Show ij 7 iJ i I Jt i T y J 1 e J f V 4 u IN COLORADO CAN CANON N canon Is the greatest gorge sorge of its kind in the world A writer thus describes it It Is abruptly countersunk In the forest plateau so so that you see nothing nothing no no- thing of It until you are suddenly s stopped stopped-on top p e d on Its brink with Its immeasurable wealth of divinely colored and sculptured buildings buildings build build- ings before you and beneath you No matter how far you may have wandered wandered wandered wan wan- dered hitherto or how many famous gorges and valleys you have seen this one De the Grand Canon of the Colorado will seem as novel to you as unearthly In the color and grandeur and quantity of its architecture as if It you had found It after death on some other star so incomparably lovely and grand and supreme su- su supreme supreme su su- preme is It above all the other delightful delight delight- ful canons In n our fire earth earth- shaken quake-shaken washed rain-washed w wave wave- ve- ve washed river and sculptured glacier-sculptured world It is about feet deep where you first see it and from rim to rim ten to fifteen miles mlles wide And instead of ot being dependent for interest on waterfalls depth wall watt sculpture and beauty of park-like park floor like most other great canyons no waterfalls are in sight and no appreciable floor space The big river has Just room enough to flow and i t gar obscurely here and there groping its way as best it can like a weary murmuring over over- laden traveler trying to escape from the tremendous bewildering labyrinth labyrinth- ic c abyss while its roar serves only to mellow and deepen the silence Instead Instead Instead In In- stead of being filled only with air the vast space between the walls is crowded crowd crowd- ed with natures nature's grandest buildings buildings-a a sublime city of them painted in every color of the rainbow and adorned with richly fretted cornice and battlement spire and tower in endless variety of style and architecture Every architectural architectural architectural archi archi- Invention of ot man has been anticipated anticipated anticipated an an- and far more In this grandest of Gods God's terrestrial cities clUes The Fhe first man who Journeyed through this terrible gorge did so Involuntarily The following Is the story of his Journey journey journey Jour jour- ney A few years after the civil war Capt Baker who had won his title In the confederate army Induced James White and a young German named Henry to go on a prospecting I tour with him to the then uninhabited and but little known San Juan country country country coun coun- try in southwestern Colorado After weeks of privation the prospectors prospectors prospectors pros pros- reached the promised land to the west of the Sierra Madre They at once went to work and rich gold finds confirmed Bakers Baker's Judgment The men worked for nearly a month with great success and were began began- it itI IIO I p HE Hl SAW THE YOUNG GERMAN GERMAN SINKING OUT OF SIGHT ning to feel that the Indians Indian's would not bother them tiem when Just be before re daylight one August morning they were startled from sleep by the thunder thunder thunder thun thun- der of rocks from the cUffs cliffs above and the shrill yells of the savages With dawn they saw the Navajos on both sides of the deep gulch but the horror of the situation was increased when Capt Baker Balter fell with a bullet through his brain White and saw saw their only chance for escape was to make their way down the canyon t to the west They took the heavily Jaden aden burrs burre along the Indians following and hurlIng hurling hurling hurl hurl- ing rocks from the cliffs cUffs About the middle of the afternoon they came to the canyon of ot the San SanJuan SanJuan SanJuan Juan where the water fi flowed wed from bank to bank They made a a. raft of driftwood which they found lodged In the cleft clett of the rocks using their ropes to fasten the logs They had to abandon the donkey but they loaded all their food and arms not forgetting the gold dust on the raft A more desperate situation it would be difficult to imagine Here these men were were at the bottom of a great canyon flowing through a trackless waste and through a region at that time unexplored unexplored unexplored and but little known even to r t this day flay but their ignorance of th the situation gave them strength and hope hopa The raft drifted down with the current current cur cur- rent the black blaek walls rising higher on either cither hand till at last it seemed as if It the off far tops were coming together and must fall faU in and crush them They kept on till four days had passed when the raft was swept Into a deeper and vaster chasm This was the canyon canyon canyon can can- yon of the Great Colorado Two more days and nights passed when the smooth current became swifter and they saw the white foam of rapids ahead who had been beon guiding the tho raft with a pole stood up against the advice of his companion The ropes parted The raft spread out like a fan tan White who was clinging to the logs heard an awful cry and looking i through the cloud of spray he saw the young German sinking out of cf sight Inthe in inthe inthe the maddened waters When these rapids were passed White succeeded In making a landing and securing the raft to the narrow strip of shore The food the arms the mining tools were were gone gone but the buckskin buckskin buckskin buck buck- skin bag full of gold was still fast to the logs Jogs It wis was now that the hero in Whites White's nature asserted Itself Alone without food at the bottom of a canyon In the heart of a vast desert with unknown dangers ahead and no idea of where the mighty gorge gorg ended and no knowl knowledge edge of the abodes of the nearest whites yet this man did not despair He thought of his mother mottier and trusted in God Now and then the raft shot past side canyons bleak and forbidding like cells set In the walls of a mighty prison On went the raft with no livIng living living liv liv- ing thing In sight for these profound depths were never stirred by the wings of bird and hitherto no human being had ever gone through them and lived to tell the tale tate On the fourth afternoon since he had had food the canyon widened out and he saw bushes He made the shore and ate the leaves and the pods of the mesquite bean At length and after he had been fifteen fifteen fifteen teen days In the canyons canyon's depths Whites White's reason totter tottered tattered d and he lay helplessly and hopelessly on the raft Just fourteen days from the time he started on this forced voyage White heard beard the splash of oars and encouragIng encouraging encouraging ing cheers He was was' too weak weak- to raise his head In a short time he saw many bearded faces looking down on him in n pity He had passed through the great canyon and had drifted to Callville a Mormon settlement at th tM this mouth of the Virgin n river White weighed in health pounds he weighed less than 90 when he finIshed finished finished fin fin- fin fin- the most wonderful trip In the records of adventure and daring |