride and tonic-giving air, it seemed to us the
+most delicious of repasts. The principal object of one of the members
+of our party, in making the journey described in these pages, was to
+determine the advisability of building a railroad from Flagstaff to
+the Canon. Whether this will be done eventually is not, however, a
+matter of vital interest to travelers, since the country traversed
+can easily be made an almost ideal coaching-route; and with good
+stages, frequent relays of horses, and a well-appointed
+lunch-station, a journey thus accomplished would be preferable to a
+trip by rail.
+
+[Illustration: HANCE'S CAMP.]
+
+[Illustration: OUR TENT AT HANCE'S CAMP.]
+
+Night had already come when we arrived at our destination, known as
+Hance's Camp, near the border of the Canon. As we drove up to it, the
+situation seemed enchanting in its peace and beauty; for it is
+located in a grove of noble pines, through which the moon that night
+looked down in full-orbed splendor, paving the turf with inlaid ebony
+and silver, and laying a mantle of white velvet on the tents in which
+we were to sleep. Hance's log cabin serves as a kitchen and
+dining-room for travelers, and a few guests can even find lodging
+there; but, until a hotel is built, the principal dormitories must be
+the tents, which are provided with wooden floors and furnished with
+tables, chairs, and comfortable beds. This kind of accommodation,
+however, although excellent for travelers in robust health, is not
+sufficiently luxurious to attract many tourists. The evident
+necessity of the place is a commodious, well-kept inn, situated a few
+hundred feet to the rear of Hance's Camp, on the very edge of the
+Canon. If such a hotel, built on a spot commanding the incomparable
+view, were properly advertised and well-managed, I firmly believe
+that thousands of people would come here every year, on their way to
+or from the Pacific coast--not wishing or expecting it to be a place
+of fashion, but seeking it as a point where, close beside a park of
+pines, seven thousand feet above the level of the sea, one of the
+greatest marvels of the world can be enjoyed, in all the different
+phases it presents at morning, noon, and night, in sunshine,
+moonlight, and in storm.
+
+[Illustration: OLD HANCE.]
+
+[Illustration: THE FIRST VIEW.]
+
+Early the next morning I eagerly climbed the little knoll at the foot
+of which our tents were located, for I well knew that from its summit
+I should see the Canon. Many grand objects in the world are heralded
+by sound: the solemn music of Niagara, the roar of active geysers in
+the Yellowstone, the intermittent thunder of the sea upon a rocky
+coast, are all distinguishable at some distance; but over the Grand
+Canon of the Colorado broods a solemn silence. No warning voice
+proclaims its close proximity; no partial view prepares us for its
+awful presence. We walk a few steps through the pine trees from the
+camp and suddenly find ourselves upon the Canon's edge. Just before
+reaching it, I halted for a moment, as has always been my wont when
+approaching for the first time any natural or historic object that I
+have longed for years to look upon. Around me rose the stately pines;
+behind me was a simple stretch of rolling woodland; nothing betrayed
+the nearness of one of the greatest wonders of the world. Could it
+be possible that I was to be disappointed? At last I hurried
+through the intervening space, gave a quick look, and almost reeled.
+The globe itself seemed to have suddenly yawned asunder, leaving me
+trembling on the hither brink of two dissevered hemispheres. Vast as
+the bed of a vanished ocean, deep as Mount Washington, riven from its
+apex to its base, the grandest canon on our planet lay glittering
+below me in the sunlight like a submerged continent, drowned by an
+ocean that had ebbed away. At my very feet, so near that I could have
+leaped at once into eternity, the earth was cleft to a depth of six
+thousand six hundred feet--not by a narrow gorge, like other canons,
+but by an awful gulf within whose cavernous immensity the forests of
+the Adirondacks would appear like jackstraws, the Hudson Palisades
+would be an insignificant stratum, Niagara would be indiscernible,
+and cities could be tossed like pebbles.
+
+[Illustration: THE EARTH-GULF OF ARIZONA.]
+
+[Illustration: A PORTION OF THE GULF.]
+
+[Illustration: "A VAST, INCOMPARABLE VOID."]
+
+As brain grew steadier and vision clearer, I saw, directly opposite,
+the other side of the Canon thirteen miles away. It was a mountain
+wall, a mile in height, extending to the right and left as far as the
+eye could reach; and since the cliff upon which I was standing was
+its counterpart, it seemed to me as if these parallel banks were once
+the shore-lines of a vanished sea. Between them lay a vast,
+incomparable void, two hundred miles in length, presenting an
+unbroken panorama to the east and west until the gaze could follow it
+no farther. Try to conceive what these dimensions mean by realizing
+that a strip of the State of Massachusetts, thirteen miles in width,
+and reaching from Boston to Albany, could be laid as a covering over
+this Canon, from one end to the other; and that if the entire range
+of the White Mountains were flung into it, the monstrous pit would
+still remain comparatively empty! Even now it is by no means without
+contents; for, as I gazed with awe and wonder into its colossal area,
+I seemed to be looking down upon a colored relief-map of the mountain
+systems of the continent. It is not strictly one canon, but a
+labyrinth of canons, in many of which the whole Yosemite could be
+packed away and lost. Thus one of them, the Marble Canon, is of
+itself more than three thousand feet deep and sixty-six miles long.
+In every direction I beheld below me a tangled skein of mountain
+ranges, thousands of feet in height, which the Grand Canon's walls
+enclosed, as if it were a huge sarcophagus, holding the skeleton of
+an infant world. It is evident, therefore, that all the other canons
+of our globe are, in comparison with this, what pygmies are to a
+giant, and that the name Grand Canon, which is often used to
+designate some relatively insignificant ravine, should be in truth
+applied only to the stupendous earth-gulf of Arizona.
+
+[Illustration: A SECTION OF THE LABYRINTH.]
+
+[Illustration: MOUNT AYER.]
+
+At length, I began to try to separate and identify some of these
+formations. Directly in the foreground, a savage looking mountain
+reared its splintered head from the abyss, and stood defiantly
+confronting me, six thousand feet above the Canon's floor. Though
+practically inaccessible to the average tourist, this has been
+climbed, and is named Mount Ayer, after Mrs. Edward Ayer, the first
+woman who ever descended into the Canon to the river's edge. Beyond
+this, other mountains rise from the gulf, many of which resemble the
+Step Pyramid at Sakhara, one of the oldest of the royal sepulchres
+beside the Nile. But so immeasurably vaster are the pyramids of this
+Canon than any work of man, that had the tombs of the Pharaohs been
+placed beside them, I could not have discovered them without a
+field-glass. Some of these grand constructions stand alone, while
+others are in pairs; and many of them resemble Oriental temples,
+buttressed with terraces a mile or two in length, and approached by
+steps a hundred feet in height. Around these, too, are many smaller
+mountainous formations, crude and unfinished in appearance, like
+shrines commenced and then abandoned by the Canon's Architect. Most
+of us are but children of a larger growth, and love to interpret
+Nature, as if she reared her mountains, painted her sunsets, cut her
+canons, and poured forth her cataracts solely for our instruction and
+enjoyment. So, when we gaze on forms like these, shaped like gigantic
+temples, obelisks, and altars fashioned by man's hands, we try to see
+behind them something personal, and even name them after Hindu,
+Grecian, and Egyptian gods, as if those deities made them their
+abodes. Thus, one of these shrines was called by the artist, Thomas
+Moran, the Temple of Set; three others are dedicated respectively to
+Siva, Vishnu, and Vulcan; while on the apex of a mighty altar, still
+unnamed, a twisted rock-formation, several hundred feet in height,
+suggests a flame, eternally preserved by unseen hands, ascending to
+an unknown god.
+
+[Illustration: SOME OF THE CANON TEMPLES.]
+
+[Illustration: SIVA'S TEMPLE.]
+
+It is difficult to realize the magnitude of these objects, so
+deceptive are distances and dimensions in the transparent atmosphere
+of Arizona. Siva's Temple, for example, stands upon a platform four
+or five miles square, from which rise domes and pinnacles a thousand
+feet in height. Some of their summits call to mind immense sarcophagi
+of jasper or of porphyry, as if they were the burial-places of dead
+deities, and the Grand Canon a Necropolis for pagan gods. Yet, though
+the greater part of the population of the world could be assembled
+here, one sees no worshipers, save an occasional devotee of Nature,
+standing on the Canon's rim, lost in astonishment and hushed in awe.
+These temples were, however, never intended for a human priesthood. A
+man beside them is a pygmy. His voice here would be little more
+effective than the chirping of an insect. The God-appointed
+celebrant, in the cathedrals of this Canon, must be Nature. Her voice
+alone can rouse the echoes of these mountains into deafening peals of
+thunder. Her metaphors are drawn from an experience of ages. Her
+prayers are silent, rapturous communings with the Infinite. Her hymns
+of praise are the glad songs of birds; her requiems are the meanings
+of the pines; her symphonies the solemn roaring of the winds.
+"Sermons in stone" abound at every turn; and if, as the poet has
+affirmed, "An undevout astronomer is mad," with still more truth can
+it be said that those are blind who in this wonderful environment
+look not "through Nature up to Nature's God." These wrecks of Tempest
+and of Time are finger-posts that point the thoughts of mortals to
+eternal heights; and we find cause for hope in the fact that, even in
+a place like this, Man is superior to Nature; for he interprets it,
+he finds in it the thoughts of God, and reads them after Him.
+
+[Illustration: NEAR THE TEMPLE OF SET.]
+
+[Illustration: HANCE'S TRAIL, LOOKING UP.]
+
+The coloring of the Grand Canon is no less extraordinary than its
+forms. Nature has saved this chasm from being a terrific scene of
+desolation by glorifying all that it contains. Wall after wall,
+turret after turret, and mountain range after mountain range belted
+with tinted strata, succeed one another here like billows petrified
+in glowing colors. These hues are not as brilliant and astonishing in
+their variety as are the colors of the Yellowstone Canon, but their
+subdued and sombre tones are perfectly suited to the awe-inspiring
+place which they adorn. The prominent tints are yellow, red, maroon,
+and a dull purple, as if the glory of unnumbered sunsets, fading from
+these rugged cliffs, had been in part imprisoned here. Yet, somehow,
+specimens of these colored rocks lose all their brilliancy and beauty
+when removed from their environment, like sea-shells from the beach;
+a verification of the sentiment so beautifully expressed in the lines
+of Emerson:
+
+  "I wiped away the weeds and foam,
+  I fetched my sea-born treasures home;
+  But the poor, unsightly, noisome things
+  Had left their beauty on the shore,
+  With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar."
+
+[Illustration: MIST IN THE CANON.]
