THE DIVINE ABYSS 



way with his round Httle feet, as, with lowered 

 head, he seemed to be scanning the trail critically ! 

 Only when he swung around the sharp elbows of 

 the trail did his forefeet come near the edge of the 

 brink. Only once or twice at such times, as we hung 

 for a breath above the terrible incline, did I feel a 

 slight shudder. One of my companions, who had 

 never before been upon an animal's back, so fell in 

 love with her "Sandy" that she longed for a trunk 

 big enough in which to take him home with her. 



It was more than worth while to make the de- 

 scent to traverse that Cambrian plateau, which 

 from the rim is seen to flow out from the base of the 

 enormous cliffs to the brink of the inner chasm, look- 

 ing like some soft, lavender-colored carpet or rug. 

 I had never seen the Cambrian rocks, the lowest of 

 the stratified formations, nor set my foot upon Cam- 

 brian soil. Hence a new experience was promised 

 me. Rocky layers probably two or three miles thick 

 had been worn away from the old Cambrian foun- 

 dations, and when I looked down upon that gently 

 undulating plateau, the thought of the eternity of 

 time which it represented tended quite as much to 

 make me dizzy as did the drop of nearly four thou- 

 sand feet. We found it gravelly and desert-like, cov- 

 ered with cacti, low sagebrush, and other growths. 

 The dim trail led us to its edge, where we could look 

 down into the twelve-hundred-foot V-shaped gash 

 which the river had cut into the dark, crude-looking 



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