DENVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 155 
follows the opposite bank. The walls of the canyon here are about 
1,000 feet high and are therefore very imposing, especially where the 
beds of sandstone are particularly thick or resistant. 
At the little coal-mining town of Cameo the canyon attains its 
maximum depth, about 1,500 feet. Its sides generally present the 
appearance of gigantic walls of masonry, the beds 
Cameo. of sandstone forming the courses and the soft shale 
Elevation 4,774 feet. filling in between them like the mortar in an arti- 
Denver 433 miles. ; ‘ ‘ ; 
ficial wall. On the projecting points between the 
main canyon and the canyons of the tributaries the sandstone seems 
to form most of the wall, as it stands in gigantic pyramids that 
tower far above the bottom of the gorge. The pyramid on the 
projecting point just north of Cameo is shown in Plate LXV, &. 
Although the Mesaverde is the great Cretaceous coal-bearing for- 
mation in this region, it contains very few coal beds in Palisade Can- 
yon. At Newcastle it contains more than 109 feet of coal in beds 
_ thick enough to work, but in Palisade Canyon it contains only two 
beds. The upper of these beds is mined at Cameo and is gen- 
erally known as the Cameo coal bed. Mines may be seen just south of 
the station on both sides of the track. The coal from the mine on the 
left is brought across the river on a high trestle, which serves as a 
tipple for screening the coal and loading it into railroad cars. The 
coal mined here is of medium grade and satisfies the local demand, 
but it is not equal to that which is mined south of Newcastle, or in 
the Crested Butte region, on the east, or at Sunnyside and Castle- 
gate in Utah, on the west. At the Cameo mine the coal bed has a 
thickness of 10 feet 11 inches, of which 9 feet 8 inches is clear coal. 
About a mile below Cameo the High Line canal passes through the 
plateau by a long tunnel which brings it out on the high bench land 
west of Palisade. 
Nearly 2 miles below Cameo the river makes a big curve to the 
right, and on the opposite side there is a low terrace not more than 
150 feet high. This terrace has been built up by material brought 
down by a small creek that heads on Grand Mesa, to the east. This 
material is so abundant and so indestructible that it has crowded the 
river gradually against the opposite (west) side, so that the river 
has been forced to cut under a great cliff, several hundred feet in 
height. From the train the traveler may see that this terrace 1s com- 
posed almost entirely of boulders of a dark rock, which close exami- 
nation would show to be basalt, or hardened lava. Grand Mesa, 
which here and there may be seen on the east (left) and which over- 
tops all other features in this region, has been preserved almost en- 
tirely because it is protected by a cap of this basalt. 
Below the terrace two small water-power plants have been con: 
structed for pumping water to higher levels to irrigate land that 
