What Wind and Rain Can Do 



How Nature's Chisels Work Through 

 Milhons of Years 



ON the sloping "shores" of the great 

 salt-incrusted playa at the bottom 

 of Death Valley, California, which 

 is the bed of an ancient lake, there is a 

 large volcanic rock which, it is stated, 

 has appeared to grow out of the ground 

 several feet within the memory of the 

 pioneers. When first observed, this was 

 simply a large irregularly-shaped rock 

 resting on the ground. Since then it 

 appears to have been pushed upward. 

 It is supported on a fragile, wedge- 

 shaped neck not over a couple of feet 

 broad. The apparent instability of the 



region, sweeping everything before theif 

 great volume of water. 



On the opposite page is pictured 

 another product of wind and rain, 

 probably one of the most singular collec- 

 tions of rock figures in existence. Acres 

 and acres in extent, from a distance they 

 resemble, as much as anything, a vast 

 family or colony of gigantic prairie dogs 

 sitting on their haunches, and covering 

 the entire slopes of Red Mountain, 

 Arizona. The figure of the man in the 

 left center of the photograph indicates 

 the size of these "prairie dogs." 



Mushroom Rock — one of Death Valley's curiosities 



thin neck with its top-heavy burden is 

 accentuated by a good-sized hole in its 

 middle, so that in traveling the trail 

 which passes directly under the rock, the 

 tenderfoot is apt to feel relieved when 

 the formation has been left behind. 



Contrary to supposition, there has 

 been no growth or uplift of this rock. 

 The earth at its base has been washed 

 and blown away by the winds and the 

 cloud-bursts, which, on rare occasions 

 occur even in this intensely desert 



This mountain is a cinder cone of the 

 San Francisco plateau, and the village 

 of rock forms has been caused by the 

 cutting and sculpturing of the soft lava 

 by the wind and rain. The cinder cone 

 of a volcano is the last upheaval, the 

 result of the dying gasp of eruption. So 

 stupendous, however, has been the 

 dynamic energy attending many of the 

 earlier volcanic disturbances of the West 

 that there are cinder cones several 

 thousand feet in height. 



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