The ancient Chinese account connects a baby king, a supreme ruler, with the Great Canyon and now states that water was used within the gorge to irrigate the soil, which is represented as being dried up or scorched. Is the Canyon remarkable for its heat? Surely it ought to be cool down there?
One visitor says: "That Canyon was the sultriest place I have ever struck, and my experience includes some of the hottest sections this side of the equator.
The oppressive heat in the chasm was felt at a "point fifty times as deep as the great chasm at Niagara." (note 41.)
"But despite the terrible heat, despite the discomfort of the situation, I was compelled to wonder and admire, For,"—
The Ta-Hoh should constitute a magnificent sight, but it is also said to contain some scorched or dried up soil. Is such to be seen?
An explorer reached the Colorado at a point where it is 266 yards wide, and adds that the "soil" "bore nothing but dry weeds and bushes and the whole scene presented the most perfect picture of desolation I have ever beheld, as if some sirocco had passed over the land, withering and scorching everything." (note 42.)
Withered and scorched! say the Ancients.
Withered and scorched! say the Moderns.
In one favored spot, "to the limit of vision, the tortuous course of the river (the Colorado) could be traced through a belt of alluvial land varying from one to six miles in width, and garnished with inviting meadows, with broad groves of willow and mezquite and promising fields of grain." The visitor remarks that the valley appears most attractive in the spring—"at this season of the year before the burning heat has withered the freshness and beauty of the early vegetation." (note 43.)
We are informed that the valley south of the Bend of the Colorado near the "Needles," there is in the spring a "most brilliant array" of flowers; but, "after the ephemeral influence of the few spring showers has passed, the annual plants are soon burned up by the sun's heat and perfect sterility prevails throughout the remainder of the season." (note 44.)