A famous American John Muir said in 1898： “The Grand Canyon… as unearthly in the color and grandeur and quantity of its architecture as if you had found it after death on some other star.”

　　Like Muir, those of us who stand along the rim are prompted to wonder about the unearthliness and the forces that created and are still changing this place

　　After more than 100 years of studies, many things are still obscure. Today visitors come by the thousands - the great and simple of the earth - all in a spirit of marvel. Travelers come from every state of the Union, from every country in Europe and Asia, pilgrims to a shrine that is the same as the creed.

　　From the depths of the canyon comes welling silence. Seldom can you hear the roar of the river.You cannot catch the patter. Like applause, from the leaves of the cottonwoods on the shelf-like plateau below you. For all sounds are swallowed in this gulf of space. ‘It makes one want to murmur.' A woman once whispered to her companion. This silence is not the silence of death； rather, it is a presence. It is like a great piece of music. But music made of man works up to a climax and ceases； the Grand Canyon is all climax, a chord echoing into eternity.

　　Perhaps the most spectacular feature of the Grand Canyon, its Redwall limestone cliff, stands about half way up the chasm and is practically vertical. Its average height is 550 feet ―― almost exactly that of the Washington Monument. Though it is actually gray-blue limestone, the surface of the cliff has been stained to a sunset hue by iron salts washing out of the rocks. Above the Redwall come alternating layers of red sandstone and shale 1,000 feet thick, then comes the next pale-blue layer. The topmost layers are a yellowish limestone.

　　Now, visitors to the South Rim alone may number 18,000 in a single day. Some of that number will travel by mule train down Bright Angel Trail to the canyon's floor, cross the raging river by a suspension bridge and amount to the North Rim.

　　Though the two rims face each other across only 12 miles, it is a journey of 214 miles by car from one to the other. Nor can you visit the North Rim except in summer； some 1,200 feet higher than the South Rim, it is snow covered much of the year except in July and August.

　　But there is no day that you may not visit the South Rim and find the sun warm on your face and the air perfumed with the incense of smoke from an Indian hearth. The Grand Canyon is an unearthly sight. No wonder an American writer and journalist said, “I came here an atheist, and departed a devout believer.”

　　一位著名的美國人約翰？繆爾曾在1898年說過：“（科羅拉多河的）大峽谷……它的色彩和構造的宏偉多樣是世上所無的，就像是人消亡以后在別的星球上發現的東西。”

　　和繆爾一樣，站在大峽谷邊緣的人們頓時對這里的超凡脫俗，對那種創造并仍在改變這個地方的神奇力量感到驚奇。

　　經過了100多年的研究，有許多事情仍是個謎。今天，數以千記的游客――不管是普通人還是大人物――都懷著一種好奇的心情來到這里。他們來自于美國的第一洲，來自于歐洲和亞洲的每一個國家，就像朝圣者一樣虔誠地來到這座神殿。

　　峽谷深處靜寂無聲。我們很少聽見河水的咆哮聲或下面壁架式高原上三角葉楊樹發出鼓掌般的　啪聲。因為這一切聲音都在這深淵的空間被吞沒了。一位女游客對同伴說，“它讓人禁不住地低聲細語。”這種寂靜不是死一般的沉寂；相反，它是萬物存在的寧靜。它就像一曲偉大的樂章。人類創作的樂曲逐漸進入高潮，但也有終止的時候，而大峽谷則高潮迭起，是永遠回蕩不止的和音。

　　也許，大峽谷最引人注目的風貌特色是“紅墻”石灰石懸崖，它聳立在裂口半當中，幾乎是垂直的。它的平均高度為550 英尺――幾乎和華盛頓紀念碑一樣高。雖然它實際上是灰藍色的石灰石，但是從巖石里滲出的鐵鹽卻把懸崖表面染上了晚霞般的色彩。在“紅墻”的上方，是紅色的沙巖和1 000 英尺厚的頁巖交替 層，然后是淺藍色的沙巖層，最上層是淡黃色的石灰石。

　　現在，每天來大峽谷南緣觀光的游客大概有18000名，其中有的會乘坐小型電動機車沿著“光明天使小道”來到谷底，穿過波濤洶涌的河道上方的吊橋，然后到達北緣。

　　盡管南北兩緣面對面相隔只有12英里，可是坐車從一邊到另一邊的距離卻是214英里。北緣只能在夏天參觀；它比南緣高出1 200英尺左右；除了7、8月外，其它大部分時間都為冰雪覆蓋。

　　然而南緣任何時候都歡迎人們的來訪。在那里溫暖的陽光照在人們的臉上；空氣中彌漫著印第安香爐中散發出的煙香氣。大峽谷是一道超凡脫俗的風景。難怪一位美國作家兼記者說：“我來這里時還是個無神論者，離開時卻是個虔誠的信徒了。”

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