HOMEWARD BOUND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15920, 4 May 1912, Page 8

HOMEWARD BOUND.

THE GREAT SOUTHERN ROUTE. THE WONDERLAND OF AMERICA. IV. (By H. H. LUSK.) The name of "Wonderland" is familiar to the people of New Zealand where it suggests the scene of more or less active volcanic agencies at work in a great variety of ways, some having the attraction of beauty and others rather that of terror. America has one wonderland of the same sort, though it is neither so varied nor so beautiful as a good deal of what New Zealand has to show; but it lies a good deal farther to the north than the southern transcontinental route. 'flie southern wonderland is of quite a different kind, and owes a good deal of it-s remarkable interest to tho story it has to tell of the past rather than to its beauty in its present condition. To reach this wonderland from any direction the visitor must climb to a! height of from six to eight thousand feet above the sea-level, till he reaches the great plateau of that part of the continent. The climb must have been a serious undertaking in older times when it had to be made cither on foot or by the help of mules, but now that a great railway lino has been drawn across it almost from side to side, there is no difficulty in (retting a view of a wide territory which has no rival in the; known world as a standing record of : the long past history of the globe. That history is written plainly on tho rocks and plains, and embedded with equal distinctness in the deep layers of earth and clay through which the rivers, and especially the Colorado River, have cut deep perpendicular gashes in the course of thousands of years. Tho first thing that strikes tho traveller when crossing the great desert plateau is naturally one of desolation. The country through which the railway passes has all tho features of a desert ol almost pure sand on which the sunlight foils with a brilliancy which at first is very dazzling, for tho layer of sand under foot is generally almost pure white in colour. After a time, however, tho eyes grow accustomed to the glare, and then some of the wonders of the place begin to show themselves. The sand, which lies so soft that it must have been ho easy matter to get a solid foundation for the rails, is evidently sea sand, sparkling with shells; white and pink, of various sizes and shapes. This, at a height of six thousand feet above the sea, seems strange enough, but it is far less remarkable than tho impression made by a glance at tho other features of this strango country. Every here and there the eyo is arrested by great perpendicular masses of sandstone reck, rising from a hundred to a hundred and fifty or more feet from tho level surface of white-sand. In shape they are very much like the abrupt kopjes of South Africa:, but generally entirely naked of any kind of vegetation, and with edges and angles carved by the action of the winds into strangej grotesque figures of gigantic human beings that bear a startling resemblance to tho old Maori carvings that used to adorn the entrances to the houses of chiefs and that still serve as ornaments for the totem poles of the red men of Northern America. It is no easy matter at first to get rid of the feeling that these giant carvings must have been the work of some kind of primeval men who handed down their primitive ideas of art to succeeding generations; but they are executed on a. scale of more than a foot as compared with an inch in tho human imitations ; and it dawns on the mind of the; visitor that Nature is here displayed as ' the earliest instructor of human .art. I

This first discovery, interesting though it is, soon gives place to speculation as to the origin and meaning of these abrupt fragments of some upper layers of what is evidently sandstone. The first peculiarity that strikes the observer is that, in apparently every case, they consist of two distinct layers of different colours. The upper layer, which seeins to be of a dark grey colour, is a good deal thicker in some instances than in others, as if the top crust had been worn down, perhaps like the edges and corners, by the age-long action of the wind. The second layer, winch is of a dull red colour, seems to bo something about sixty or seventy feet thick in nearly every case ; A very littlo consideration will convince anybody who sees them that the flat hills, standing np so abruptly from the sandy plain, are pieces of an upper crust that once covered tho whole country to a height of between one and two hundred feet, only the harder pieces of which are left. Both layers are full of sea shells, some of tho larger of which project from the faces of the cliffs, having evidently been hard enough to resist the action of the wind that was wearing away the sandstone in which they were embedded.

The meaning of the strange phenomenon soon grows plain enough. The three layers of sand, of different colours, which have been compressed into soft stone by the hand of time, each of a different colour and each full of the remains of ocean shellfish, form tho record of three great submersions of this great plateau, covering an area more than twice as large as tho dominion of New Zealand -and now raised to an elevation of fully six thoueand feet above the ocean level. At what period of the world's history these submersions took place is, of course, very largely a matter of speculation, but. that they actually happened there can be no reasonable doubt. That this somewhat inland district remain the only ono on the continent that bears the marks of having beeu for many ages under the sea is another puzzling question, the answer to which may perhaps be connected with the groat earthquake convulsions that seem to be characteristic of tho Pacific coast of tho more central parts of both North and South America. As tho trains move eastward across the great plateau the district is reached which will naturally strike the visitor as best deserving the name of wonderland—this is tho region of tho gjant canyons, formed by the rivers running from the mountain ranges to the east and finding their way to tho ocean farther to the south. The principal of these rivers is the Colorado, into which most of the others sooner or later find their way as it crosses the plateau. Owing to the character of the j soil this river lias, in the course apparently of many thousands of years, cut a deerj gash in the great plain. Una gash as it approaches the ocean reaches a depth of nearly, if not'quite, two thousand feet, with sides that are almost perpendicular. . To seo the most striking part of this canyon it is necessary to leave the train and travel bv coach for some distance to the great hotel, situated near the beginning of the deeper part of I the channel. The view is well worth ; the delav and added expense, however I "s tho world has nothing so wonderful 0/ tho kind to show elsewhere. Jo I those who can get a good view ol tins wonderful ehasi", cut deep through | layer after layer of rock and soil, each showing clear and distinctly as it \ ? had only been exposed yesterday, , «t gives an impression of the slow pro- , «w of creation such as <*>n probably be'got in no other way or ,P»»ce. it j hero that most of the giant skeletons

of what we are accustomed to call antediluvian animals have been found, and a glance upward at six or eight thick layers of rock and earth and sand, above the layers in which they have been found will certainly convince tho observer that not ono but many flooda have taken place long ages since those huge animals existed. There are other interests to he met with on tho great desert plateau. Here, perhaps, as well as anywhere, something may be seen of tho Rod In- ' dians of North America. Groups of them may bo met with at any one of' the railway stations, whore thoy are engaged in selling Indian curios to the white travellers." They live in small villages, very little different from thoso in which their ancestors lived when first the Spanish adventurers of three hundred years ago found them. Thero are said to be one-third of tho Indians still living within the American States who make their homes in this strange desert region. Their numbers are estimated at nearly forty thousand, and looking at the countr.T through which the railway passes, it js, hard to imagine how even a race of hunters could ever have found food enough, thero. There is, however, a future before part at least of -this jareat desert plateau which may alter its destiny in an extraordinary degree. American; enterprise has already applied itself to solving tho problem of supplying the 1 ono tiling that is said to be needed to make a large section of the plateau fit for cultivation—this is. of course, a sufficient water supply. The mountain range whose white peaks can bo seen Jon tho eastern horizon as the train crosses the desert, is to supply tho water, which is to be carried by a wide plan of irrigation over all the nearer--parts of the desert country. A good deal has already been done, and it is said that many thousands of acres nearest the range have been reclaimed within tho last five years. It will bo interesting to see what crops of grain or fruit will prove to be best adapted to the conditions of a country at so great an elevation, and yet receiving so large an amount of sun heat in each year. On the whole, what with its wonderful record of the distant past and its prospects of a very different futrcra, there is probably no more strange and interesting country to be met with in any part of tho world than that which con br> so easily reached, and at least cursorily impacted bv taking the great southern route that leads from New Zealand to New York, .1 journey that may bo accomplished by sight-seers practically within four weeks.