From The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons by John Wesley Powell I selected a piece found on page 212. At this point in the book John Powel and the other explorers are from the junction of the grand and green to the mouth of the Little Colorado. It is on July 19 and they have been climbing the rocks and going through some of the fissures of a gulch that they have selected:
“…So we pass each other alternately until we emerge from the fissure, out on the summit of the rock. And what a world of grandeur is spread before us! Below is the canyon through which the Colorado runs. We can trace its course for miles, and at points catch glimpses of the river. From the northwest comes the Green in a narrow winding gorge. From the northeast comes the Grand, through a canyon that seems bottomless from where we stand. Away to the west are lines of cliffs and ledges of rock- not such ledges as the reader may have seen where the quarryman splits his blocks, but ledges from which the gods might quarry mountains that, rolled out on the plain below, would stand a lofty range; and not such cliffs as the reader may have seen where the swallow builds its nest, but cliffs where the soaring eagle is lost to view ere he reaches the summit….On the summit of the opposite wall of the canyon are rock forms that we do not understand. Away to the east a group of eruptive mountains are seen- the Sierra La Sal… so the mountains are in uniform…wherever we look there is but a wilderness of rocks, - deep gorges where the rivers are lost below cliffs and towers and pinnacles, and ten thousand strangely cared forms in every direction, and beyond them mountains blending with the clouds.”
I liked this excerpt because of its great use of detail. John Wesley Powell does a great job in describing his surroundings. He describes what he is able to perceive at every direction. Once being the top of the rock he is surprised and awestruck at the view. He mentions how a “world of grandeur” was spread before him. The river runs for miles, there are gorges in one direction, bottomless canyons in another direction, and cliffs at still another direction. The grandeur of all of these environmental characteristics reminds me of our insignificance in comparison to Nature. It reminds me about the video titled “The Power of 10” that we saw in class. He is standing on this rock that is hundreds of miles above the sea level, but it is still hundreds of miles from reaching the sky. In addition, we can tell that he is impressed with the view. We can tell this because Powell tells his readers that it is a view that none of us have seen since he himself was impressed even though he has been an explorer for many years. The description of the grandeur of Nature is also made to indicate that it is impossible for us to really appreciate all of its beauty. He mentions that there were forms of rock that he didn’t understand nor had previous knowledge about. Therefore even though we would like to learn all of the secrets of nature, Nature is so big that we would never be able to discover all of its wonders. That is just how magical Nature and the wilderness really are!
“…So we pass each other alternately until we emerge from the fissure, out on the summit of the rock. And what a world of grandeur is spread before us! Below is the canyon through which the Colorado runs. We can trace its course for miles, and at points catch glimpses of the river. From the northwest comes the Green in a narrow winding gorge. From the northeast comes the Grand, through a canyon that seems bottomless from where we stand. Away to the west are lines of cliffs and ledges of rock- not such ledges as the reader may have seen where the quarryman splits his blocks, but ledges from which the gods might quarry mountains that, rolled out on the plain below, would stand a lofty range; and not such cliffs as the reader may have seen where the swallow builds its nest, but cliffs where the soaring eagle is lost to view ere he reaches the summit….On the summit of the opposite wall of the canyon are rock forms that we do not understand. Away to the east a group of eruptive mountains are seen- the Sierra La Sal… so the mountains are in uniform…wherever we look there is but a wilderness of rocks, - deep gorges where the rivers are lost below cliffs and towers and pinnacles, and ten thousand strangely cared forms in every direction, and beyond them mountains blending with the clouds.”
I liked this excerpt because of its great use of detail. John Wesley Powell does a great job in describing his surroundings. He describes what he is able to perceive at every direction. Once being the top of the rock he is surprised and awestruck at the view. He mentions how a “world of grandeur” was spread before him. The river runs for miles, there are gorges in one direction, bottomless canyons in another direction, and cliffs at still another direction. The grandeur of all of these environmental characteristics reminds me of our insignificance in comparison to Nature. It reminds me about the video titled “The Power of 10” that we saw in class. He is standing on this rock that is hundreds of miles above the sea level, but it is still hundreds of miles from reaching the sky. In addition, we can tell that he is impressed with the view. We can tell this because Powell tells his readers that it is a view that none of us have seen since he himself was impressed even though he has been an explorer for many years. The description of the grandeur of Nature is also made to indicate that it is impossible for us to really appreciate all of its beauty. He mentions that there were forms of rock that he didn’t understand nor had previous knowledge about. Therefore even though we would like to learn all of the secrets of nature, Nature is so big that we would never be able to discover all of its wonders. That is just how magical Nature and the wilderness really are!
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