400 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



above us, to the south, winding up the steep and rugged 

 sides of the acclivity. 



As we journeyed along this dell all were again struck with 

 admiration at the strange and fanciful figures made by the 

 washing of the waters during the rainy season. In some 

 places perfect walls, formed of reddish clay, were seen 

 standing, and were they any where else, it would be 

 impossible to believe that other than the hand of man 

 formed them. The veins of which these walls were com- 

 posed were of even thickness, very hard, and ran perpen- 

 dicularly ; and when the softer sand which had surrounded 

 them was washed away, the veins still remained standing 

 upright, in some places a hundred feet high, and three or 

 four hundred in length. Columns, too, were there, and such 

 was their appearance or architectural order, and so much 

 of chaste grandeur was there about them, that we were lost 

 in wonder and admiration. Sometimes the breastworks, as 

 of forts, would be plainly visible; then again the frowning 

 turrets of some castle of the olden time. Cumbrous pillars 

 of some mighty pile, such as is dedicated to religion or 

 royalty, were scattered about; regularity was strangely 

 mingled with disorder and ruin, and Nature had done it all, 

 Niagara has been considered one of her wildest freaks, but 

 Niagara sinks into insignificance when compared with the 

 wild grandeur of this awful chasm this deep, abyssmal 

 solitude, as Carlyle would call it. Imagination carried us 

 back to Thebes, to Palmyra, and to ancient Athens, and 

 we could not help thinking that we were now among their 

 ruins. 



Our passage out of this place was effected with the greatest 

 difficulty. We were obliged to carry our rifles, holsters, and 

 saddlebags in our hands, and in clambering up a steep pitch, 

 one of the horses, striking his shoulders against a projecting 

 rock, was precipitated some fifteen or twenty feet directly 



