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��'hotel' in the bottom of tlio canon. This U a board shanty of a single room below, with a kitchen attached, and two bedrooms under the roof above. Primitive as the accommodationa are, and although, when there is no press of company expected, the ftinctions of stage pro- prietor, road-owner, driver, guide, landlord, and cook arc all merged in one person, we found that person adequate to all those du- ties; and even the lady of our party was comfortahl}' cared for, both as to bed and board. When this extraordinary place comes to be better known and more largely visited, ampler accommodations will doubtless i>e pro- vided, both in the canon and at the railway- station. The ' hotel ' stands at the junction of the Peach-Spring Canon and that of the Dia- mond Kiver, close to the refreshing stream of pure water. The Diamond-River Canon, of which Dr. Newberry gives two good illustra- tions, was explored upward for two or tlii-ee miles on the afternoon of the first day. The following morning suffices fur the junction of this canon with the Colorado, which is near by, and for the views up and down the river, which are to be had for less than an hour of climbing. Altogether, there is nothing like this caiion. The far-famed Yosemite is more beautiful and more varied, but not more magnificent, nor half so strange and weird.
I may be allowed to add the remark that the botany of these lateral caiiona is very interest- ing, and inviting to a longer stay. It had been so well explored b}' Mr. and Mrs. Lemmon a year before, that we could not expeut our bur- lied visit to be rewarded with any tldng abso- lutely new. But here we saw an abundance of the singular and striking Fou'[uieria in Sower, and that alone well repaid the toils of the ex-
��one of the most interesting of the Indian pueblos, that of Laguna; and that of Zuni is well within reach from Fort Wingale.
A. G.
��This is the only accessible poiot at which a descent can be made into the bed of the Grand Canon. But from Flagstaff — a station about nine hours farther east, and at considerably greater elevation, in a district of pine-forests, and dose to the beautiful and snow-clad Ijan Francisco mountains — a wagon-journey of two days over the mesa will take a |)arty to the Marble Canon, described and illustrated by Powell, where the Colorado flows twenty-five hundred feet below, between unbroken vertical walla of many-colored marbles. Moreover, the neighborhood of FlagstaCf abounds in cliff- dwelhnga and cave-dwellings, the latter com- paratively little known; and altogether lUia aeeras to us a most inviting place of summer resort.
Journeying eastward, the traveller passes
��The recent injury to the Washington mon- ument by lightning has attracted attention throughout the counti-y to such a degree that a short statement of the facts in the case will doubtless be of interest to the readers of .Sci- ence. On the afternoon of June 6 a thunder- storm of no unusual character jiassed over Washington. At about fifteen minutes past three there was a single burst of thunder of some violence, which was about the only nota- ble electrical disturbance of the afleruoon. Although it bad successfLilly passed through disturbances apparently much more violent on one or two previous occasions, this time the monument was 'struck,* and some damage done to one of the stones near the aper. Two men who were inside of the structure, at the base, describe the sound produced as resem- bling the simultaneous discharge of a great number of cannon, and declare that the ' whole monument trembled.' Two others were in a small wooden building, used as an office, near by. One of them was looking out of the win- dow, away from the monument, toward the north. He afllrms, in the most positive man- ner, that he saw a ball of fire, which he says was as large as his fist, coming directly towards the window out of which he was looking. Bolli he and his companion (who was not look- ing out of the window, and who did not see the ball of fire) seem to have felt something of the usual effect of a shock. Those who were within the monument say they felt no unusual sensations except those produced by the noise.
Wheu the monument was examined from the ground with the unaided eye, no injury could be detected. On applying a good tele- scope, however, it was seen that one of the stones just below the capstone was split from top to bottom, the crack produced being about four feet long, and it was open to the extent of about two inches. A small corner of the lower corresponding angle of the capstone had also been carried away, this doubtless resulting n'om the opening of the crack in the stone upon wbicb it rested.
The appearance of the apex is fairly repre- sented in the sketch, in which (a) represents the aluminum tip, (6) the capstone^ hjmL *^
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