I Remain On My Burro All The Way Up, Save At Three
Places, Where Mr. James Deems It Best For Me To Dismount.
At last, we make
the final ascent, I see the tent above my head, then the roof of the house
at Bass Camp, and in another moment or two the most memorable and wonderful
trip of my life is over."
CHAPTER XIII. How The Canyon Was Formed*
* This chapter, while in manuscript, was read by Dr. Charles D. Walcott,
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and formerly Director of the
United States Geological Survey, and also by Professor Matthis, of the
Survey. It may therefore be accepted as a fairly accurate and authoritative
presentation of the geological conditions existent at the Canyon, with
their explanations, as accepted by the leading scientists of to-day.
The beginning of land. In the long ago centuries, when the world was
"without form and void," waters covered the face of the earth, and darkness
brooded over the waters. As the earth's crust began to shrink under the
water, in the process of cooling, the first masses to crumple up, to
wrinkle, were the first to arise above the surface of the vast, primeval,
shoreless ocean. They appeared as tiny islands, pinnacles, or ridges thrust
up, exactly as we see them sometimes on the coast, - hidden at high tide;
appearing again at low tide.
The Laurentian Hills. Nature had plenty of time before her, so she did not
hurry her work, and it took long centuries before there was any large
amount of land thrust up out of the bosom of the sea.
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