the energy of circling floods; but instead of
frowning, as some good people persistently accuse all noble heights of
doing, they seem to look with conscious pride towards the windings of
the great rough chasm, where every available spot has been seized on as
a homestead for some form of vegetation. All the great, dark rock masses
that interfere with easy progress along the lowest depth, were
surrounded by a feathery setting of blooming white agaratum; and each
turn in the winding course reveals new charms of rock and verdure with
their varying lights and shadows until the crowning glory is reached at
the Natural Bridge, about twelve hundred feet from the upper end of the
canon. This bridge is magnificent. It was impossible to secure
photographs because the abrupt curve by which it is approached gave no
point of view for a small camera; and it was equally impossible to reach
desirable points for taking measurements, but the open arch is not less
than twenty feet wide and considerably more than that in height. From
the floor or bed of the Gulf to the road that crosses the bridge is more
than two hundred feet. The passage under the bridge makes a curve, the
shortest side of which measures exactly two hundred and nineteen feet,
and as the width varies from twenty to forty feet, the other side is
longer. Most of the floor is flat and level as also is the ceiling, the
greatest irregularities being along the wall of greater length which
shows at what points the rushing water has spent its force. No water
flows through here now except in times of heavy rainfall. The other end
of the bridge has a somewhat smaller span but is very handsome, and the
outward views from both are exceedingly fine. After traversing about
four hundred feet more of the beautiful, high-walled Gulf, we stood
before the grand entrance to the cave, which is strikingly similar to
the first arch of the bridge. The only picture I was able to get was
taken from the slope of the Bridge-crown, one hundred feet below the
road, and merely gives a suggestion of the magnificence waiting
peacefully for the crowds of eager and enthusiastic sight-seers who will
in the near future rush to this charming region in the "Land of the Big
Red Apple."

My companions were the same as mentioned in the preceding chapter, a
nephew, James Arther Owen, and an obliging, tall young man of twenty,
who acted as guide and driver.

Relieving ourselves of all superfluous burdens just with