THE GRAND GULF.


Oregon County, Missouri, is also fortunate in having within its limits
the Grand Gulf, which has been declared by competent judges to be one of
the wonders of the world; and it offers a combination of attractions
that certainly entitles it to an important place among a limited few of
America's choicest scenes.

The Gulf is nearly nine miles northwest of Thayer, Missouri, and about
equally distant from Mammoth Spring in Arkansas, just a little south of
the Missouri state line. The drive is a pleasant one, as the road winds
among the forest-clad hills and passes occasional fields of cotton and
corn; but having been macadamized in very ancient times by the original
and all-powerful general government of that early period is somewhat
rough, yet threatens no danger greater than the destruction of wheels.

The only approach to the Gulf is over the hill-tops; and the entrance in
past times, while it was still a cave, must have been a sink-hole in the
roof of the largest chamber. This chamber is now the upper end of the
Grand Gulf, and into it we descended by a rugged path, sufficiently
difficult to maintain expectations of grandeur that are not doomed to
disappointment. The precipitous walls, two hundred feet in height, bear
a faithful record of the energy of circling floods; but instead of
frowning, as some good people persistently accuse all noble heights of
doing, they seem to look with conscious pride towards the windings of
the great rough chasm, where every available spot has been seized on as
a homestead for some form of vegetation. All the great, dark rock masses
that interfere with easy progress along the lowest depth, were
surrounded by a feathery setting of blooming white agaratum; and each