+
+To stand upon the edge of this stupendous gorge, as it receives its
+earliest greeting from the god of day, is to enjoy in a moment
+compensation for long years of ordinary uneventful life. When I
+beheld the scene, a little before daybreak, a lake of soft, white
+clouds was floating round the summits of the Canon mountains, hiding
+the huge crevasse beneath, as a light coverlet of snow conceals a
+chasm in an Alpine glacier. I looked with awe upon this misty curtain
+of the morn, for it appeared to me symbolic of the grander curtain of
+the past which shuts out from our view the awful struggles of the
+elements enacted here when the grand gulf was being formed. At
+length, however, as the light increased, this thin, diaphanous
+covering was mysteriously withdrawn, and when the sun's disk rose
+above the horizon, the huge facades of the temples which looked
+eastward grew immediately rosy with the dawn; westward, projecting
+cliffs sketched on the opposite sides of the ravines, in dark blue
+silhouettes, the evanescent forms of castles, battlements, and
+turrets from which some shreds of white mist waved like banners of
+capitulation; stupendous moats beneath them were still black with
+shadow; while clouds filled many of the minor canons, like vapors
+rising from enormous cauldrons. Gradually, as the solar couriers
+forced a passage into the narrow gullies, and drove the remnant of
+night's army from its hiding-places, innumerable shades of purple,
+yellow, red, and brown appeared, varying according to the composition
+of the mountains, and the enormous void was gradually filled to the
+brim with a luminous haze, which one could fancy was the smoke of
+incense from its countless altars. A similar, and even more
+impressive, scene is visible here in the late afternoon, when all
+the western battlements in their turn grow resplendent, while the
+eastern walls submit to an eclipse; till, finally, a gray pall drops
+upon the lingering bloom of day, the pageant fades, the huge
+sarcophagi are mantled in their shrouds, the gorgeous colors which
+have blazed so sumptuously through the day grow pale and vanish, the
+altar fires turn to ashes, the mighty temples draw their veils and
+seem deserted by both gods and men, and the stupendous panorama
+awaits, beneath the canopy of night, the glory of another dawn.
+
+[Illustration: A STUPENDOUS PANORAMA.]
+
+[Illustration: A TANGLED SKEIN OF CANONS.]
+
+It was my memorable privilege to see, one afternoon, a thunder storm
+below me here. A monstrous cloud-wall, like a huge gray veil, came
+traveling up the Canon, and we could watch the lightning strike the
+buttes and domes ten or twelve miles away, while the loud peals of
+thunder, broken by crags and multiplied by echoes, rolled toward us
+through the darkening gulf at steadily decreasing intervals.
+Sometimes two flashes at a time ran quivering through the air and
+launched their bolts upon the mountain shrines, as though their
+altars, having been erected for idolatrous worship, were doomed to be
+annihilated. Occasionally, through an opening in the clouds, the sun
+would suddenly light up the summit of a mountain, or flash a path of
+gold through a ravine; and I shall never forget the curious sensation
+of seeing far beneath me bright sunshine in one canon and a violent
+storm in another. At last, a rainbow cast its radiant bridge across
+the entire space, and we beheld the tempest disappear like a troop of
+cavalry in a cloud of dust beneath that iridescent arch, beyond whose
+curving spectrum all the temples stood forth, still intact in their
+sublimity.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE BRINK.]
+
+At certain points along the Canon, promontories jut out into the
+abyss, like headlands which in former times projected into an ocean
+that has disappeared. Hence, riding along the brink, as one may do
+for miles, we looked repeatedly into many lateral fissures, from
+fifteen hundred to three thousand feet in depth. All these, however,
+like gigantic fingers, pointed downward to the centre of the Canon,
+where, five miles away, and at a level more than six thousand feet
+below the brink on which we stood, extended a long, glittering trail.
+This, where the sunlight struck it, gleamed like an outstretched band
+of gold. It was the sinuous Colorado, yellow as the Tiber.
+
+[Illustration: RIPLEY'S BUTTE.]
+
+[Illustration: A BIT OF THE RIVER.]
+
+[Illustration: ON HANCE'S TRAIL.]
+
+One day of our stay here was devoted to making the descent to this
+river. It is an undertaking compared with which the crossing of the
+Gemmi on a mule is child's play. Fortunately, however, the arduous
+trip is not absolutely necessary for an appreciation of the immensity
+and grandeur of the scenery. On the contrary, one gains a really
+better idea of these by riding along the brink, and looking down at
+various points on the sublime expanse. Nevertheless, a descent into
+the Canon is essential for a proper estimate of its details, and one
+can never realize the enormity of certain cliffs and the extent of
+certain valleys, till he has crawled like a maimed insect at their
+base and looked thence upward to the narrowed sky. Yet such an
+investigation of the Canon is, after all, merely like going down from
+a balloon into a great city to examine one of its myriad streets,
+since any gorge we may select for our descending path is but a tiny
+section of a labyrinth. That which is unique and incomparable here
+is the view from the brink; and when the promised hotel is built upon
+the border of the Canon, visitors will be content to remain for days
+at their windows or on the piazzas, feasting their souls upon a scene
+always sublime and sometimes terrible.
+
+[Illustration: A VISION OF SUBLIMITY.]
+
+Nevertheless, desirous of exploring a specimen of these chasms (as we
+often select for minute examination a single painting out of an
+entire picture gallery) we made the descent to the Colorado by means
+of a crooked scratch upon a mountain side, which one might fancy had
+been blazed by a zigzag flash of lightning. As it requires four hours
+to wriggle down this path, and an equal amount of time to wriggle up,
+I spent the greater part of a day on what a comrade humorously styled
+the "quarter-deck of a mule." A square, legitimate seat in the
+saddle was usually impossible, so steep was the incline; and hence,
+when going down, I braced my feet and lay back on the haunches of the
+beast, and, in coming up, had to lean forward and clutch the pommel,
+to keep from sliding off, as a human avalanche, on the head of the
+next in line. In many places, however, riding was impossible, and we
+were compelled to scramble over the rocks on foot. The effect of
+hours of this exercise on muscles unaccustomed to such surprises may
+be imagined; yet, owing to the wonderfully restorative air of
+Arizona, the next day after this, the severest physical exertion I
+had ever known, I did not feel the slightest bad result, and was as
+fresh as ever. That there is an element of danger in this trip cannot
+be doubted. At times the little trail, on which two mules could not
+possibly have passed each other, skirts a precipice where the least
+misstep would hurl the traveler to destruction; and every turn of
+the zigzag path is so sharp that first the head and then the tail of
+the mule inevitably projects above the abyss, and wig-wags to the
+mule below. Moreover, though not a vestige of a parapet consoles the
+dizzy rider, in several places the animal simply puts its feet
+together and toboggans down the smooth face of a slanting rock,
+bringing up at the bottom with a jerk that makes the tourist see a
+large variety of constellations, and even causes his beast to belch
+forth an involuntary roar of disenchantment, or else to try to
+pulverize his immediate successor. In such a place as this Nature
+seems pitiless and cruel; and one is impressed with the reflection
+that a million lives might be crushed out in any section of this maze
+of gorges and not a feature of it would be changed. There is,
+however, a fascination in gambling with danger, when a desirable
+prize is to be gained. The stake we risk may be our lives, yet, when
+the chances are in our favor, we often love to match excitement
+against the possibility of death; and even at the end, when we are
+safe, a sigh sometimes escapes us, as when the curtain falls on an
+absorbing play.
+
+[Illustration: STARTING DOWN THE TRAIL.]
+
+[Illustration: A YAWNING CHASM.]
+
+[Illustration: OBLIGED TO WALK.]
+
+As we descended, it grew warmer, not only from the greater elevation
+of the sun at noon, but from the fact that in this sudden drop of six
+thousand feet we had passed through several zones of temperature.
+Snow, for example, may be covering the summits of the mountains in
+midwinter, while at the bottom of the Canon are summer warmth and
+vernal flowers. When, after two or three hours of continuous descent,
+we looked back at our starting-point, it seemed incredible that we
+had ever stood upon the pinnacles that towered so far above us, and
+were apparently piercing the slowly moving clouds. The effect was
+that of looking up from the bottom of a gigantic well. Instinctively
+I asked myself if I should ever return to that distant upper world,
+and it gave me a memorable realization of my individual
+insignificance to stand in such a sunken solitude, and realize that
+the fissure I was exploring was only a single loop in a vast network
+of ravines, which, if extended in a straight line, would make a
+canon seven hundred miles in length. It was with relief that we
+reached, at last, the terminus of the lateral ravine we had been
+following and at the very bottom of the Canon rested on the bank of
+the Colorado. The river is a little freer here than elsewhere in its
+tortuous course, and for some hundred feet is less compressed by the
+grim granite cliffs which, usually, rise in smooth black walls
+hundreds of feet in almost vertical height, and for two hundred miles
+retain in their embrace the restless, foaming flood that has no other
+avenue of escape.
+
+The navigation of this river by Major J.W. Powell, in 1869, was one
+of the most daring deeds of exploration ever achieved by man, and the
+thrilling story of his journey down the Colorado, for more than a
+thousand miles, and through the entire length of the Grand Canon, is
+as exciting as the most sensational romance. Despite the
+remonstrances of friends and the warnings of friendly Indians, Major
+Powell, with a flotilla of four boats and nine men, started down the
+river, on May 24th, from Green River City, in Utah, and, on the 30th
+of August, had completed his stupendous task, with the loss of two
+boats and four men. Of the latter, one had deserted at an early date
+and escaped; but the remaining three, unwilling to brave any longer
+the terrors of the unknown Canon, abandoned the expedition and tried
+to return through the desert, but were massacred by Indians. It is
+only when one stands beside a portion of this lonely river, and sees
+it shooting stealthily and swiftly from a rift in the Titanic cliffs
+and disappearing mysteriously between dark gates of granite, that he
+realizes what a heroic exploit the first navigation of this river
+was; for nothing had been known of its imprisoned course through this
+entanglement of chasms, or could be known, save by exploring it in
+boats, so difficult of access were, and are, the two or three points
+where it is possible for a human being to reach its perpendicular
+banks. Accordingly, when the valiant navigators sailed into these
+mysterious waters, they knew that there was almost every chance
+against the possibility of a boat's living in such a seething
+current, which is, at intervals, punctured with a multitude of
+tusk-like rocks, tortured into rapids, twisted into whirlpools, or
+broken by falls; while in the event of shipwreck they could hope for
+little save naked precipices to cling to for support. Moreover, after
+a heavy rain the Colorado often rises here fifty or sixty feet under
+the veritable cataracts of water which, for miles, stream directly
+down the perpendicular walls, and make of it a maddened torrent
+wilder than the rapids of Niagara. All honor, then, to Powell and his
+comrades who braved not alone the actual dangers thus described, but
+stood continually alert for unknown perils, which any bend in the
+swift, snake-like river might disclose, and which would make the
+gloomy groove through which they slipped a black-walled _oubliette_,
+or gate to Acheron.
+
+[Illustration: A CABIN ON THE TRAIL.]
+
+[Illustration: A HALT.]
+
+[Illustration: AT THE BOTTOM.]
+
+[Illustration: TAKING LUNCH NEAR THE RIVER.]
+
+[Illustration: BESIDE THE COLORADO.]
+
+If any river in the world should be regarded with superstitious
+reverence, it is the Colorado, for it represents to us, albeit in a
+diminished form, the element that has produced the miracle of the
+Arizona Canon,--water. Far back in the distant Eocene Epoch of our
+planet's history, the Colorado was the outlet of an inland sea which
+drained off toward the Pacific, as the country of northwestern
+Arizona rose; and the Grand Canon illustrates, on a stupendous scale,
+the system of erosion which, in a lesser degree, has deeply furrowed
+the entire region. At first one likes to think of the excavation of
+this awful chasm as the result of some tremendous cataclysm of
+Nature; but, in reality, it has all been done by water, assisted, no
+doubt, by the subtler action of the winds and storms in the
+disintegration of the monster cliffs, which, as they slowly crumbled
+into dust, were carried downward by the rains, and, finally, were
+borne off by the omnivorous river to the sea.
+
+[Illustration: MONSTER CLIFFS, AND A NOTCH IN THE CANON WALL.]
+
+[Illustration: MILES OF INTRA-CANONS.]
