8o HUNTING TRIPS 



curiousiy twisted and contorted forms are 

 due to some vast volcanic upheavals or other 

 subterranean forces; yet they are merely 

 caused by the action of the various weather- 

 ing forces of the dry climate on the different 

 strata of sandstones, clays, and marls. Iso- 

 lated columns shoot up into the air, bear- 

 ing on their summits flat rocks like tables; 

 square buttes tower high above surrounding 

 depressions, which are so cut up by twisting 

 gullies and low ridges as to be almost im- 

 passable; shelving masses of sandstone jut 

 out over the sides of the cliffs ; some of the 

 ridges, with perfectly perpendicular sides, 

 are so worn away that they stand up like 

 gigantic knife blades; and gulches, wash- 

 outs, and canyons dig out the sides of each 

 butte, while between them are thrust out long 

 spurs, with sharp ragged tops. All such 

 patches of barren, broken ground, where the 

 feed seems too scant to support any large ani- 

 mal, are the favorite haunts of the big-horn, 

 though it also wanders far into the some- 



