of 



appeared best to turn back lest I be precipitated 

 from the cliff. The small, hard points in the 

 sedimentary wall had been loosened in their set- 

 tings by the rain. Climbing this wall with two 

 good feet in a dry time would be adventurous 

 pastime. While I was flattened against the wall, 

 descending with greatest caution, there came 

 a roaring crash together with a trembling of 

 earth and air. An enormous section of the oppo- 

 site side of the mass that I was on had fallen 

 away, and the oscillations of the cliff nearly 

 hurled me to the rock wreckage at the bottom 

 of the wall. 



On safe footing at last, I followed along the 

 bottom of the summit cliff and encountered the 

 place from which the rocks had been hurled at 

 me in the darkness and where a cliff had fallen 

 to start the slide. It was evident that the storm 

 waters had wrecked the foundation of the cliff. 

 Ridges and gullies of the Bad Land's type fluted 

 the slope and prevented my traveling along 

 close to the summit at right angles to the slope. 

 There appeared no course for me but to descend 

 to the Little Cimarron River. Hours were re- 



234 



