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THE + ALUMNI OURNAL, OF THE ILLINOIS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. Vol. VI. NOVEMBER, 1876. No. 11. SKETCHES BEYOND MAJOR J. W. POWELL, by his daring and successful exploration of the Colo-rado river and its tributaries, has earned a national reputation. The bold, origi-nal and hazardous project of descending the Green river to its junction with the Grand, where the two unite to form the Colorado, and then the Colorado, through its mysterious and before unknown can-ons, to the head of navigation was thought to be the fanciful creation of a wild or maddened brain, or of a no less insane scientific fanatic. But it remained for the bold projector to realize the dream of his ambition and to carry to a suc-cessful issue, his hazardous enterprise. To have any just conception of the magnitude and danger of the undertak-ing, one must stand on the brink of those fearful precipices and gaze upon the tur-bulent waters of the mighty river, re-duced by distance to a mere thread of silver light, wending its seemingly quiet course amidst the dark cavernous recesses of the vast channel which it has been the work of ages to carve out. During the summer of 1872 in company with the Major, I spent six days on the Kaibab Plateau, and had the privilege of gazing into the Grand canon of the Col- -3 I THE ROCKY RANGE. orado. This canon, the deepest on the continent, probably in the world, is formed by the Colorado cutting through the southern end of the plateau. I well remember the morning set apart for a visit to its brink. No language can ade-quately describe the scene which greeted our eyes. Just beyond the precipice, 4,000 feet below, the scraggy cedars looked like turf; and far out upon the valley, cut and rounded into forms of beauty and grandeur, stood the old red sandstone buttes like the deserted castles of some monster race of giants. Wind-ing along in a varying, tortuous channel we could trace the gorge through which the mighty Colorado pours its noisy flood, while 6,ooo feet below our point of observation a silvery thread of light, weaving its graceful curves along this yawning chasm, marked the water-line of this restless river. But, to more fully comprehend the dangers which beset these bold explorers in their perilous voyage, one must gain a nearer view, pass down with circuitous windings the almost perpendicular ledge and stand at the river's brink, and listen to the thunderings of its uneasy waters as they are lashed into foaming billows
Object Description
Title | 1876-11-01 Alumni Journal |
Publication title | Alumni Journal |
Subject |
Universities & colleges Students Periodicals |
Year | 1876 |
Decade | 1870 |
Publisher | Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois, 61702 |
Rights | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
Contact Information | Please email Tate Archives at archives@iwu.edu or call 309-556-1535 for more information. Permission to reproduce these images must be granted by IWU. |
Collection | Student and Alumni News Periodicals (Illinois Wesleyan University) |
Source | Record Group 12-1: Alumni Organizations |
Type | Image |
Format | Size of original printed issues vary; range is from 6 x 10 in. |
Language | eng |
Digitization Specifications | All issues were scanned at 600 dpi on a NM1000-SS scanner and OCRd by Northern Micrographics, La Crosse, Wisconsin in Summer 2009. |
Description
Title | Page 1 |
Rights | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
Contact Information | Please email Tate Archives at archives@iwu.edu or call 309-556-1535 for more information. Permission to reproduce these images must be granted by IWU. |
Full Text | THE + ALUMNI OURNAL, OF THE ILLINOIS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. Vol. VI. NOVEMBER, 1876. No. 11. SKETCHES BEYOND MAJOR J. W. POWELL, by his daring and successful exploration of the Colo-rado river and its tributaries, has earned a national reputation. The bold, origi-nal and hazardous project of descending the Green river to its junction with the Grand, where the two unite to form the Colorado, and then the Colorado, through its mysterious and before unknown can-ons, to the head of navigation was thought to be the fanciful creation of a wild or maddened brain, or of a no less insane scientific fanatic. But it remained for the bold projector to realize the dream of his ambition and to carry to a suc-cessful issue, his hazardous enterprise. To have any just conception of the magnitude and danger of the undertak-ing, one must stand on the brink of those fearful precipices and gaze upon the tur-bulent waters of the mighty river, re-duced by distance to a mere thread of silver light, wending its seemingly quiet course amidst the dark cavernous recesses of the vast channel which it has been the work of ages to carve out. During the summer of 1872 in company with the Major, I spent six days on the Kaibab Plateau, and had the privilege of gazing into the Grand canon of the Col- -3 I THE ROCKY RANGE. orado. This canon, the deepest on the continent, probably in the world, is formed by the Colorado cutting through the southern end of the plateau. I well remember the morning set apart for a visit to its brink. No language can ade-quately describe the scene which greeted our eyes. Just beyond the precipice, 4,000 feet below, the scraggy cedars looked like turf; and far out upon the valley, cut and rounded into forms of beauty and grandeur, stood the old red sandstone buttes like the deserted castles of some monster race of giants. Wind-ing along in a varying, tortuous channel we could trace the gorge through which the mighty Colorado pours its noisy flood, while 6,ooo feet below our point of observation a silvery thread of light, weaving its graceful curves along this yawning chasm, marked the water-line of this restless river. But, to more fully comprehend the dangers which beset these bold explorers in their perilous voyage, one must gain a nearer view, pass down with circuitous windings the almost perpendicular ledge and stand at the river's brink, and listen to the thunderings of its uneasy waters as they are lashed into foaming billows |
Collection | Student and Alumni News Periodicals (Illinois Wesleyan University) |