+
+But though, at first, these agents do not seem as forceful and
+extraordinary as a single terrible catastrophe, the slow results thus
+gained are even more impressive. For what an appalling lapse of time
+must have been necessary to cut down and remove layers of sandstone,
+marble, and granite, thousands of feet in thickness; to carve the
+mighty shrines of Siva and of Vishnu, and to etch out these scores of
+interlacing canons! To calculate it one must reckon a century for
+every turn of the hourglass. It is the story of a struggle maintained
+for ages between the solid and the fluid elements, in which at last
+the yielding water won a victory over adamant. It is an evidence,
+too, of Nature's patient methods; a triumph of the delicate over the
+strong, the liquid over the solid, the transitory over the enduring.
+At present, the softer material has been exhausted, and the rapacious
+river, shrunken in size, must satisfy itself by gnawing only the
+archaic granite which still curbs its course. Yet if this
+calculation overpowers us, what shall we say of the reflections
+awakened by the fact that all the limestone cliffs along the lofty
+edges of the Canon are composed of fossils,--the skeletons of
+creatures that once lived here covered by an ocean, and that ten
+thousand feet of strata, which formerly towered above the present
+summits of the Canon walls, have been eroded and swept downward to
+the sea! Hence, were the missing strata (all of which are found in
+regular sequence in the high plateaus of Utah) restored, this Canon
+would be sixteen thousand feet in depth, and from its borders one
+could look down upon a mountain higher than Mont Blanc! To calculate
+the aeons implied in the repeated elevations and subsidences which
+made this region what it is would be almost to comprehend eternity.
+In such a retrospect centuries crumble and disappear into the gulf of
+Time as pebbles into the Canon of the Colorado.
+
+On my last evening in the pine tree camp I left my tent and walked
+alone to the edge of the Grand Canon. The night was white with the
+splendor of the moon. A shimmering lake of silvery vapor rolled its
+noiseless tide against the mountains, and laved the terraces of the
+Hindu shrines. The lunar radiance, falling into such profundity, was
+powerless to reveal the plexus of subordinate canons, and even the
+temples glimmered through the upper air like wraiths of the huge
+forms which they reveal by day. Advancing cautiously to an isolated
+point upon the brink, I lay upon my face, and peered down into the
+spectral void. No voice of man, nor cry of bird, nor roar of beast
+resounded through those awful corridors of silence. Even thought had
+no existence in that sunken realm of chaos. I felt as if I were the
+sole survivor of the deluge. Only the melancholy murmur of the wind
+ascended from that sepulchre of centuries. It seemed the requiem for
+a vanished world.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+On certain portions of our globe Almighty God has set a special
+imprint of divinity. The Alps, the Pyrenees, the Mexican volcanoes,
+the solemn grandeur of Norwegian fjords, the sacred Mountain of
+Japan, and the sublimity of India's Himalayas--at different epochs in
+a life of travel--had filled my soul with awe and admiration. But,
+since the summer of 1896, there has been ranked with these in my
+remembrance the country of the Yellowstone. Two-thirds across this
+continent, hidden away in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, eight
+thousand feet above the level of the sea, there lies a marvelous
+section of our earth, about one-half as large as the State of
+Connecticut. On three sides this is guarded by lofty, well-nigh
+inaccessible mountains, as though the Infinite Himself would not
+allow mankind to rashly enter its sublime enclosure. In this respect
+our Government has wisely imitated the Creator. It has proclaimed to
+all the world the sanctity of this peculiar area. It has received it
+as a gift from God and, as His trustee, holds it for the welfare of
+humanity. We, then, as citizens of the United States, are its
+possessors and its guardians. It is our National Park. Yet, although
+easy of access, most of us let the years go by without exploring it!
+How little we realize what a treasure we possess is proven by the
+fact that, until recently, the majority of tourists here were
+foreigners! I thought my previous store of memories was rich, but to
+have added to it the recollections of the Yellowstone will give a
+greater happiness to life while life shall last. Day after day, yes,
+hour after hour, within the girdle of its snow-capped peaks I looked
+upon a constant series of stupendous sights--a blending of the
+beautiful and terrible, the strange and the sublime--which were,
+moreover, so peculiar that they stand out distinct and different from
+those of every other portion of our earth.
+
+[Illustration: LONE STAR GEYSER.]
+
+[Illustration: THE GROTTO, GEYSER'S CONE.]
+
+[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE PARK.]
+
+To call our National Park the "Switzerland of America" would be
+absurd. It is not Switzerland; it is not Iceland; it is not Norway;
+it is unique; and the unique cannot be compared. If I were asked to
+describe it in a dozen lines, I should call it the arena of an
+enormous amphitheatre. Its architect was Nature; the gladiators that
+contended in it were volcanoes. During unnumbered ages those
+gladiators struggled to surpass one another in destruction by pouring
+forth great floods of molten lava. Even now the force which animated
+them still shows itself in other forms, but harmlessly, much as a
+captive serpent hisses though its fangs are drawn. But the volcanoes
+give no sign of life. They are dead actors in a fearful tragedy
+performed here countless centuries before the advent of mankind, with
+this entire region for a stage, and for their only audience the sun
+and stars.
+
+I shall never forget our entrance into this theatre of sublime
+phenomena. The Pullman car, in which we had taken our places at St.
+Paul, had carried us in safety more than a thousand miles and had
+left us at the gateway of the park. Before us was a portion of the
+road, eight miles in length, which leads the tourist to the Mammoth
+Springs Hotel. On one side an impetuous river shouted a welcome as we
+rode along. Above us rose gray, desolate cliffs. They are volcanic in
+their origin. The brand of fire is on them all. They are symbolic,
+therefore, of the entire park; for fire and water are the two great
+forces here which have, for ages, struggled for supremacy.
+
+[Illustration: THE WATCHFUL SENTINEL.]
+
+[Illustration: THE MAMMOTH SPRINGS HOTEL.]
+
+No human being dwells upon those dreary crags, but at one point, as I
+looked up at them, I saw--poised statue-like above a mighty pinnacle
+of rock--a solitary eagle. Pausing, with outstretched wings above its
+nest, it seemed to look disdainfully upon us human pygmies crawling
+far below. Living at such a height, in voluntary isolation, that king
+of birds appeared the very embodiment of strength and majesty. Call
+it a touch of superstition, if you will, yet I confess it thrilled me
+to the heart to find that here, above the very entrance to the
+Wonderland of our Republic, there should be stationed midway between
+earth and heaven, like a watchful sentinel, our national bird,--the
+bird of freedom!
+
+At length a sudden turn revealed to us our first halting-place within
+the Park,--the Mammoth Springs Hotel. The structure in itself looked
+mammoth as we approached it, for its portico exceeds four hundred
+feet in length. Our first impressions were agreeable. Porters rushed
+forth and helped us to alight, and on the broad piazza the manager
+received us cordially. Everything had the air of an established
+summer resort. This, I confess, surprised me greatly, as I had
+expected primitive accommodations, and supposed that, though the days
+of camping-out had largely passed away, the resting-places in the
+Park were still so crude that one would be glad to leave them. But I
+lingered here with pleasure long after all the wonders of the Park
+had been beheld. The furniture, though simple, is sufficient; to
+satisfy our national nervousness, the halls are so well-stocked with
+rocking-chairs that European visitors look about them with alarm,
+and try to find some seats that promise a more stable equilibrium;
+the sleeping-rooms are scrupulously clean; soft blankets, snow-white
+sheets, and comfortable beds assure a good night's rest; and the
+staff of colored waiters in the dining-room, steam-heat, a bell-boy
+service, and electric lights made us forget our distance from great
+cities and the haunts of men. Moreover, what is true of this is true,
+as well, of the other hotels within the Park; and when I add that
+well-cooked food is served in all of them, it will be seen that
+tourists need not fear a lengthy sojourn in these hostelries.
+
+[Illustration: HALL OF THE MAMMOTH SPRINGS HOTEL.]
+
+[Illustration: THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S HOUSE.]
+
+[Illustration: MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS.]
+
+[Illustration: FORT YELLOWSTONE.]
+
+Standing on the veranda of the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, I saw
+between me and the range of mountains opposite a broad plateau, on
+which were grouped a dozen neat and tasteful structures. With the
+exception of the photographer's house in the foreground, these
+constitute Fort Yellowstone. "A fort!" the visitor exclaims,
+"impossible! These buildings are of wood, not stone. Where are its
+turrets, battlements, and guns?" Nevertheless, this is a station for
+two companies of United States Cavalry; most of the houses being
+residences for the officers, while in the rear are barracks for the
+soldiers.
+
+[Illustration: A FOREST IN THE PARK.]
+
+No one who has visited the National Park ever doubts the necessity of
+having soldiers there. Thus, one of the most important duties of the
+United States troops, stationed within its area, is to save its
+splendid forests from destruction. To do this calls for constant
+vigilance. A fire started in the resinous pines, which cover many of
+the mountain sides, leaps forward with such fury that it would
+overtake a horseman fleeing for his life. To guard against so serious
+a calamity, soldiers patrol the Park continually to see that all the
+camp-fires have been extinguished. Thanks to their watchful care,
+only one notable conflagration has occurred here in the last eight
+years, and that the soldiers fought with energy for twenty days, till
+the last vestige of it was subdued.
+
+The tourist comprehends the great importance of this work when he
+beholds the rivers of the Park threading, like avenues of silver, the
+sombre frame-work of the trees, and recollects that just such forests
+as adjoin these streams cover no less than eighty-four per cent. of
+its entire area. In a treeless country like Wyoming these forests are
+of priceless value, because of their utility in holding back, in
+spring, the melting snow. Some of the largest rivers of our continent
+are fed from the well-timbered area of the Yellowstone; and if the
+trees were destroyed, the enormous snowfall in the Park, unsheltered
+from the sun, would melt so rapidly that the swollen torrents would
+quickly wash away roads, bridges, and productive farms, even, far out
+in the adjacent country, and, subsequently, cause a serious drought
+for many months.
+
+[Illustration: FIRE-HOLE RIVER.]
+
+Another very important labor of the United States soldiers here is to
+preserve the game within the Park. It is the purpose of our
+Government to make this area a place of refuge for those animals
+which man's insatiate greed has now almost destroyed. The remoteness
+of this lofty region, together with its mountain fastnesses, deep
+forests, and sequestered glens, makes it an almost perfect
+game-preserve. There are at present thirty thousand elk within the
+Park; its deer and antelopes are steadily increasing; and bears,
+foxes, and small game roam unmolested here. Buffaloes, however, are
+still few in number. They have become too valuable. A buffalo head,
+which formerly could be bought for a mere trifle, commands, to-day,
+a price of five hundred dollars. Hence, daring poachers sometimes run
+the risk of entering the Park in winter and destroying them.
+
+[Illustration: MOUNTAIN SHEEP.]
+
+It is sad to reflect how the buffaloes of this continent have been
+almost exterminated. As late as thirty years ago, trains often had to
+halt upon the prairies; and even steamboats were, occasionally,
+obliged to wait an hour or two in the Missouri River until enormous
+herds of buffalo had crossed their path. Now only about two hundred
+of these animals are in existence,--the sole survivors of the
+millions that once thundered over the western plains, and disputed
+with the Indians the ownership of this great continent.
+
+[Illustration: YELLOWSTONE ELK.]
