MESAS AND FOOT-HILLS 



209 



few hundred years the valley-bed changes into 

 a gorge with five hundred feet of sheer rock- 

 wall ; in a few thousand years perhaps the rest- 

 less wearing water of the great river has sunk 

 its bed five thousand feet below the surface and 

 made the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. 



The Canyon country is well named, for it has 

 plenty of wash-outs and gorges. Almost any- 

 where among the mountain-ranges you can find 

 them not Grand Canyons, to be sure, but ones 

 of size sufficient to be impressive without being 

 stupendous. Walls of upright rock several hun- 

 dred feet in height have enough bulk and body 

 about them to impress anyone. The mass is 

 really overpowering. It is but the crust of 

 the earth exposed to view ; but the gorge at Ni- 

 agara and the looming shaft of the Matterhorn 

 are not more. The imagination strains at such 

 magnitude. And all the accessories of the 

 gorge and canyon have a might to them that 

 adds to the general effect. The sheer precipices, 

 the leaning towers, the pinnacles and shafts, the 

 recesses and caves, the huge basins rounded 

 out of rock by the waterfalls are all touched 

 by the majesty of the sublime. 



And what could be more beautiful than the 

 deep shadow of the canyon ! You may have 



Gorge 

 cutting. 



In the 

 canyons. 



Upright 

 walls of 

 rock. 



