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CHAPTEE II. 



SURFACE. 



IT is the common opinion among persons who have never 

 been in the Great West, that the plains are a vast limitless 

 expanse, as level as an Eastern meadow. Nothing could 

 be farther from the truth. Nature abhors a level as it 

 does a vacuum ; or I should more truly say that nature, 

 in striving to bring all things to a general level, is con- 

 stantly antagonistic to partial levels, The general surface 

 of each of the three great plains was undoubtedly nearly 

 a level ; all, however, having a decided inclination from 

 the mountains. This general surface is now broken in 

 three ways : by local convulsion and partial upheavals, by 

 superposition of portions of an upper plain, and by the 

 action of water. 



The great convulsion which upheaved the first plain 

 raised up at the same time other grounds, some of which 

 must have been islands in the deep ; and yet others farther 

 away from the fire region, which, unprotected by lava 

 and partially molten rocks, have been gradually rounded 

 into long ranges which now stand as hills above the 

 general level of the second plain. 



The 'Two Buttes, 1 the 'Potato Butte,' and many 

 similar lone fiat-topped peaks, are fine specimens of the 

 islands of the first upheaval, while the heavy ridge 

 stretching along the north bank of Ceriso Creek (near 

 the Mesa de Maio) is undoubtedly attributable to the same 

 upheaval, though its distinctive features have been some- 

 what marred by ages of exposure to the elements. So 



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