THE MAKE OF THE DESERT 



31 



through the glassy surface of lava. Their wear 

 is not here nor there, but all over, everywhere. 

 The edge of the wind is always against the stone. 

 Continually there is the slow erosion of canyon, 

 crag, and peak ; forever there is a gnawing at 

 the bases and along the face-walls of the great 

 sierras. Grain by grain, the vast foundations, 

 the beetling escarpments, the high domes in air 

 are crumbled away and drifted into the valleys. 

 Nature heaved up these mountains at one time 

 to fulfil a purpose : she is now taking them 

 down to fulfil another purpose. If she has 

 not water to work with here as elsewhere she is 

 not baffled of her purpose. Wind and sand an- 

 swer quite as well. 



But the cutting of the wind is not always 

 even or uniform, owing to the inequalities in 

 the fibre of rock ; and often odd effects are pro- 

 duced by the softer pieces of rock wearing away 

 first and leaving the harder section exposed to 

 view. Frequently these remainders take on 

 fantastic shapes and are likened to things hu- 

 man, such as faces, heads, and hands. In the 

 San Gorgonio Pass the rock-cuttings are in 

 parallel lines, and occasionally a row of gar- 

 nets in the rock will make the jewel-pointed 

 fingers of a hand protruding from the parent 



Erosion of 

 mountains. 



Rock- 

 cutting. 



