538 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Climb tlie cliff at the end of Labymith Canon, and look over the 

 plain below, and you see vast numbers of biittes scattered about over 

 scores of miles, and every butte so regular and beautiful that you can 

 hardly cast aside the belief that they are works of Titanic art. It 

 seems as if a thousand battles had been fought on the plains below, 

 and on every field the giant heroes had built a monument, compared 

 with which the pillar on Bunker Hill is but a mile-stone. But no 

 human hand has placed a block in all those wonderful structures. 

 The rain-drops of unreckoued ages have cut them all from the solid 

 rock. 



Between the foot of Gray Canon and the head of Labyrinth Canon 

 we descend through many hundred feet of soft shales, sandstones, 

 marls, and gypsiferous rocks of a texture so friable that no caiion ap- 

 pears along the course of the Green, but, along the southern border of 

 the terrace above the Orange Cliffs, buttes of gypsum are seen. Some- 

 times the faces of these buttes are as white as tlie heart of the alabas- 

 ter from which they are carved, while in other places they are stained 

 and mottled red and brown. 



As we come near to the Book Cliffs the buttes are seen to be com- 

 posed of the same beds as those seen in the escarpment, and we see the 

 same light-blue buttresses and terraced summits. 



On the terrace above the Book Cliffs, the buttes are less numerous, 

 but the few seen have the angular, irregular appearance of the Brown 

 Cliffs. 



The summit of the high plateau through which the Caiaon of Deso- 

 lation is cut, is fretted into pine-clad hills, with nestling valleys and 

 meadow-bordered lakes, for now we are in that upper region where 

 the clouds yield their moisture to the soil. In these meadows herds 

 of deer carry aloft with pride their branching antlers, and sweep the 

 country with their sharp outlook, or test the air with their delicate 

 nostrils for the faintest evidence of an approaching Indian hunter. 

 Huge elk, with heads bowed by the weight of ragged horns, feed 

 among the pines, or trot with headlong speed through the under- 

 growth, frightened at the report of the red-man's rifle. Eagles sail 

 down from distant mountains, and make their homes upon the trees ; 

 grouse feed on the pine-nuts, and birds and beasts have a home from 

 which they rarely wander to the desert lands below. Among the 

 buttes on the lower terraces rattlesnakes crawl, lizards glide over the 

 rocks, tarantulas stagger about, and red ants build their play-house 

 mountains. Sometimes rabbits are seen, and wolves prowl in their 

 quest ; but the desert has no bird of sweet song, and no beast of noble 

 mien. 



The Toom'-pik "Wu-near' Tu-weap'. "We now proceed to the dis- 

 cussion of Stillwater Caiion, Cataract Canon, and Narrow Caijon, and 

 the region of country adjacent thereto. 



At the head of Stillwater Caiion the river turns to a more easterly 



