登陆注册
5291600000025

第25章 CHAPTER VIII(2)

Brahma and Zoroaster Temples. Now turn the eye away from Shiva, across to the east of Bright Angel Creek. There, outlined against the sky, are two noble-profiled buttes. The rear one is Brahma Temple (seven thousand five hundred and fifty-four feet), named after the first of the Hindoo triad, the Supreme Creator. The smaller butte, an angular mass of solid, unrelieved rock, sloping in a peculiarly oblique fashion, is Zoroaster Temple (seven thousand one hundred and thirty feet), thus adding to the Hindoo pantheon a fane for the founder of the religion of the Irano-Persians.

Deva Temple, Obi, and Komo Points. Behind Brahma can be seen, when at the right angle, a flat-topped detached mass (seven thousand three hundred and forty-four feet) named Deva Temple. Behind and above it are two points, Obi (eight thousand feet) to the right, and Komo, about the same height, to the left. These are the salient points on Walhalla Plateau, overlooking the Ottoman Amphitheatre, the chief temples of which I have already named.

Indian Garden. Passing now through the fertile Indian Garden, Angel Plateau is reached. The spring at Indian Garden is large enough to irrigate a small tract of ground. Experience has demonstrated that not only can vegetables of every kind be grown here, but all kinds of fruits, even oranges, lemons and grapefruit. For two miles after leaving the Garden, we ride over a fairly level plateau to its edge, where it overlooks the Granite Gorge.

Here, standing on the Tonto sandstone (three thousand seven hundred and eight feet), we look down into the dark recesses of the inner gorge, and picture the events described by Major Powell, when he and his brave band of intrepid explorers passed through.

O'Neill Butte. Now looking back to the rim at Yaki Point, we see beneath it, and corresponding to the Battleship, an imposing structure. It has been named O'Neill Butte, in honor of "Bucky" O'Neill, one of Roosevelt's Rough Riders, who was slain during the heroic charge at San Juan Hill. He it was who interested Eastern capitalists in the Anita Mine, and was therefore indirectly responsible for the building of the Grand Canyon Railway.

Pipe Creek. Those who wish to go to the river now retrace a portion of the way to the Indian Garden, and then turn off eastward by the old-time Indian corn-storage houses. Here one obtains a fine view of the wild chaos of metamorphosed rocks of Pipe Creek. It is a veritable Pluto's workshop, where the rocks are twisted, burned, and tortured out of all semblance to their original condition. They are made into cruel and black jagged ridges, which seem eager to tear and rend you.

Falls of Willow Creek. In these forbidding rocks the Devil's Corkscrew Trail has been cut, winding and twisting down, down, twelve hundred feet, passing by a split in the rocks where the waters of Willow Creek make a waterfall of over two hundred feet.

The Colorado River. At last the Colorado River is reached, and we are but two thousand four hundred and thirty-six feet above the sea. El Tovar, above, is six thousand eight hundred and sixty-six feet, and we have thus descended four thousand four hundred and thirty feet, nearly a mile, from rim to river. And what a river it is! No one can form any idea of it, unless he stands on the very brink, almost deafened by the sound of its sullen roar and turbulent rapids. It is hungry, insatiable, murderous, cruel. Many a foolish mortal has had the breath dashed from his body by these powerful waves. Those who wish to cross to the other side can defy danger in the cable crossing, but only a skilled boatman should attempt to row across.

Colorado Salmon. Fish are caught in the river here at times. The chief variety is a scale-bearing fish, of silvery appearance, commonly known to the local dwellers as Colorado salmon. Specimens have been caught two feet eight inches in length, and sixteen inches in circumference, and a fortunate fisherman brought one up to El Tovar, which was nearly three feet in length.

Camping at the River. It is a delightful experience to remain over night and sleep on the river sand, especially if the moon be at its full. Then one sees great walking shadows--moving, living, palpable entities. Towers and buttes and temples take on new qualities under the softer luminary of the night.

Here, too, one gets to know the Canyon in a new phase. He is in the trough between two ranges of mountains. To the north and to the south are towering peaks. You forget that you have ridden down, down, to reach this spot. You are in a new country. A majestic range of glorious peaks soars away above you to the north. Now, by merely turning in the other direction, you see another and entirely different range, with peaks, canyons, ravines, gorges, points, ridges all its own.

