mountain sides, but where the waters have split a way there is nothing save vertical walls of stone that soar up, up, so high that it wearies the sight to travel to their summits. There are seams and depressions in their awful cliffs, and projections and cavities that show imprints of the teeth of frost, and away up on these eagles have found resting places, and built their eyries where only the storm-god can reach them. Distance, as expressed in feet on paper, conveys scarcely an idea of mountain height or cañon depth, for the awesome presence is lacking. But the height of the walls of the Royal Gorge, or, as it is sometimes called, the Grand Cañon of the Arkansas, is 3,000 feet, or more than half a mile, while the chasm is only fifty feet wide where the river rushes through, and but seventy feet at the summit. Three Eiffel towers, set upon top of each other, would hardly reach the crown of these tremendous cliffs, around the crests of which flying eagles look like flies lazily swimming in a haze of distance. In order to avoid cutting a road-bed through the base of the perpendicular cliffs, which come very close together, an iron bridge has been thrown around the defile and suspended by anchoring its sides in the granite walls, so that it has no pillared supports, for none are needed. Upon this suspended bridge, which runs parallel with and over the stream, every passenger train stops for the space of several minutes to give opportunity for an inspection of the Royal Gorge, which is most appalling and wonderful at this point. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: MOUTH OF GRAND RIVER CAÑON.—In this photograph we see the beginning of the magnificent scenery of Grand River Cañon in Colorado and Utah. It is the doorway or portal to a series of the most splendid views to be found anywhere in the world. No one can realize the true grandeur of this western scenery without beholding it, and the next best thing to seeing it in reality is its reflected image in this series of matchless photographs, taken specially for this work. The camera is a mirror in which the objects are reflected true to nature, and this reflection is caught by the rays of the sun and printed indelibly and beautifully upon the pages of the book. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: CASCADE AT OURAY.] [Illustration: LEANING TOWER, PERRY PARK.]