Almost from the beginning of the trip, the scenery was delightful, variegated as it was with high-reaching cliffs dyed in great variety of colors, and long lines of mountains stretching away into an infinity of distance. The blue sky above, green shades of forest pines along the side, empurpled clouds catching the tints of a rising and setting sun, and lines of buff, red and brown, marking the strata of the banks, made a picture which no painter has the genius to reproduce. Green River enters the Minta plateau by the Flaming Gorge, and after reaching the heart of the chain turns eastward, then southward, cutting its way out by the splendid cañon of Lodore. Then following the base of the range for a few miles a sudden caprice seizes it. Not content with the terrible gash it has inflicted upon this noble chain, it darts at it viciously once more and cuts a horseshoe cañon in its flank 2,700 feet deep, then twists and emerges near the point of entrance. Thenceforward the river runs a tortuous course of 300 miles through gently inclined terraces which rise gradually as the stream descends. Further down, the Kaibab (Buckskin) Plateau rises to contest its passage, and a chasm 5,000 to 6,000 feet is the result. The whole province is a vast category of instances of river channels cutting through plateaus, mesas, and terraces where the strata dip up-stream, as will be more particularly described in the summary of Major Powell’s hazardous explorations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: GRAND CAÑON OF THE COLORADO, NEAR THE TEMPLE OF SET.—This splendid photograph will convey to the mind of the reader a good idea of the awful grandeur of this locality. The picture is taken at the bottom of the cañon, beneath the overhanging cliffs which rise perpendicularly for thousands of feet, and between whose jutting crags the sun can penetrate only when it is at the meridian. It is well to contemplate such scenery, for it shows us our own littleness and impotency in the midst of the fearful and resistless forces of nature which God has set in motion. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: KAIBAB PINNACLES, GRAND CAÑON OF THE COLORADO.]