Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1875 — One of the Wonders of Colorado. [ARTICLE]

One of the Wonders of Colorado.

Colorado has been called the Wonderland of America, and it well deserves that title. Readers of the St. Nicholas will remember some sketches of the “ Garden of the Gods,” printed in our number for last December, which showed some of the wonders of that region. But the Colorado' River, though it traverses a much larger territory than that of Colorado, is not! only grand enough to deserve the name of a wonderful river, hut very admirably maintains the reputation of the Territoiy for being a place of natural wonders. This river has latelV been explored by Maj. J. W. Powell, who has Written a series of pampers describing what he saw. To explore such a wild and tumultuous stream is a severe task. Many are the thrilling incidents related by Maj, Powell and bis comrades, and many were their mishaps. A deep river, confined in a narrow gorge or channel of steep rock, is full of danger; it has no shores on which wrecked navigators can be cast, and it is frequently broken by abrupt cascades, falls and foaming rapids. To pass between the great rocks that grimly lilt their headß jnst above •water requires a steady eye at'the how and a steady arm at the tiller. The Colorado Rivei* reflfches far up into the heart of the continent for its sources. Away up in Nebraska there is a vast cluster of peaks covered with snow and forming anofiahoot or spur of the Rocky Mountains* These are the Wind River Mountains; arid among them are thousands of bright little rivulets and brook 3, fed by the melting snoups. Manypf these little streams rtori together after awhile, and so fbrrii the' Green River, a river which is cold, swift and deep. It crosses the roads that lead across the continent to California; and, in old times, when the emigrants used to go to the gold country with horses or ox-teams they very much dreaded the dangerous fords of Green River. It flows on for more than 1,000 miles, often winding about, but always moving southward, through monstrous masses of rock and amidst arid plains, ufaiil it empties itself into the Gull of California, and so reaches the Pacific Ocean. ' Further south than the head-waters of the Green River is the Grand River, which rises hear Long's Peak, in the Rocky Mountains. It. js born in the solitary lakes which lie "among the rocky crags high up amidst the cold mountain peaks. Few white men have ever looked upon these lakes; but we know that out of their mysterious depths, hidden amid the pines and fir-trees, come the waters of the Grand River. This stream unites with the Green and so forms the great Colorado, which, as we have said, flows into the Gulf of' California. Besides these two main branches of the Colorado there are hundreds of others; some of them have no names; but many are named on the maps,, where you may find them duly set down. After these streams leave the immediate neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains: —say about two-thirds of the way down to the mouth of the Colorado—they pass, through a very dry and rocky country. Ages on ages ago it is supposed the surface of this region was comparatively level, though broken here and there by rocky peaks. Through it the streams rushed with great speed year after year and century after century. If there ’had been frequent and heavy falls of raim the surface of the country would have-been washed into the rivers and the debris or loose stuff swept'in would be carried off by the rivers. But the rain seldom falls there, and so the rivers, left to themselves, have kept on wearing down the rocky bed through which they foam until they have plowed deep channels far down into the rocky heart of the land. Nobody can tell how long the rivers have been at work carving out these channels; hut there they are, with tremendous cliffs towering far above them; and so smooth are the walls of these gorges or canons (pronounced canyons) that .the traveler must pass down the river by water; there is no shore along which he may walk; but, in general, the rock rises straight up fttun the river on either side. These canons which we have mentioned often run into each other, just as the branches of the stream run into the main channel. There is a maze of them all over the country, so that one cannot traverse the face of the land, these deep gorges so cut it up with channels and abysses. The walls of the canons rise to a great height—some of them more than 1,000 feet. The scenery cannot be called beautiful ;■it is terrible and sublime. But one must suppose that a few weeks spent in such an awful place would make one long for the sunny lawns and smooth streams of a less wonderful country. Nevertheless, the great river will always be a favorite resort for those who love to look upon the mightiest works of Grid in nature. — St. Nicholas for August.

—Damariscotta, Me., boasts »of the largest shell heaps on this continent. Within an area of 100 square rods are piled up the shells of 100,000,000 oysters which were thfown down by human eaters! Prof. Gunning thinks the multitude of eaters may not nave been very great, and the heaps fell of time rather than number, as no oysfer has liked In the rivers near within the memory of man. Instruments of stone, bone, and copper are the only human relics found among the shells, and shows that no great gw>logical event has occurred since the heap* were formed.