196 LODGES IN THE WILDERNESS 



scenery was comparatively tame, — that is to 

 say it looked as though one might pass over 

 the country without inevitably breaking one's 

 neck. But to the right lay chaos, confused and 

 titanic. The strata were completely inverted 

 — in some instances almost turned upside 

 down. But the general suggestion was as 

 though several miles of the earth's surface- 

 crust had been placed on end. The soft layers 

 had disappeared; the hard remained standing. 

 Alternate deep chasms and jutting, moun- 

 tainous buttresses of rock were the conse- 

 quence. 



That sickle-bend must have been the result 

 of a tremendous cosmic upheaval — an earth- 

 throe which flung aside like a wisp the from 

 thirty to forty miles of double mountains bound- 

 ing the then-steep river gorge. A good deal of 

 the former surface of the bend had disap- 

 peared. Then the river, no longer a captive in 

 adamant bonds (as it still is farther inland) 

 doubtless took advantage of the unstable con- 

 ditions brought about by the cataclysm, laid 

 hands on the shattered earth-ribs and hurled 

 them, piecemeal, from its path. So that there, 

 although the mountains were even loftier than 

 those farther to the eastward, they did not press 

 upon the river as though trying to strangle it. 