+
+Until very recently, travelers on our prairies frequently beheld the
+melancholy sight of laborers gathering up the buffalo bones which
+lay upon the plains, like wreckage floating on the sea. Hundreds of
+carloads of these skeletons were shipped to factories in the east.
+Now, to protect the few remaining buffaloes, as well as other
+animals, our troops patrol the Park even in winter. The principal
+stations are connected by telephone, and information given thus is
+promptly acted on. No traveler is allowed to carry fire-arms; and any
+one who attempts to destroy animal life is liable to a fine of one
+thousand dollars, or imprisonment for two years, or both.
+
+[Illustration: BUFFALOES IN THE SNOW.]
+
+[Illustration: GATHERING BUFFALO BONES.]
+
+Still another task, devolving upon the Military Governor of the Park,
+is the building and repairing of its roads. No doubt the
+Superintendent is doing all he can with the amount of money that the
+Government allows him; but there is room for great improvement in
+these thoroughfares, if Congress will but make a suitable
+appropriation for the purpose. At present, a part of the
+coaching-route is of necessity traveled over twice. This should be
+obviated by constructing one more road, by which the tourist could be
+brought to several interesting features of the Park that are now
+rarely seen.
+
+Every one knows how roads in Europe climb the steepest grades in easy
+curves, and are usually as smooth as a marble table, free from
+obstacles, and carefully walled-in by parapets of stone. Why should
+not we possess such roads, especially in our National Park? Dust is
+at present a great drawback to the traveler's pleasure here; but this
+could be prevented if the roads were thoroughly macadamized. Surely,
+the honor of our Government demands that this unique museum of
+marvels should be the pride and glory of the nation, with highways
+equal to any in the world.
+
+[Illustration: A YELLOWSTONE ROAD.]
+
+[Illustration: LIBERTY CAP.]
+
+Only a few hundred feet distant from the Mammoth Springs Hotel
+stands a strange, naturally molded shaft of stone, fifty-two feet in
+height. From certain points its summit calls to mind the head-dress
+of the Revolution, and hence its name is Liberty Cap. It is a fitting
+monument to mark the entrance into Wonderland, for it is the cone of
+an old geyser long since dead. Within it is a tube of unknown depth.
+Through that, ages since, was hurled at intervals a stream of boiling
+water, precisely as it comes from active geysers in the Park to-day.
+But now the hand of Time has stilled its passionate pulsations, and
+laid upon its stony lips the seal of silence. At only a little
+distance from this eloquent reminder of the past I peered into a
+cavern hundreds of feet deep. It was once the reservoir of a geyser.
+An atmosphere of sulphur haunts it still. No doubt this whole plateau
+is but the cover of extinguished fires, for other similar caves
+pierce the locality on which the hotel stands. A feeling of solemnity
+stole over me as I surveyed these dead or dying agents of volcanic
+power. In the great battle of the elements, which has been going on
+here for unnumbered centuries, they doubtless took an active part.
+But Time has given them a mortal wound; and now they are waiting
+patiently until their younger comrades, farther up the Park, shall,
+one by one, like them grow cold and motionless.
+
+[Illustration: A MOUND OF THE HOT SPRING TERRACES.]
+
+Not more than fifty feet from Liberty Cap rise the famous Hot Spring
+Terraces. They constitute a veritable mountain, covering at least two
+hundred acres, the whole of which has been, for centuries, growing
+slowly through the agency of hot water issuing from the boiling
+springs. This, as it cools, leaves a mineral deposit, spread out in
+delicate, thin layers by the soft ripples of the heated flood.
+Strange, is it not? Everywhere else the flow of water wears away the
+substance that it touches; but here, by its peculiar sediment, it
+builds as surely as the coral insect. Moreover, the coloring of these
+terraces is, if possible, even more marvelous than their creation;
+for, as the mineral water pulsates over them, it forms a great
+variety of brilliant hues. Hot water, therefore, is to this material
+what blood is to the body. With it the features glow with warmth and
+color; without it they are cold and ghostlike. Accordingly, where
+water ripples over these gigantic steps, towering one above another
+toward the sky, they look like beautiful cascades of color; and when
+the liquid has deserted them, they stand out like a staircase of
+Carrara marble. Hence, through the changing centuries, they pass in
+slow succession, from light to shade, from brilliancy to pallor, and
+from life to death. This mineral water is not only a mysterious
+architect; it is, also, an artist that no man can equal. Its magic
+touch has intermingled the finest shades of orange, yellow, purple,
+red, and brown; sometimes in solid masses, at other places
+diversified by slender threads, like skeins of multicolored silk. Yet
+in producing all these wonderful effects, there is no violence, no
+uproar. The boiling water passes over the mounds it has produced with
+the low murmur of a sweet cascade. Its tiny wavelets touch the stone
+work like a sculptor's fingers, molding the yielding mass into
+exquisitely graceful forms.
+
+[Illustration: MINERVA TERRACE.]
+
+The top of each of these colored steps is a pool of boiling water.
+Each of these tiny lakes is radiant with lovely hues, and is bordered
+by a colored coping, resembling a curb of jasper or of porphyry. Yet
+the thinnest knife-blade can be placed here on the dividing line
+between vitality and death. The contrast is as sudden and complete as
+that between the desert and the valley of the Nile. Where Egypt's
+river ends its overflow the desert sands begin; and on these terraces
+it is the same. Where the life-giving water fails, the golden colors
+become ashen. This terraced mountain, therefore, seemed to me like a
+colossal checker-board, upon whose colored squares, the two great
+forces, Life and Death, were playing their eternal game. There is a
+pathos in this evanescent beauty. What lies about us in one place so
+gray and ghostly was once as bright and beautiful as that which we
+perceive a hundred feet away. But nothing here retains supremacy.
+The glory of this century will be the gravestone of the next. Around
+our feet are sepulchres of vanished splendor. It seems as if the
+architect were constantly dissatisfied. No sooner has he finished one
+magnificent structure than he impatiently begins another, leaving the
+first to crumble and decay. Each new production seems to him the
+finest; but never reaching his ideal, he speedily abandons it to
+perish from neglect.
+
+[Illustration: JUPITER TERRACE.]
+
+[Illustration: "VITALITY AND DEATH."]
+
+It cannot be said of these terraces that "distance lends enchantment
+to the view." The nearer you come to them the more beautiful they
+appear. They even bear the inspection of a magnifying glass, for they
+are covered with a bead-like ornamentation worthy of the goldsmith's
+art. In one place, for example, rise pulpits finer than those of Pisa
+or Siena. Their edges seem to be of purest jasper. They are upheld by
+tapering shafts resembling richly decorated organ-pipes. From
+parapets of porphyry hang gold stalactites, side by side with
+icicles of silver. Moreover, all its marvelous fretwork is
+distinctly visible, for the light film of water pulsates over it so
+delicately that it can no more hide the filigree beneath than a thin
+veil conceals a face.
+
+It is a melancholy fact that were it not for United States troops,
+these beautiful objects would be mutilated by relic-hunters. Hence,
+another duty of our soldiers is to watch the formations constantly,
+lest tourists should break off specimens, and ruin them forever, and
+lest still more ignoble vandals, whose fingers itch for notoriety,
+should write upon these glorious works of nature their worthless
+names, and those of the towns unfortunate enough to have produced
+them. All possible measures are taken to prevent this vandalism.
+Thus, every tourist entering the Park must register his name. Most
+travelers do so, as a matter of course, at the hotels, but even the
+arrivals of those who come here to camp must be duly recorded at
+the Superintendent's office, If a soldier sees a name, or even
+initials, written on the stone, he telephones the fact to the
+Military Governor. At once the lists are scanned for such a name. If
+found, the Superintendent wires an order to have the man arrested,
+and so careful is the search for all defacers, that the offending
+party is, usually, found before he leaves the Park. Then the
+Superintendent, like the Mikado, makes the punishment fit the crime.
+A scrubbing brush and laundry soap are given to the desecrator, and
+he is made to go back, perhaps forty miles or more, and with his own
+hands wash away the proofs of his disgraceful vanity. Not long ago a
+young man was arrested at six o'clock in the morning, made to leave
+his bed, and march without his breakfast several miles, to prove that
+he could be as skillful with a brush as with a pencil.
+
+[Illustration: "SEPULCHRES OF VANISHED SPLENDOR."]
+
+[Illustration: MAN AND NATURE.]
+
+[Illustration: THE PULPIT TERRACE.]
+
+[Illustration: A CAMPING-PARTY.]
+
+After spending several days at the Mammoth Hot Springs, we started
+out to explore the greater marvels that awaited us in the interior.
+The mode of travel through the Park is a succession of coaching-parties
+over a distance of one hundred and eighty miles. The larger vehicles
+are drawn by six, the smaller ones by four, strong horses, well fed,
+well groomed, high spirited, yet safe. This feature of our National
+Park astonished me. I had formed no idea of its perfection or its
+magnitude. Here, for example, are vehicles enough to accommodate
+seven hundred tourists for a continuous journey of five days! Here,
+too, are five hundred horses, all of which can be harnessed at
+twenty-four hours' notice; and, since the Park is so remote, here
+also are the company's blacksmith and repair shops. Within the
+stables, also, are the beautifully varnished coaches, varying in
+cost from one to two thousand dollars, and made in Concord, New
+Hampshire, twenty-five hundred miles away. On one of these I read
+the number, "13-1/2." "Why did you add the fraction?" I inquired of
+the Manager of Transportation. "Because," he replied, "some
+travelers would not take a number thirteen coach. They feared a
+breakdown or a tumble into the river; so I put on the half to take
+ill-luck away." I dwell at length upon these practical details,
+because I have found that people, in general, do not know them. Most
+Americans have little idea whether the driving distance in the Park
+is ten miles, or a hundred. Especially are they ignorant of the fact
+that they may leave the coaches at any point, remain at a hotel as
+long as they desire, and then resume their journey in other
+vehicles, without the least additional expense for transportation,
+precisely as one uses a stop-over ticket on a railroad.
+
+[Illustration: A COACHING-PARTY.]
+
+[Illustration: NO. 13-1/2.]
+
+[Illustration: HOTEL AT YELLOWSTONE LAKE.]
+
+The fact that it is possible to go through the Park in four or five
+days is not a reason why it is best to do so. Hundreds of tourists
+make the trip three times as rapidly as they would were they aware
+that they could remain comfortably for months. When this is better
+known, people will travel here more leisurely. Even now, parents
+with little children sometimes leave them at the Mammoth Springs
+Hotel in charge of nurses, and receive messages by telephone every
+day to inform them how they are. An important consideration, also,
+for invalids is the fact that two skilled surgeons, attendant on the
+army, are always easily accessible. Moreover, the climate of the Park
+in summer is delightful. It is true, the sun beats down at noonday
+fiercely, the thin air offering scant resistance to its rays, but in
+the shade one feels no heat at all. Light overcoats are needed when
+the sun goes down. There is scarcely a night here, through the year,
+which passes without frost. To me the pure dry air of that great
+height was more invigorating than any I had ever breathed, save,
+possibly, that of Norway, and it is, probably, the tonic of the
+atmosphere that renders even the invalid and aged able to support
+long journeys in the Park without exhaustion. In all these years no
+tourist has been made ill here by fatigue.
+
+[Illustration: THE GOLDEN GATE.]
+
+[Illustration: THE GOLDEN GATE, LOOKING OUTWARD.]
