To These Plateaus
Have Been Given The Following Names:
The one to the right is Grand Scenic
Divide, the middle one is named Huxley Terrace, and the one to the left
(the west) is Spencer Terrace.
For a few moments let us look at each of these plateaus, and grasp such
features as the eyes may observe.
Grand Scenic Divide and Dick Pillar. Grand Scenic Divide was so named
because it is the point where the granite of the Inner Gorge disappears
from the Grand Canyon, and this disappearance makes as vast and wonderful a
difference in the Canyon scenery as it is possible to find in its whole two
hundred and seventeen miles of length. To the right of the Divide,
looking eastward, where the granite is still in evidence, one can see the
temples, buttes and towers that make the view from El Tovar and Grand View
Points so interesting. Looking westward, the whole aspect changes, so
markedly, indeed, that one scarcely can believe it to be the same Canyon.
Hence the appropriateness of the name. At the extreme end of this plateau,
a detached rocky pillar stands peering down into the deepest recesses of
the Inner Gorge. This bears the name Dick Pillar, from Robert Dick, the
baker-geologist of Thurso, Scotland, who gave such material assistance to
Hugh Miller in his studies of the Old Red Sandstone.
Huxley Terrace. Huxley Terrace is the center plateau. At its end is an
eroded mass of red sandstone, to which the name of the noted naturalist and
evolutionist, Wallace, has been attached.
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