The Return to El Tovar. Riding back to El Tovar, with thoughts like these, the visitor imagines himself riding to a City Celestial. He reaches the plateau, studies for a while the unique coloring of the Algonkian strata just above the Granite Gorge, and sees where the faulting has raised them above the Tonto sandstones. Then, steadily looking upward, he rides forward, climbing slowly but surely to the peaks above. Tired though he is, he feels a constant thrill of satisfaction as he rises higher and higher, and when, at last, his animal lifts him to the level of El Tovar, and he stands once more in his room at the hotel, he feels an exaltation vouchsafed only to those who have dared and done an unusual thing. And this the Canyon is! No matter how often the trip is made, the interest of it never tires; the wonder of it never grows less.

同类推荐
  • 文殊师利所说摩诃般若波罗蜜经

    文殊师利所说摩诃般若波罗蜜经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 近思录

    近思录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 徐霞客游记

    徐霞客游记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 近代名人轶事录

    近代名人轶事录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 梦鹤轩楳澥诗钞

    梦鹤轩楳澥诗钞

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 员工工作技能提升指导读本

    员工工作技能提升指导读本

    职工素质教育是指对企业职工从事职业所必需的知识、技能和职业道德等方面进行教育培训,因此也称为职业技术教育或实业教育。其目的是培养现代企业所必需的学习型、知识型和技能型的员工,因此非常侧重于实践技能和实际工作能力的培养。
  • 静待花开:和孩子们一起幸福成长的日子

    静待花开:和孩子们一起幸福成长的日子

    信息时代,小学语文教学应该向何处去?教师应该读什么书?应该怎样寻求课堂教学设计改进的突破点?班主任德育、美育工作怎样更好地开展?史勤是上海市黄浦区优秀的语文教师。她潜心耕耘,静待花开,课堂“以情动情、诗意优雅”,班主任工作也风生水起。她立足多年课堂教学实践,对这些问题进行了深入的思考和实践探索,令人耳目一新。
  • 原始社会新纪元

    原始社会新纪元

    title:原始社会新纪元----【2018最不一样的原始题材】穿越到了原始社会能干嘛?混吃混喝直到老死?还是稳步建设,发展科技,建立军队,从而壮大部落,成为一方霸主,从而成为一个庞大帝国的君主?叶风选择了后者,但是,如果要是有三个穿越者,那又会擦出怎样的火花?一切尽在本书中揭晓。欢迎加入原始社会新纪元书友群,群号码:628601843
  • 至分水戍

    至分水戍

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 直播之工匠大师

    直播之工匠大师

    别家主播大长腿,我家主播是个糙汉子。别家唱歌跳舞玩游戏,我家天天直播削木头。陆子安得到了一个工匠大师系统,玩转华夏绝学,获得了无数人的追捧。为天地立心,为生民立命,为往圣继绝学,为万世开太平。书友群:栗栗香群:621248473VIP书友群:462681907(全订即可)
  • 我最想要的亲子财商游戏书

    我最想要的亲子财商游戏书

    提高孩子的财商的意义,并不是让他们成为“小巴菲特”“小李嘉诚”,而是让他们正确认识金钱,学会管理金钱以及合理使用金钱。进而去创造财富。很多宝宝在很小的时候就已经显露出对金钱概念的了解和认识,但育儿经验本来就缺乏的80后父母(很多人本身就是独生子女),面对孩子的这一变化和需求往往束手无策。本书精选近百个有趣而容易进入实际操作的亲子理财游戏,使枯燥的理财理念融入生活中。父母与孩子一起做游戏,不但能锻炼孩子的理财技巧,还能借此与孩子建立更加亲密的关系。帮助孩子管理和利用好自己的财富。
  • 食而无卫

    食而无卫

    云醉穿越了,还莫名其妙已经被下了聘礼要成亲;惴惴不安的是会碰见高大上的冰块儿夫君,逼格高惜字如金欺压她——诶?怎料得原来沈庭迟是她喜欢的暖男类型。可事实还不止如此……等等,过得好好儿的,可是她的夫君怎么突然揭开真面目了!(内无朝堂风云,毕竟女主只想做个静静的米虫,有吃的,还要会做╰(*?︶`*)╯嗝~)ps:咱们慢慢热,“食”得没有防备~
  • 佛说大坚固婆罗门缘起经

    佛说大坚固婆罗门缘起经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 对门的目光

    对门的目光

    尹守国,2006年开始小说创作,发表中短篇小说70多万字,作品多次被《新华文摘》、《小说选刊》、《北京文学中篇小说月报》等选载,中国作家协会会员,辽宁省作协签约作家。
  • 念朝曦

    念朝曦

    我总以为,那一年,是我人生中最灰暗的一年,直到后来……