+
+A few miles after leaving the Hot Springs, we reached the entrance to
+a picturesque ravine, the tawny color of whose rocks has given it the
+name of Golden Gate. This is, alike, the entrance to, and exit from,
+the inner sanctuary of this land of marvels. Accordingly a solitary
+boulder, detached from its companions on the cliff, seems to be
+stationed at this portal like a sentinel to watch all tourists who
+come and go. At all events it echoes to the voices of those who enter
+almost as eager as seekers after gold; and, a week later, sees them
+return, browned by the sun, invigorated by the air, and joyful in the
+acquisition of incomparable memories.
+
+Emerging from this Golden Gate, I looked about me with surprise, as
+the narrow walls of the ravine gave place to a plateau surrounded
+everywhere by snow-capped mountains, from which the Indians believed
+one could obtain a view of Paradise. Across this area, like a
+railroad traversing a prairie, stretched the driveway for our
+carriages.
+
+"Do tourists usually seem delighted with the park?" I asked our
+driver.
+
+"Invariably," he replied. "Of course I cannot understand the words of
+the foreigners, but their excited exclamations show their great
+enthusiasm. I like the tourists," he continued, "they are so grateful
+for any little favor! One of them said to me the other day, 'Is the
+water here good to drink?' 'Not always,' I replied, 'you must be
+careful.' At once he pressed my hand, pulled out a flask, and said,
+'I thank you!"
+
+[Illustration: THE PLATEAU.]
+
+While crossing the plateau we enjoyed an admirable view of the
+loftiest of the mountains which form, around the Park, a rampart of
+protection. Its sharply pointed summit pierces the transparent air
+more than eleven thousand feet above the sea, and it is well named
+Electric Peak, since it appears to be a storage battery for all of
+the Rocky Mountains. Such are the mineral deposits on its sides, that
+the best instruments of engineers are thrown into confusion, and
+rendered useless, while the lightning on this favorite home of
+electricity is said to be unparalleled.
+
+[Illustration: ELECTRIC PEAK.]
+
+[Illustration: THE GLASS MOUNTAIN.]
+
+Presently a turn in the road revealed to us a dark-hued mountain
+rising almost perpendicularly from a lake. Marvelous to relate, the
+material of which this mountain is composed is jet-black glass,
+produced by volcanic fires. The very road on which we drove between
+this and the lake also consists of glass too hard to break beneath
+the wheels. The first explorers found this obsidian cliff almost
+impassable; but when they ascertained of what it was composed, they
+piled up timber at its base, and set it on fire. When the glass was
+hot, they dashed upon the heated mass cold water, which broke it into
+fragments. Then with huge levers, picks, and shovels, they pushed
+and pried the shining pieces down into the lake, and opened thus a
+wagon-road a thousand feet in length.
+
+[Illustration: AN INDIAN CHIEF.]
+
+The region of the Yellowstone was to most Indian tribes a place of
+horror. They trembled at the awful sights they here beheld. But the
+obsidian cliff was precious to them all. Its substance was as hard as
+flint, and hence well suited for their arrow-heads. This mountain of
+volcanic glass was, therefore, the great Indian armory; and as such
+it was neutral ground. Hither all hostile tribes might come for
+implements of war and then depart unharmed. While they were here a
+sacred, inter-tribal oath protected them. An hour later, those very
+warriors might meet in deadly combat, and turn against each other's
+breasts the weapons taken from that laboratory of an unknown power.
+
+[Illustration: A TRAPPER.]
+
+Can we wonder that, in former times, when all this region was still
+unexplored, and its majestic streams rolled nameless through a
+trackless wilderness, the statements of the few brave men who
+ventured into this enclosure were disbelieved by all who heard them?
+One old trapper became so angry when his stories of the place were
+doubted, that he deliberately revenged himself by inventing tales of
+which Muenchhausen would have been proud. Thus, he declared, that one
+day when he was hunting here he saw a bear. He fired at it, but
+without result. The animal did not even notice him. He fired again,
+yet the big bear kept on grazing. The hunter in astonishment then
+ran forward, but suddenly dashed against a solid mountain made of
+glass. Through that, he said, he had been looking at the animal.
+Unspeakably amazed, he finally walked around the mountain, and was
+just taking aim again, when he discovered that the glass had acted
+like a telescope, and that the bear was twenty-five miles away! Not
+far from the volcanic cliff which gave the trapper inspiration for
+his story, we reached one of the most famous basins of the Park. In
+briefest terms, these basins are the spots in the arena where the
+crust is thinnest. They are the trap-doors in a volcanic stage
+through which the fiery actors in the tragedy of Nature, which is
+here enacted, come upon the scene. Literally, they are the vents
+through which the steam and boiling water can escape. In doing so,
+however, the water, as at the Mammoth Springs, leaves a sediment of
+pure white lime or silica. Hence, from a distance, these basins look
+like desolate expanses of white sand. Beside them always flows a
+river which carries off the boiling water to the outer world.
+
+[Illustration: THE NORRIS BASIN.]
+
+[Illustration: A PLACE OF DANGER.]
+
+No illustration can do justice to what is called the Norris Basin,
+but it is horrible enough to test the strongest nerves. Having full
+confidence in our guide (the Park photographer) we ventured with him,
+outside the usual track of tourists, and went where all the money of
+the Rothschilds would not have tempted us to go alone. The crust
+beneath our feet was hot, and often quivered as we walked. A single
+misstep to the right or left would have been followed by appalling
+consequences. Thus, a careless soldier, only a few days before, had
+broken through, and was then lying in the hospital with both legs
+badly scalded. Around us were a hundred vats of water, boiling
+furiously; the air was heavy with the fumes of sulphur; and the whole
+expanse was seamed with cracks and honeycombed with holes from which
+a noxious vapor crept out to pollute the air. I thought of Dante's
+walk through hell, and called to mind the burning lake, which he
+describes, from which the wretched sufferers vainly sought to free
+themselves.
+
+[Illustration: A CAMPING-STATION.]
+
+Leaving, at last, this roof of the infernal regions, just as we again
+stood apparently on solid ground, a fierce explosion close beside
+us caused us to start and run for twenty feet. Our guide laughed
+heartily. "Come back," he said, "don't be afraid. It is only a baby
+geyser, five years old." In fact, in 1891, a sudden outburst of
+volcanic fury made an opening here, through which, at intervals of
+thirty minutes, day and night, hot water now leaps forth in wild
+confusion.
+
+"This, then, is a geyser!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Bah!" said the guide, contemptuously, "if you had seen the real
+geysers in the Upper Basin, you would not look at this."
+
+[Illustration: A BABY GEYSER.]
+
+Meantime, for half an hour we had been hearing, more and more
+distinctly, a dull, persistent roar, like the escape of steam from a
+transatlantic liner. At last we reached the cause. It is a mass of
+steam which rushes from an opening in the ground, summer and winter,
+year by year, in one unbroken volume. The rock around it is as black
+as jet; hence it is called the Black Growler. Think of the awful
+power confined beneath the surface here, when this one angry voice
+can be distinctly heard four miles away. Choke up that aperture, and
+what a terrible convulsion would ensue, as the accumulated steam
+burst its prison walls! It is a sight which makes one long to lift
+the cover from this monstrous caldron, learn the cause of its
+stupendous heat, and trace the complicated and mysterious aqueducts
+through which the steam and water make their way.
+
+[Illustration: THE BLACK GROWLER.]
+
+Returning from the Black Growler, we halted at a lunch-station, the
+manager of which is Larry. All visitors to the Park remember Larry.
+He has a different welcome for each guest: "Good-day, Professor. Come
+in, my Lord. The top of the morning to you, Doctor." These phrases
+flow as lightly from his tongue as water from a geyser. His station
+is a mere tent; but he will say, with most amusing seriousness:
+"Gintlemen, walk one flight up and turn to the right, Ladies, come
+this way and take the elevator. Now thin, luncheon is ready. Each
+guest take one seat, and as much food as he can get."
+
+"Where did you come from, Larry?" I asked.
+
+[Illustration: LARRY.]
+
+"From Brooklyn, Sor," was his reply, "but I'll niver go back there,
+for all my friends have been killed by the trolley cars."
+
+Larry is very democratic. The other day a guest, on sitting down to
+lunch, took too much room upon the bench.
+
+"Plaze move along, Sor," said Larry.
+
+The stranger glared at him. "I am a Count," he remarked at last.
+
+"Well, Sor," said Larry, "here you only count wun!"
+
+"Hush!" exclaimed a member of the gentleman's suite, "that is Count
+Schouvaloff."
+
+"I'll forgive him that," said Larry, "if he won't shuffle off this
+seat," Pointing to my companion. Larry asked me: "What is that
+gintleman's business?"
+
+"He is a teacher of singing," I answered.
+
+[Illustration: LARRY'S LUNCH-STATION.]
+
+"Faith," said Larry, "I'd like to have him try my voice. There is
+something very strange about my vocal chords. Whenever I sing, the
+Black Growler stops. One tourist told me it was a case of
+professional jealousy, and said the Black Growler was envious of my
+_forte_ tones. 'I have not forty tones,' I said, 'I've only one
+tone,' 'Well,' says he, 'make a note of it!'"
+
+[Illustration: THE BISCUIT BASIN.]
+
+Only once in his life has Larry been put to silence. Two years ago, a
+gentleman remarked to him: "Well, Larry, good-by; come and visit me
+next winter in the East. In my house you shall have a nice room, and,
+if you are ill, shall enjoy a doctor's services free of all expense."
+
+"Thank you," said Larry, "plaze give me your card."
+
+The tourist handed it to him; and Larry, with astonishment and
+horror, read beneath the gentleman's name these words:
+"Superintendent of the Insane Asylum, Utica, New York."
+
+Some hours after leaving Larry's lunch-station, we reached another
+area of volcanic action. Our nerves were steadier now. The close
+proximity to Hades was less evident; yet here hot mineral water had
+spread broadcast innumerable little mounds of silica, which look so
+much like biscuits grouped in a colossal pan that this is called the
+Biscuit Basin; but they are not the kind that "mother used to make."
+If a tourist asked for bread here, he would receive a stone; since
+all these so-called biscuits are as hard as flint. We walked upon
+their crusts with perfect safety; yet, in so doing, our boots grew
+warm beneath our feet, for the water in this miniature archipelago is
+heated to the boiling point.
+
+[Illustration: A GEYSER POOL.]
+
+"Show me a geyser!" I at last exclaimed impatiently, "I want to see a
+genuine geyser." Accordingly our guide conducted us to what he
+announced as "The Fountain." I looked around me with surprise. I saw
+no fountain, but merely a pool of boiling water, from which the light
+breeze bore away a thin, transparent cloud of steam. It is true,
+around this was a pavement as delicately fashioned as any piece of
+coral ever taken from the sea. Nevertheless, while I admired that, I
+could not understand why this comparatively tranquil pool was called
+a geyser, and frankly said I was disappointed. But, even as I spoke,
+I saw to my astonishment the boiling water in this reservoir sink and
+disappear from view.
+
+"Where has it gone?" I eagerly inquired.
+
+"Stand back!" shouted the guide, "she's coming."
+
+[Illustration: "A CLOUD-BURST OF JEWELS."]
+
+I ran back a few steps, then turned and caught my breath; for at that
+very instant, up from the pool which I had just beheld so beautiful
+and tranquil, there rose in one great outburst of sublimity such a
+stupendous mass of water as I had never imagined possible in a
+vertical form. I knew that it was boiling, and that a deluge of those
+scalding drops would probably mean death, but I was powerless to
+move. Amazement and delight enchained me spellbound. Talk of a
+fountain! This was a cloud-burst of the rarest jewels which, till
+that moment, had been held in solution in a subterranean cavern, but
+which had suddenly crystallized into a million radiant forms on thus
+emerging into light and air. The sun was shining through the
+glittering mass; and myriads of diamonds, moonstones, pearls, and
+opals mingled in splendid rivalry two hundred feet above our heads.
