On A Nearer Approach They
Represent Every Form Of Elegant Ruins - Columns, Some With Pedestals
And Capitals Entire, Others Mutilated And Prostrate, And Some Rising
Pyramidally Over Each Other Till They Terminate In A Sharp Point.
These Are Varied By Niches, Alcoves, And The Customary Appearances
Of Desolated Magnificence.
The illusion is increased by the number
of martins, which have built their globular nests in the niches,
and hover over these columns, as in our country they are accustomed
to frequent large stone structures.
As we advance there seems no end
to the visionary enchantment which surrounds us.
"In the midst of this fantastic scenery are vast ranges of walls,
which seem the productions of art, so regular is the workmanship.
They rise perpendicularly from the river, sometimes to the height
of one hundred feet, varying in thickness from one to twelve feet,
being as broad at the top as below. The stones of which they
are formed are black, thick, durable, and composed of a large
portion of earth, intermixed and cemented with a small quantity
of sand and a considerable proportion of talk [talc] or quartz.
These stones are almost invariably regular parallelopipeds of unequal
sizes in the wall, but equally deep and laid regularly in ranges
over each other like bricks, each breaking and covering the interstice
of the two on which it rests; but though the perpendicular interstice
be destroyed, the horizontal one extends entirely through the whole work.
The stones are proportioned to the thickness of the wall in
which they are employed, being largest in the thickest walls.
The thinner walls are composed of a single depth of the parallelopiped,
while the thicker ones consist of two or more depths.
These walls pass the river at several places, rising from the water's
edge much above the sandstone bluffs, which they seem to penetrate;
thence they cross in a straight line, on either side of the river,
the plains, over which they tower to the height of from ten to
seventy feet, until they lose themselves in the second range of hills.
Sometimes they run parallel in several ranges near to each other,
sometimes intersect each other at right angles, and have the appearance
of walls of ancient houses or gardens."
The wall-like, canyon formations were charted by Lewis and Clark
as "The Stone Walls." Their fantastic outlines have been admired
and described by modern tourists, and some of them have been
named "Cathedral Rocks," "Citadel Rock," "Hole in the Wall,"
and so on.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 87 of 362
Words from 26490 to 26909
of 110166
