No bottom, say the Ancients.
No bottom, say the Moderns.
The old account puts the unfathomable abyss in a Kuh (valley or ravine) and it is within a Valley—the Valley of Middle Park—that we actually find it. Moreover, this bottomless valley is "supposed" (or reported) to belong to the Ta Hoh—a title which would cover both Valley and Canyon. Indeed, Middle Park, with its enormous mountain-walls connects directly with the system of the Grand Canyon. Moreover, the one stream flows through both. And here it may be remarked that the Chu (or River of Ledges and Falls) is not terminated or swallowed up by the Bottomless abyss in Kuh (or Valley of Middle Park.) It flows on through the Ta Hoh and ultimately enlarges into a Gulf (the Gulf of California).
The rocky floor of the Kuh (or Valley of Middle Park) evidently constitutes a support or bottom for an impetuous and important River of Ledges or rapids and yet, at the same time, is reported to be Bottomless. This seems contradictory. But reaching the precise locality referred to in the old account, modern scientists simply echo the declaration of the Ancients,—that this Valley or Kuh, traversed by a leaping, furious Chu, is unfathomable.
Bottomless! say the Ancients.
Bottomless! say the Moderns.
It thus appears that a statement seemingly calculated at first sight to drown the ancient claim in a flood of derision, turns out on examination to be overwhelmingly powerful evidence in support of the validity of the old record.
In no respect or degree is the ancient testimony contradicted or falsified by modern evidence. Take for instance the old assertion that the shan or mountain-range of the Great Canyon, is "beautiful." Nothing seems more natural than to conclude that such a laudatory term is grossly out of place and that the Mountain-range, with its Canyon and furious Chu, is a frightful, gloomy, dangerous, horrible, repulsive, bleak, and ugly mass of shattered and tottering heights. And, indeed, there is much truth in this view of the situation. Nevertheless, modern visitors unite in declaring that Beauty is a marked feature of the rocky heights that possess or direct the Colorado; and this is in agreement with the ancient account.
One traveler says: "The roar of its waters was heard unceasingly, ... but its walls and cliffs, its peaks and crags, its amphitheatres and alcoves, tell a story of beauty and sublimity" (note 19).
Another visitor, who was treated most disrespectfully by our Chu, has eyes only for its "beauty": "The Canyon grows more and more picturesque and beautiful the farther we proceed.... On many of the long stretches where the river can be seen for several miles, the picture is one of charming beauty.... As the clouds rose we were treated to scenes rare and beautiful in the extreme" (n. 20.)