+
+[Illustration: THE OBLONG GEYSER.]
+
+We soon approached another of the many geysers in the basin. They are
+all different. Around one, a number of colored blocks, exquisitely
+decorated by the geyser's waves, appeared to have been placed
+artistically in an oblong frame. When I first beheld them, they
+looked like huge sea-monsters which, startled by our footsteps, were
+about to plunge into the depths.
+
+What is there in the natural world so fascinating and mysterious as a
+geyser? What, for example, is the depth of its intensely-colored pool
+of boiling water? No one can tell. One thing, however, is certain;
+the surface of the pool is but the summit of a liquid column. Its
+base is in a subterranean reservoir. Into that reservoir there flows
+a volume of cold water, furnished by the rain or snow, or by
+infiltration from some lake, or river. Meantime, the walls of the
+deep reservoir are heated by volcanic fire. Accordingly the water, in
+contact with these walls, soon begins to boil, and a great mass of
+steam collects above it. There must, of course, be some escape for
+this, and, finally, it makes its exit, hurling the boiling water to a
+height of one or two hundred feet, according to the force of the
+explosion. Imagine, then, the amount of water that even one such
+reservoir contains; for some of these volcanic fountains play for
+more than half an hour before their contents are discharged! Think,
+also, that in this basin there are no less than thirty geysers,
+seventeen of which have been observed in action simultaneously.
+
+[Illustration: THE GIANT GEYSER.]
+
+[Illustration: THE CASTLE GEYSER.]
+
+Thus far we had seen merely geysers which arise from pools; but,
+presently, we approached one which in the course of ages has built up
+for itself a cone, or funnel, for its scalding waves.
+
+"That," said our guide, "is the Castle Geyser."
+
+"That rock a geyser!" I exclaimed incredulously, "it looks like an
+old ruin, without a single indication of activity; save, possibly,
+the little cloud of steam that hangs above it, as if it were the
+breath of some mysterious monster sleeping far below."
+
+"If you doubt it," he replied, "go nearer and examine it."
+
+[Illustration: ON "ITS FLINTY SIDES."]
+
+We did so. I scrambled up its flinty sides, and found an opening in
+the summit three feet wide. I touched the rock. It was still warm,
+and yet no water was discernible. No sound was audible within its
+depths.
+
+[Illustration: THE CASTLE GEYSER'S CONE.]
+
+"If this be really a geyser," I remarked, "it is no doubt a lifeless
+one like Liberty Cap."
+
+My comrade smiled, looked at his watch, then at his notebook, and
+finally replied: "Wait half an hour and see."
+
+Accordingly, we lingered on the massive ledges of the Castle Geyser,
+and learned that it is the largest, probably the oldest, of all the
+active geyser cones within the Park. Once its eruptions were no doubt
+stupendous; but now its power is waning. The gradual closing up of
+its huge throat, and the increasing substitution of steam for water,
+prove that the monster has now entered on the final stage of its
+career; for here, as on the terraces, we are surrounded by specimens
+of life, decay, and death. The young, the middle-aged, the old, the
+dead,--they are all here!
+
+The fiery agitation of the pool and the impulsive spurts of water are
+indicative of youth. A steady, splendid outburst proves maturity. The
+feebler action of the Castle shows the waning powers of old age. Last
+of all comes the closed cone, like a sealed sarcophagus, and that is
+death.
+
+[Illustration: THE CASTLE AND THE BEEHIVE IN ACTION.]
+
+Meantime, the thirty minutes of expectancy had passed; and, suddenly,
+with a tremendous rush of steam, the Castle proved that its resources
+were by no means exhausted. At the same instant, half a mile away,
+the Beehive Geyser threw into the air a shaft of dazzling spray fully
+two hundred feet in height. I realized then, as never before, the
+noble action of our Government in giving this incomparable region to
+the people. If this had not been done, the selfishness and greed of
+man would have made a tour here almost unbearable. A fence would,
+doubtless, have been built around every geyser, and fees would have
+been charged to witness each wonderful phenomenon; whereas, to-day,
+thanks to the generosity of Congress, the Park itself, and everything
+that it contains, are absolutely free to all, rich and poor, native
+and foreigner,--forever consecrated to the education and delight of
+man.
+
+[Illustration: THE CRATER OF OLD FAITHFUL.]
+
+But no enumeration of the geysers would be complete without a mention
+of the special favorite of tourists, Old Faithful. The opening
+through which this miracle of Nature springs is at the summit of a
+beautifully ornamented mound, which is itself a page in Nature's
+wonder-book. The lines upon its wrinkled face tell of a past whose
+secrets still remain a mystery. It hints of an antiquity so vast that
+one contemplates it with bated breath; for this entire slope has been
+built up, atom after atom, through unnumbered ages; during which
+time, no doubt, the geyser hour by hour has faithfully performed its
+part, without an eye to note its splendor, or a voice to tell its
+glory to the world. Old Faithful does not owe its popularity entirely
+to height or beauty, though it possesses both. It is beloved for its
+fidelity. Whatever irregularities other geysers show, Old Faithful
+never fails. Year in, year out, winter and summer, day and night, in
+cold and heat, in sunshine and in storm, Old Faithful every
+seventy minutes sends up its silvery cascade to the height of about
+one hundred and eighty feet. Of all the geysers known to man this is
+the most reliable and perfect. Station yourself before it watch in
+hand and, punctual to the moment, it will never disappoint you. Few
+realize on how large a scale the forces of Nature work here. At each
+eruption, Old Faithful pours forth about one million five hundred
+thousand gallons, or more than thirty-three million gallons in one
+day! This geyser alone, therefore, could easily supply with water a
+city of the size of Boston.
+
+[Illustration: CASTLE AND OLD FAITHFUL GEYSERS.]
+
+[Illustration: OLD FAITHFUL IN ACTION.]
+
+Within this area of the active geysers is a place called Hell's Half
+Acre. It is rightly named. Rough, perpendicular ledges project over a
+monstrous gulf of unknown depth, from which great clouds of steam are
+constantly emerging. When the wind draws back for a moment a portion
+of this sulphur-laden curtain, the visitor perceives a lake below,
+seething and boiling from internal heat. For years no one suspected
+this to be a geyser; but suddenly, in 1881, the underlying force
+hurled the entire lake up bodily to the height of two hundred and
+fifty feet, and even repeated frequently. After some months the
+exhibition ceased, and all was calm again for seven years. In 1888,
+however, it once more burst forth with prodigious energy, ejecting at
+each explosion more boiling water than all the other geysers in the
+Park combined. Even the surrounding ledges could not withstand this
+terrible upheaval, and tons of rock were sometimes thrown up, with
+the water, more than two hundred feet. It is not strange, therefore,
+that this is called Excelsior, the King of Geysers. It is the most
+tremendous, awe-inspiring fountain in the world. When it will be
+again aroused, no one can tell. Its interval would seem to be from
+seven to ten years. Said an enthusiastic traveler to me: "If the
+Excelsior ever plays again, I will gladly travel three thousand miles
+to see it."
+
+[Illustration: HELL'S HALF ACRE.]
+
+[Illustration: THE EXCELSIOR, IN 1888.]
+
+[Illustration: EVENING IN THE UPPER BASIN.]
+
+I have a vivid remembrance of my last night at the Upper Basin. The
+hush of evening hallowed it. Alone and undisturbed we looked upon a
+scene unequaled in the world. Around us liquid columns rose and fell
+with ceaseless regularity. The cooler air of evening made many shafts
+of vapor visible which in the glare of day had vanished unperceived.
+So perfect were their images in the adjoining stream, that it was
+easy to believe the veil had been at last withdrawn, and that the
+hidden source of all this wonderful display had been revealed. No
+sound from them was audible; no breeze disturbed their steadfast
+flight toward heaven; and in the deepening twilight, the slender,
+white-robed columns seemed like the ghosts of geysers, long since
+dead, revisiting the scenes of their activity.
+
+[Illustration: THE MORNING-GLORY POOL.]
+
+[Illustration: PRISMATIC LAKE.]
+
+But geysers do not constitute the only marvels of these volcanic
+basins. The beauty of their pools of boiling water is almost
+inconceivable to those who have not seen them. No illustration can do
+them justice; for no photographer can adequately reproduce their
+clear, transparent depths, nor can an artist's brush ever quite
+portray their peculiar coloring, due to the minerals held in
+solution, or else deposited upon their sides. I can deliberately say,
+however, that some of the most exquisitely beautiful objects I
+have ever seen in any portion of the world are the superbly tinted
+caldrons of the Yellowstone.
+
+Their hues are infinitely varied. Many are blue, some green, some
+golden, and some wine-colored, in all gradations of tone; and could
+we soar aloft and take of them a bird's-eye view, the glittering
+basin might seem to us a silver shield, studded with rubies,
+emeralds, turquoises, and sapphires. Moreover, these miniature lakes
+are lined with exquisite ornamentation. One sees in them, with
+absolute distinctness, a reproduction of the loveliest forms that he
+has ever found in floral or in vegetable life. Gardens of mushrooms,
+banks of goldenrod, or clusters of asparagus, appear to be growing
+here, created by the Architect and colored by the Artist of these
+mineral springs.
+
+[Illustration: THE ROAD NEAR THE GOLDEN GATE.]
+
+[Illustration: THE EMERALD POOL.]
+
+The most renowned of all these reservoirs of color is called the
+Emerald Pool. Painters from this and other lands have tried
+repeatedly to depict this faithfully upon canvas, but, finally, have
+left it in despair. In fact, its coloring is so intense, that as the
+bubbles, rising to its surface, lift from this bowl their rounded
+forms, and pause a second in the air before they break, they are
+still just as richly tinted as the flood beneath. Accordingly this
+pool appeared to me like a colossal casket, filled with emeralds,
+which spirit hands from time to time drew gently upward from its
+jeweled depths.
+
+[Illustration: SUNLIGHT LAKE.]
+
+Close by this is another boiling pool called the Sunlight Lake. On
+this I saw one of the most marvelous phenomena I have ever looked
+upon. The colors of this tiny sheet of water appeared not only in
+concentric circles, like the rings of a tree, but also in the order
+of the spectrum. The outer band was crimson, and then the unbroken
+sequence came: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet in the
+centre! Moreover, the very steam arising from it (reflecting as it
+did the varied tints beneath) was exquisitely colored, and vanished
+into air like a dissolving rainbow. All these prismatic pools are
+clasped by beautifully decorated curbs of silica, and seem to be set
+in rings of gold, with mineral colors running through them like
+enamel. So delicate are the touches of the magic water, as the
+persistent heart-beats of old Mother Earth propel it over their
+ornamental rims, that every ripple leaves its tiny mark. Hence it is
+no exaggeration, but literal truth, to say that beautiful mosaic work
+is being formed each time the films of boiling water are dimpled by
+the passing breeze.
+
+[Illustration: THE DEVIL'S PUNCH-BOWL.]
+
+[Illustration: THE MAMMOTH PAINT POT.]
