A deep canyon under shifting light produces sublimity bordering on terror.

Evidence

The singular grandeur cannot be described. It is a mere gash cut by the torrent, twisted, walled, chasmed, weather stained with the most brilliant coloring, generally dark with shadow, but its utter desolation occasionally revealed by a beam of intense sunshine. A few stunted pines and cedars, spared because of their inaccessibility, hung here and there out of the rifts. Sometimes the walls of the abyss seemed to meet overhead, and then widening out, the rocks assumed fantastic forms, all grandeur, sublimity, and almost terror. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 207

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: A canyon whose walls seem to meet overhead in darkness, opening to fantastic rock forms lit by a single beam of sun — a ready-made setting for a scene of claustrophobia turning to awe.