182 IMMENSE CANONES. 
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In some places the brows of these mesas 
approach the very borders of the streams. 
en this occurs on both sides, it leaves deep 
chasms or ravines between, called by the 
Mexicans cafiones, and which abound in the 
vicinity of the mountains. The Canadian 
river flows through one of the most remarka- 
ble of these cafiones for a distance of more 
than fifty miles—extending from the road of 
the Missouri caravans downward—through- 
out the whole extent of which the gorge is 
utterly impassable for wagons, and almost so 
for animals. 
Intersecting the direct route from Missouri, 
this cafion was a source of great annoyance 
to some of the pioneers in the Santa Fé trade. 
In 1825, a caravan with a number of wa- 
gons reached it about five miles below the 
present ford. The party was carelessly mov- 
ing along, without suspecting even a ravine 
at hand, as the bordering plains were exceed- 
ingly level, and the opposite margins of equal 
height, when suddenly they found themselves 
upon the very brink of an immense precipice, 
several hundred yards deep, and almost per- 
pendicular on both sides of the river. At the 
, bottom of those cliffs, there was, as is usually 
the case, a very narrow but fertile valley, 
through which the river wound its way, some- 
times touching the one bluff and sometimes 
the other 
Sarant of a ford so near above, the cara- 
van turned down towards the crossing of the 
former traders. “We travelled fifty miles,” 
