The Western United States | Page 6

made
practically a stairway, for the steps are necessary to keep animals from
slipping.
Step by step we descend until the slope becomes more gentle and a sort
of terrace is reached, where men are at work developing a copper mine.
Everything needed for the mine is carried down packed upon the backs
of sure-footed burros. Even the water has to be brought in kegs from a
little spring still deeper in the cañon.
The trail leaves the mine and winds down past another cliff, until, when
more than three thousand feet from the top of the plateau, we find water
for the first time. The little springs issue from the sandstone, and their
limited supply of water is soon drunk up by the thirsty sands.
As far as the water flows it forms a little oasis upon the barren slope.
Along the course of the streams are little patches of green grass,
flowers, and bushes. Birds flit about, and there are tracks of small
animals in the mud. Evidently the water is as great an attraction to them
as it is to us. If a well were dug in the plateau above, we can understand
now how deep it would have to be in order to reach water. A well
three-fourths of a mile deep would be a difficult one to pump.
We are now in the bottom of the main cañon, but deeper still is the last
and inner gorge, through which the Colorado is flowing. For thousands
of centuries the river has been sawing its way down into the earth. The
precipitous cliffs which we have passed are formed of hard sandstone
or limestone. The more gentle slopes consist of softer shales. Now the
river has cut through them all and has reached the very heart of the
earth, the solid granite.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--THE INNER GORGE OF THE GRAND
CAÑON OF THE COLORADO]
This inner gorge has almost vertical walls twelve hundred to fifteen

hundred feet high. We can sit upon the brink under a ledge of rock
which protects us from the hot sun, and watch the river as we eat our
luncheon. Far below, almost directly under us, it rushes along. The roar
of the current rises but faintly to our ears. The water is very muddy and
not at all like the clear mountain streams, far away upon the continental
divide, which unite to form the river. It seems as if the water, ashamed
of its soiled appearance, wanted to hide from the sight of men. If so, it
has succeeded well, for it can be seen only at rare intervals from the top
of the cañon walls, and even at the bottom of the main cañon the river
itself is not visible unless one stands upon the very brink of the granite
gorge.
The work of the river is not yet done. It will go on until the great cliffs
have crumbled and have been replaced by gentle slopes. It will not stop
until, at some far distant time, a broad valley has been worn out of the
rocky strata.
The cañon appears much wider when viewed from the bottom than
from the top, and the great cliffs far back along the trail seem less
precipitous, but only because they are so far away. A weary climb of
several miles awaits us. We must rest and take breath frequently or we
shall not reach the top.
As night approaches and the shadows begin to fall, every turret and
pinnacle stands out in bold relief. The bands of yellow and red shade
into purple, and everything, save the long winding trail, begins to have
a weird and mystical look.

HOW THE COLUMBIA PLATEAU WAS MADE
Years ago people disputed as to the way in which the earth was made.
Those who lived where all the rocks had, like lava, the appearance of
having once been melted, believed that fire had done all the work.
Those who lived where the rocks appeared to be formed of hardened
mud, sand, and lime, substances such as we find accumulating under
water, said that water alone had been the means. But in later years the

earth's surface has been more widely explored, and now it is known
that both opinions were partly right. Water and fire have both been
concerned in the making of the earth.
In the great valleys fire-formed rocks are rare, but they are more or less
abundant in all mountainous regions, for where mountains are, there the
crust of the earth is weakest. There are many reasons for believing that
the interior of the earth is very hot. We know that the surface is settling
in some places and rising in others, and that where the strain of the
upheaval is too great the