THE BLACK CAÑON.
In all the world there is no place so beautiful, imposing, sublime and awful, that may be so easy and comfortably visited, as the Black Cañon, for the iron horse of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad has a pathway through the cañon, and he draws after him coaches as handsome and pleasant as those which he draws on the level plain. Along many miles of this grand gorge the railroad lies upon a shelf that has been blasted in the solid walls of God's masonry; walls that stand sheer two thousand feet in height, and so close together that for most of the distance through the cañon only a streak of sky, sometimes in broad daylight, spangled with stars, is seen above.
"I'll look no more;
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
Topple down headlong."
Unlike many of the Colorado cañons, the scenery in this one is kaleidoscopic, ever changing. Here the train glides along between the close, regular and exalted walls then suddenly it passes the mouth of another mighty cañon which looks as if it were a great gateway to an unroofed arcade leading from the pathway of some monstrous giant. Now, at a sharp turn, Chippeta Falls, a stream of liquid crystal, pitches from the top of the dizzy cliffs to the bosom of the sparkling river which dashes beside the road. Then a spacious amphitheater is passed, in the centre of which stands Currecanti Needle, solitary and alone, a towering monument of solid stone, which reaches to where it flaunts the clouds, like some great cathedral spire. Truly there is no gorge in all the Rocky range that presents such variety and grandeur as the Black Cañon of the Gunnison.
TOLTEC GORGE.