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Show MINING FORTUNES AND MISFORTUNES. 571 almost everywhere except where the old heads told them to look for it, the lucky ones jocosely proposed to install a spectacled burro over their budding school of mining science. But of this remark-able place, more anon. We devoted the whole day, February 7th, to seeing the wonders of the Grand Canon and the Royal Gorge ; and surely whole weeks would be scant time to enjoy fully the awful grandeur, the almost frightful sublimity of this place. In ages past the Arkansas has cut a nar-row way nearly twenty- five hundred feet deep, directly through the mountain ; and far down in the depths, for many a rod where sun-light never penetrates, the foaming water frets its way among the fallen rocks which choke its bed. Many pre-fer to go around by the old route, thirteen miles over the high levels, to get an opportunity to see the gorge from above ; but we chose the walk directly up the canon, as the way had been opened and made tolerably safe by the pio-neer parties of the Atchi-son, Topeka, and Santa Fe Road. This rock- bound river channel was known to Spanish missionaries in 1642; but it is claimed that no human being passed through it before 1870. The distant hills encroach very gradually on the river as we go up, till at last they shut it in between jagged and almost perpendicular cliffs two thousand feet in height. One can not see the top above him for the overhanging walls; but glancing NIGHT SCENE IN THE CANON. |