THE GRAND CANYON OF ARIZONA 127

Reached the terminus at 6.30 and a bus, driven
by a man in cowboy costume, whisked us off to
the hotel, built on the rim of the Canyon, There
are two hotels at the Canyon, one cheap and the
other dear. By mistake we got into the cheap
one and ate our dinner on stools at a long counter
in the orthodox cafeteria fashion. Subsequently
arranged to get the baggage transferred to the
other, where we got a very nice room with the
usual bath and everything else tip-top: 18 dollars
a day for the two of us. Meanwhile we had been
out to take a first look at the Canyon, which falls
precipitously in front of the hotel, A full moon
was shining high in the heavens: the conditions
were perfect for moonlight effects. The scene
baffles all description. In front an enormous
abyss, eight miles across from the point where
we stood and three miles deep to the point where
the great Colorado river—third in size of
American rivers—thunders along through a hid-
den gorge to the Gulf of California, the sound of
it faintly rising from the depths below to the
point on the rim where we stood. Walked along
the rim for some distance to a place where the
snow made further progress too difficult for night
walk. Never shall I forget the scene I gazed on.
Under the moonlight towered vast masses of rock;
pinnacles, turrets, crags, precipices, massifs of
every imaginable size and shape were clearly
outlined, casting immense black shadows into the
gulfs beneath them and on the surrounding