see.

It is difficult for us to believe that we are seven thousand feet
above the sea, a height greater than that of the highest mountains
in the United States east of the Mississippi Valley. It is this
elevation, however, which brings the summer showers and makes the
air cool and pleasant, for the lowlands of this portion of the
United States are barren deserts, upon which the sun beats with
almost savage heat.

After the rainy season green grass and an abundance of flowers
appear in the open meadows scattered through the forest. But, as a
rule, the entire absence of water strikes one as being very strange.
Where are the springs and running streams which usually abound
in mountainous regions? Throughout the whole distance of seventy
miles from Flagstaff to the canon, there are but one or two spots
where water is to be found. These places are known as "water-holes";
they are simply hollows in the surface of the ground where the
water collects after the showers.

There is another strange feature about the plateau over which the
road leads; instead of sloping down toward the Colorado River and
the Grand Canon, the surface slowly rises, so that the little streams
which are formed after the heavy rains flow away from the river.

Our journey draws to an end, but there is nothing to indicate the
presence of the canon until we get glimpses through the trees of
an apparently bottomless gulf. The gulf widens upon a closer view,
we reach the edge, and all its wonderful proportions burst upon
us. Does the Grand Canon look as you thought it would? Probably
not, for it is unlike any other in the world. The canon is very
deep. The river has worn its way for more than a mile down into
the plateau, which once stretched unbroken from the cliffs upon
which we stand, across to those upon the opposite side, nearly
ten miles away.

The clear air makes objects upon the opposite side and in the bottom
of the canon seem much nearer than they really are. You may think
that it is an easy task to go to the bottom of the canon and climb
back again in a day, but in reality it is so difficult an undertaking
that only those who are accustomed to mountain climbing can accomplish
it.

It is not merely the great width and depth of the canon that impress
us, but also the bright, variegated colors which the different
rock layers display as they stretch in horizontal bands along the
faces of the cliffs, or sweep around the towers and pinnacles un