ut which in those moments when
the sun casts a fatuous light upon it is more oppressive in its
influence upon the observer than when the blaze of high noon exposes all
of its unyielding harshness. To the feeling of desolation which comes
over one in such a region as this a quickened sense and apprehension of
the supernatural are added, and we seem to be invaders of a border-land
between the solid earth and phantasy. Nature is distraught; and so much
has man subordinated and possessed her elsewhere that here, where
existence is defeated by the absolute impossibility of sustenance, a
poignant feeling of her imperfection steals over us and weighs upon the
mind.

Perhaps no portion of the earth's surface is more irremediably sterile,
none more hopelessly lost to human occupation, and yet, an eminent
geologist has said, it is the wreck of a region once rich and beautiful,
changed and impoverished by the deepening of its draining streams--the
most striking and suggestive example of over-drainage of which we have
any knowledge. Though valueless to the agriculturist, dreaded and
shunned by the emigrant, the miner and the trapper, the Colorado plateau
is a paradise to the geologist, for nowhere else are the secrets of the
earth's structure so fully revealed as here. Winding through it is the
profound chasm within which the river flows from three thousand to six
thousand feet below the general level for five hundred miles in
unimaginable solitude and gloom, and the perpendicular crags and
precipices which imprison the stream exhibit with, unusual clearness the
zoological and physical history of the land.

[Illustration: SWALLOW CAVE, GREEN RIVER.]

[Illustration: INDIANS NEAR FLAMING GORGE (SAI-AR AND FAMILY).]

It was this chasm, with its cliffs of unparalleled magnitude and its
turbulent waters, that Major Powell explored, and no chapter of Western
adventure is more interesting than his experiences. His starting-point
was Green River City, Wyoming Territory, which is now reached from the
East by the Union Pacific Railway. On the second morning out from Omaha
the passengers find themselves whirling through sandy yellowish gullies,
and, having completed their toilettes amid the flying dust, they emerge
at about eight o'clock in a basin of gigantic and abnormal forms, upon
which lie bands of dull gold, pink, orange and vermilion. In some
instances the massive sandstones have curious architectural
resemblances, as if they had b