bands of onyx, agate, and carnelian.

[Illustration: THE LUNCH STATION.]

About the hour of noon we reached a lunch-station at which the
stages, going to and from the Cañon, meet and pass. The structure
itself is rather primitive; but a good meal is served to tourists at
this wayside halting-place, and since our appetites had been
sharpened by the long ride and tonic-giving air, it seemed to us the
most delicious of repasts. The principal object of one of the members
of our party, in making the journey described in these pages, was to
determine the advisability of building a railroad from Flagstaff to
the Cañon. Whether this will be done eventually is not, however, a
matter of vital interest to travelers, since the country traversed
can easily be made an almost ideal coaching-route; and with good
stages, frequent relays of horses, and a well-appointed
lunch-station, a journey thus accomplished would be preferable to a
trip by rail.

[Illustration: HANCE'S CAMP.]

[Illustration: OUR TENT AT HANCE'S CAMP.]

Night had already come when we arrived at our destination, known as
Hance's Camp, near the border of the Cañon. As we drove up to it, the
situation seemed enchanting in its peace and beauty; for it is
located in a grove of noble pines, through which the moon that night
looked down in full-orbed splendor, paving the turf with inlaid ebony
and silver, and laying a mantle of white velvet on the tents in which
we were to sleep. Hance's log cabin serves as a kitchen and