+
+The great variety of wonders in our National Park was a continual
+source of pleasure and surprise to me. Thus, in the midst of all the
+pools and geysers in the Upper Basin is one known as the Mammoth
+Paint Pot. The earth surrounding it is cracked and blistered by heat,
+and from this rises a parapet five feet high, enclosing a space
+resembling a circus ring. Within this area is a mixture of soft clay
+and boiling water, suggesting an enormous caldron of hot mush. This
+bubbling slime is almost as diversely tinted as the pools themselves.
+It seemed to me that I was looking into a huge vat, where unseen
+painters were engaged in mixing colors. The fact is easily explained.
+The mineral ingredients of the volcanic soil produce these different
+hues. In a new form, it is the same old story of the Mammoth
+Terraces. Fire supplies the pigments, and hot water uses them. All
+other features of the Park are solemn and impressive; but the Mammoth
+Paint Pot provokes a smile. There is no grandeur here. It seems a
+burlesque on volcanic power. The steam which oozes through the
+plastic mass tosses its substance into curious Liliputian shapes,
+which rise and break like bubbles. A mirthful demon seems to be
+engaged in molding grotesque images in clay, which turn a somersault,
+and then fall back to vanish in the seething depths. Now it will be a
+flower, then a face, then, possibly, a manikin resembling toys for
+children. Meanwhile one hears constantly a low accompaniment of
+groanings, hiccoughs, and expectorations, as if the aforesaid demon
+found this pudding difficult to digest.
+
+[Illustration: THE ROAD BY GIBBON RIVER.]
+
+[Illustration: "GROTESQUE IMAGES IN CLAY."]
+
+[Illustration: ON THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE.]
+
+Soon after leaving the Upper Geyser Basin, we approached a tiny lake
+which has, in some respects, no equal in the world. With the
+exception of some isolated mountain peaks, it marks the highest
+portion of our country. In winter, therefore, when encircled by
+mounds of snow, it rests upon the summit of our continent like a
+crown of sapphire set with pearls. So evenly is it balanced, that
+when it overflows, one part of it descends to the Atlantic, another
+part to the Pacific. This little streamlet, therefore, is a silver
+thread connecting two great oceans three thousand miles apart.
+Accordingly, one might easily fancy that every drop in this pure
+mountain reservoir possessed a separate individuality, and that a
+passing breeze or falling leaf might decide its destiny, propelling
+it with gentle force into a current which should lead it eastward to
+be silvered by the dawn, or westward to be gilded by the setting sun.
+
+[Illustration: THE "SILVER THREAD CONNECTING TWO OCEANS."]
+
+On either side of this elevation, known as the Continental Divide,
+the view was glorious. In one direction, an ocean of dark pines
+rolled westward in enormous billows. The silver surfaces of several
+lakes gleamed here and there like whitecaps on the rolling waves. Far
+off upon the verge of the horizon, fifty miles away, three
+snow-capped, sharply pointed mountains looked like a group of
+icebergs drifting from the Polar Sea. They did not move, however, nor
+will they move while this old earth shall last. They antedate by ages
+the Pyramids which they resemble. They will be standing thus, in
+majesty, when Egypt's royal sepulchres shall have returned to dust.
+Forever anchored there, those three resplendent peaks rise fourteen
+thousand feet above the sea, and form the grand tiara of our
+continent, the loftiest summits of the Rocky Mountains.
+
+[Illustration: THE THREE TETONS.]
+
+As we began the descent from this great elevation, another splendid
+vision greeted us. We gazed upon it with delight. Beyond a vast
+expanse of dark green pines we saw, three hundred feet below us, Lake
+Yellowstone. It stirred my heart to look at last upon this famous
+inland sea, nearly eight thousand feet above the ocean level, and to
+realize that if the White Mountain monarch, Washington, were planted
+in its depths (its base line on a level with the sea), there would
+remain two thousand feet of space between its' summit and the surface
+of this lake! In this respect it has but one real rival, Lake
+Titicaca, in the Andes of Peru.
+
+[Illustration: LAKE YELLOWSTONE, FROM A DISTANCE.]
+
+Descending to the shore, however, we found that even here, so far
+from shipyards and the sea, a steamboat was awaiting us. Imagine the
+labor of conveying such a vessel sixty-five miles, from the
+railroad to this lake, up an ascent of more than three thousand feet.
+Of course, it was brought in several sections; but even then, in one
+or two mountain gorges, the cliffs had to be blasted away to make
+room for it to pass. It is needless to add that this steamer has no
+rivals. It was with the greatest interest that I sailed at such a
+height on this adventurous craft; and the next time that I stand upon
+the summit of Mount Washington, and see the fleecy clouds float in
+the empyrean, one-third of a mile above me, I shall remember that the
+steamer on Lake Yellowstone sails at precisely the same altitude as
+that enjoyed by those sun-tinted galleons of the sky.
+
+[Illustration: RUSTIC FALLS, YELLOWSTONE PARK.]
+
+[Illustration: THE SOLITARY STEAMBOAT.]
+
+[Illustration: ON LAKE YELLOWSTONE.]
+
+To appreciate the beauty of Lake Yellowstone, one should behold it
+when its waves are radiant with the sunset glow. It is, however, not
+only beautiful; it is mysterious. Around it, in the distance, rise
+silver crested peaks whose melting snow descends to it in ice-cold
+streams. Still nearer, we behold a girdle of gigantic forests,
+rarely, if ever, trodden by the foot of man. Oh, the loneliness of
+this great lake! For eight long months scarcely a human eye beholds
+it. The wintry storms that sweep its surface find no boats on which
+to vent their fury. Lake Yellowstone has never mirrored in itself
+even the frail canoes of painted savages. The only keels that ever
+furrow it are those of its solitary steamer and some little
+fishing-boats engaged by tourists. Even these lead a very brief
+existence. Like summer insects, they float here a few weeks, and
+disappear, leaving the winds and waves to do their will.
+
+[Illustration: THE SLEEPING GIANT.]
+
+In sailing on this lake, I observed a distant mountain whose summit
+bore a strange resemblance to an upturned human face, sculptured in
+bold relief against the sky. It is appropriately called the Sleeping
+Giant; for it has slept on, undisturbed, while countless centuries
+have dropped into the gulf of Time, like leaves in the adjoining
+forest. How many nights have cast their shadows like a veil upon that
+giant's silhouette! How many dawns have flooded it with light, and
+found those changeless features still confronting them! We call it
+human in appearance, and yet that profile was the same before the
+first man ever trod this planet. Grim, awful model of the coming
+race, did not its stern lips smile disdainfully at the first human
+pygmy fashioned in its likeness?
+
+[Illustration: ALONG THE SHORE.]
+
+This lake has one peculiarity which, in the minds of certain
+tourists, eclipses all the rest. I mean its possibilities for
+fishing. We know that sad experience has taught mankind to invent the
+proverb: "Once a fisherman, always a liar." I wish, then, at the
+start, to say I am no fisherman; but what I saw here would
+inevitably make me one if I should remain a month or two upon these
+shores. Lake Yellowstone is the fisherman's paradise. Said one of
+Izaak Walton's followers to me: "I would rather be an angler here
+than an angel." Nor is this strange. I saw two men catch from this
+lake in one hour more than a hundred splendid trout, weighing from
+one to three pounds apiece! They worked with incredible rapidity.
+Scarcely did the fly touch the water when the line was drawn, the
+light rod dipped with graceful curve, and the revolving reel drew in
+the speckled beauty to the shore. Each of these anglers had two hooks
+upon his line, and both of them once had two trout hooked at the same
+time, and landed them; while we poor eastern visitors at first looked
+on in dumb amazement, and then enthusiastically cheered.
+
+[Illustration: GREAT FISHING.]
+
+Can the reader bear something still more trying to his faith?
+Emerging from the lake is a little cone containing a boiling pool,
+entirely distinct from the surrounding water. I saw a fisherman stand
+on this and catch a trout, which, without moving from his place, or
+even unhooking the fish, he dropped into the boiling pool, and
+cooked! When the first scientific explorers of this region were
+urging upon Congress the necessity of making it a National Park,
+their statements in regard to fishing were usually received with
+courteous incredulity. But when one of their number gravely declared
+that trout could there be caught and boiled in the same lake, within
+a radius of fifteen feet, the House of Representatives broke forth
+into roars of laughter, and thought the man a monumental liar. We
+cannot be surprised, therefore, that enthusiastic fishermen almost go
+crazy here. I have seen men, after a ride of forty miles, rush off to
+fish without a moment's rest as if their lives depended on it. Some
+years ago, General Wade Hampton visited the Park and came as far as
+Lake Yellowstone. On his return, some one inquired what he thought of
+Nature's masterpiece, the canon of the Yellowstone.
+
+[Illustration: LARRY, AS FISHERMAN AND COOK.]
+
+"The canon!" cried the general, "no matter about the canon; but I had
+the most magnificent fishing I ever saw in my life."
+
+One day, while walking along the shore, my comrade suddenly pressed
+my arm and pointed toward the lake. "An Indian!" I cried in great
+astonishment, "I thought no Indians ever came here." Our guide
+laughed heartily; and, as he did so, I perceived my error. What I had
+thought to be an Indian was but a portion of a tree, which had been
+placed upright against a log. The only artificial thing about it was
+a bunch of feathers. Everything else was absolutely natural. No knife
+had sculptured it. No hand had given a support to its uplifted arm.
+Even the dog which followed us appeared deceived, for he barked
+furiously at the strange intruder. There was to me a singular
+fascination in this solitary freak of nature; and, surrounded though
+I was by immeasurably greater wonders, I turned again and again to
+take a farewell look at this dark, slender figure, raising its hand,
+as if in threatening gesture to some unseen foe.
+
+[Illustration: A FALSE ALARM.]
+
+Leaving the lake, we presently entered the loveliest portion of the
+Park,--a level, sheltered area of some fifty square miles, to which
+has been given the appropriate name of Hayden Valley, in
+commemoration of the distinguished geologist, Doctor Ferdinand V.
+Hayden, who did so much to explore this region and to impress upon
+the Government the necessity of preserving its incomparable natural
+features. Even this tranquil portion of the Park is undermined by
+just such fiery forces as are elsewhere visible, but which here
+manifest themselves in different ways. Thus, in the midst of this
+natural beauty is a horrible object, known as the Mud Geyser. We
+crawled up a steep bank, and shudderingly gazed over it into the
+crater. Forty feet below us, the earth yawned open like a cavernous
+mouth, from which a long black throat, some six feet in diameter,
+extended to an unknown depth. This throat was filled with boiling
+mud, which rose and fell in nauseating gulps, as if some monster were
+strangling from a slimy paste which all its efforts could not
+possibly dislodge. Occasionally the sickening mixture would sink from
+view, as if the tortured wretch had swallowed it. Then we could hear,
+hundreds of feet below, unearthly retching; and, in a moment, it
+would all come up again, belched out with an explosive force that
+hurled a boiling spray of mud so high that we rushed down the slope.
+A single drop of it would have burned like molten lead. Five minutes
+of this was enough; and even now, when I reflect that every moment,
+day and night, the same regurgitation of black slime is going on, I
+feel as I have often felt, when, on a stormy night at sea, I have
+tried to sit through a course-dinner on an ocean steamer.
+
+[Illustration: HAYDEN VALLEY.]
+
+[Illustration: APPROACHING THE MUD GEYSER.]
+
+[Illustration: A STRANGER IN THE YELLOWSTONE.]
+
+Not far from this perpetually active object is one that has been
+motionless for ages,--a granite boulder enclosed by trees as by the
+bars of a gigantic cage. It is a proof that glaciers once plowed
+through this region, and it was, no doubt, brought hither in the
+glacial period on a flood of ice, which, melting in this heated
+basin, left its burden, a grim reminder of how worlds are made. Think
+what a combination of terrific forces must have been at work here,
+when the volcanoes were in full activity, and when the mass of ice
+which then encased our northern world strove to enclose this
+prison-house of fire within its glacial arms! One of our party
+remarked that the covering of this seething, boiling area with ice
+must have been the nearest approach to "hell's freezing over" that
+our earth has ever seen.
+
+Another striking feature of our National Park is its Petrified
+Forest, where, scattered over a large area, are solitary columns,
+which once were trunks of trees, but now are solid shafts of agate.
+The substance of the wood, however, is still apparent, the bark, the
+worm-holes, and even the rings of growth being distinctly visible;
+but every fibre has been petrified by the mysterious substitution of
+a mineral deposit. No doubt these trees were once submerged in a
+strong mineral solution, tinted with every color of the rainbow.
+Still, more marvelous to relate, an excavation on the hillside proves
+that there are eleven layers of such forests, one above another,
+divided by as many cushions of lava. Think of the ages represented
+here, during which all these different forests grew, and were
+successively turned to stone! This, therefore, is another
+illustration of the conflict between Life and Death. Each was in turn
+a victor, and rested on his laurels for unnumbered centuries. Life is
+triumphant now; but who shall say that Death may not again prove
+conqueror? If not immediately, Death may well be patient. He will
+rule all this planet in the end.
+
+[Illustration: A NATURAL BRIDGE.]
+
+[Illustration: A PETRIFIED FOREST.]
+
+No one can travel through the Yellowstone Park without imagining how
+it looks in winter. The snowfall is enormous, some drifts in the
+ravines being hundreds of feet deep, and, owing to the increased
+supply of water, the geysers throw higher streams. No traveling is
+possible then except on snowshoes; and it is with difficulty that
+some of the Park hotels are reached as late as the middle of May. Of
+course, in such a frigid atmosphere, the steam arising from the
+geysers is almost instantly congealed; and eye-witnesses affirm that,
+in a temperature of forty degrees below zero, the clouds of vapor
+sent up by Old Faithful rose fully two thousand feet, and were seen
+ten miles away.
+
+[Illustration: THE PARK IN WINTER.]
+
+It can be well imagined that to do much exploration here, in winter,
+is not alone immensely difficult, but dangerous. In 1887 an
+expedition was formed, headed by Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka; but,
+though he was experienced as an Arctic traveler, in three days he
+advanced only twenty miles, and finally gave out completely. Most of
+the exploring party turned back with him; but four kept heroically
+on, one of whom was the photographer, Mr. F.J. Haynes, of St. Paul.
+Undismayed by Schwatka's failure, he and his comrades bravely
+persisted in their undertaking. For thirty days the mercury never
+rose higher than ten degrees below zero. Once it marked fifty-two
+degrees below! Yet these men were obliged to camp out every night,
+and carry on their shoulders provisions, sleeping-bags, and
+photographic instruments. But, finally, they triumphed over every
+obstacle, having in midwinter made a tour of two hundred miles
+through the Park. Nevertheless, they almost lost their lives in the
+attempt. At one point, ten thousand feet above the sea, a fearful
+blizzard overtook them. The cold and wind seemed unendurable, even
+for an hour, but they endured them for three days. A sharp sleet cut
+their faces like a rain of needles, and made it perilous to look
+ahead. Almost dead from sheer exhaustion, they were unable to lie
+down for fear of freezing; chilled to the bone, they could make no
+fire; and, although fainting, they had not a mouthful for
+seventy-two hours. What a terrific chapter for any man to add to the
+mysterious volume we call life!
+
+One might suppose by this time that all the marvels of our National
+Park had been described; but, on the contrary, so far is it from
+being true, that I have yet to mention the most stupendous of them
+all,--the world-renowned canon of the Yellowstone. The introduction
+to this is sublime. It is a waterfall, the height of which is more
+than twice as great as that of Niagara. To understand the reason for
+the presence of such a cataract, we should remember that the entire
+region for miles was once a geyser basin. The river was then near the
+surface; and has been cutting down the walls of the canon ever since.
+The volcanic soil, decomposed by heat, could not resist the constant
+action of the water. Only a granite bluff at the upper end of the
+canon has held firm; and over that the baffled stream now leaps to
+wreak its vengeance on the weaker foe beneath.
+
+[Illustration: THE EXPEDITION OF 1887.]
+
+[Illustration: F.J. HAYNES.]
+
+[Illustration: THE CANON FROM A DISTANCE.]
+
+Through a colossal gateway of vast height, yet only seventy feet in
+breadth, falls the entire volume of the Yellowstone River. It
+seems enraged at being suddenly compressed into that narrow space;
+for, with a roar of anger and defiance and without an instant's
+hesitation, it leaps into the yawning gulf in one great flood of
+dazzling foam. When looked upon from a little distance, a clasp of
+emerald apparently surmounts it, from which descends a spotless robe
+of ermine, nearly four hundred feet in length. The lower portion is
+concealed by clouds of mist, which vainly try to climb the
+surrounding cliffs, like ghosts of submerged mountains striving to
+escape from their eternal prison. We ask ourselves instinctively:
+What gives this river its tremendous impetus, and causes it to fill
+the air with diamond-tinted spray, and send up to the cliffs a
+ceaseless roar which echoes and reechoes down the canon? How
+awe-inspiring seems the answer to this question, when we think upon
+it seriously! The subtle force which draws this torrent down is the
+same power that holds the planets in their courses, retains the
+comets in their fearful paths, and guides the movements of the
+stellar universe. What is this power? We call it gravitation; but why
+does it invariably act thus with mathematical precision? Who knows?
+Behind all such phenomena there is a mystery that none can solve.
+This cataract has a voice. If we could understand it, perhaps we
+should distinguish, after all, but one word,--_God_.
+
+[Illustration: YELLOWSTONE RIVER ABOVE THE FALLS.]
+
+[Illustration: THE GREAT FALLS OF THE YELLOWSTONE.]
+
+[Illustration: UPPER FALLS OF THE YELLOWSTONE.]
+
+[Illustration: THE CANON FROM BRINK OF FALLS.]
+
+As for the gorge through which this river flows, imagine if you can
+a yawning chasm ten miles long and fifteen hundred feet in depth.
+Peer into it, and see if you can find the river. Yes, there it lies,
+one thousand five hundred feet below, a winding path of emerald and
+alabaster dividing the huge canon walls. Seen from the summit, it
+hardly seems to move; but, in reality, it rages like a captive lion
+springing at its bars. Scarcely a sound of its fierce fury reaches
+us; yet, could we stand beside it, a quarter of a mile below, its
+voice would drown our loudest shouts to one another.
+
+[Illustration: THE CANON FROM GRAND POINT.]
+
+Attracted to this river innumerable little streams are trickling down
+the colored cliffs. They are cascades of boiling water, emerging from
+the awful reservoir of heat which underlies this laboratory of the
+Infinite. One of them is a geyser, the liquid shaft of which is
+scarcely visible, yet in reality is one hundred and fifty feet in
+height. From all these hot additions to its waves the temperature of
+the river, even a mile or two beyond the canon, is twenty degrees
+higher than at its entrance.
+
+"Are there not other canons in the world as large as this?" it may be
+asked.
+
+[Illustration: DOWN THE CANON FROM INSPIRATION POINT.]
+
+Yes, but none like this. For, see, instead of sullen granite walls,
+these sides are radiant with color. Age after age, and aeon after
+aeon, hot water has been spreading over these miles of masonry its
+variegated sediment, like pigments on an artist's palette. Here, for
+example, is an expanse of yellow one thousand feet in height. Mingled
+with this are areas of red, resembling jasper. Beside these is a
+field of lavender, five hundred feet in length, and soft in hue as
+the down upon a pigeon's breast. No shade is wanting here except the
+blue, and God replaces that. It is supplied by the o'erspreading
+canopy of heaven.
+
+Yet there is no monotony in these hues. Nature, apparently, has
+passed along this canon, touching the rocks capriciously; now
+staining an entire cliff as red as blood, now tingeing a light
+pinnacle with green, now spreading over the whole face of a mountain
+a vast Persian rug. Hence both sides of the canon present successive
+miles of Oriental tapestry. Moreover, every passing cloud works
+here almost a miracle; for all the lights and shades that follow one
+another down this gorge vary its tints as if by magic, and make of it
+one long kaleidoscope of changing colors.
+
+[Illustration: BELOW THE UPPER FALLS.]
+
+[Illustration: MILES OF COLORED CLIFFS.]
+
+Nor are these cliffs less wonderful in form than color. The substance
+of their tinted rocks is delicate. The rain has, therefore, plowed
+their faces with a million furrows. The wind has carved them like a
+sculptor's chisel. The lightning's bolts have splintered them, until,
+mile after mile, they rise in a bewildering variety of architectural
+forms. Old castles frown above the maddened stream, a thousand times
+more grand than any ruins on the Rhine. Their towers are five hundred
+feet in height. Turrets and battlements, portcullises and
+draw-bridges, rise from the deep ravine, sublime and inaccessible;
+yet they are still a thousand feet below us! What would be the effect
+could we survey them from the stream itself, within the gloomy
+crevice of the canon? Only their size convinces us that they are
+works of Nature, not of Art. Upon their spires we see a score of
+eagles' nests. The splendid birds leave these at times, and swoop
+down toward the stream; not in one mighty plunge, but gracefully, in
+slow, majestic curves, lower and lower, till we can follow them only
+through a field-glass, as they alight on trees which look to us like
+shrubs.
+
+[Illustration: TEMPLES SCULPTURED BY THE DEITY.]
+
+But many of these forms are grander than any castles. In one place is
+an amphitheatre. Within its curving arms a hundred thousand people
+could be seated. Its foreground is the emerald river; its
+drop-curtain the radiant canon wall. Cathedrals, too, are here, with
+spires twice as high as those which soar above the minster of
+Cologne. Fantastic gargoyles stretch out from the parapets. A hundred
+flying buttresses connect them with the mountain side. From any one
+of them as many shafts shoot heavenward as statues rise from the
+Duomo of Milan; and each of these great canon shrines, instead of
+stained glass windows, has walls, roof, dome, and pinnacles, one mass
+of variegated color. The awful grandeur of these temples, sculptured
+by the Deity, is overpowering. We feel that we must worship here. It
+is a place where the Finite prays, the Infinite hears, and Immensity
+looks on.
+
+[Illustration: THE CANON FROM ARTIST POINT.]
+
+Two visions of this world stand out within my memory which, though
+entirely different, I can place side by side in equal rank. They are
+the Himalayas of India, and the Grand Canon of the Yellowstone. On
+neither of them is there any sign of human life. No voice disturbs
+their solemn stillness. The only sound upon earth's loftiest
+mountains is the thunder of the avalanche. The only voice within this
+canon is the roar of its magnificent cascade. It is well that man
+must halt upon the borders of this awful chasm. It is no place for
+man. The Infinite allows him to stand trembling on the brink, look
+down, and listen spellbound to the anthem of its mighty cataract; but
+beyond this he may not, cannot go. It is as if Almighty God had kept
+for His own use one part of His creation, that man might merely gaze
+upon it, worship, and retire.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN L. STODDARD'S LECTURES, VOL. 10
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