DENVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 157 
visible on the north from the train most of the way from Palisade to 
Castlegate. The appearance of these slopes, like that of most of the 
land forms in a semiarid climate, depends largely upon the light 
under which they are seen. When the light is strong and strikes 
squarely against the face of the cliffs the slopes are expressionless 
and dead. One slope is like another as they shimmer in the hot rays 
of the sun, but when the sun is low the shadows show every detail of 
the slopes, and thus revealed in black and white the surface of the 
cliffs looks as seamed and wrinkled as the face of an old man. Each 
slope is then full of individuality—it shows intricate and wonderful 
sculpture. ° 
The valley that the railroad enters at Palisade is broad because 
the soft Mancos shale, in which it is carved, is about 3,000 feet thick, 
and its erosion has produced flat or rolling lands except where ter- 
races have been cut by the streams into badlands or steep slopes. 
Although the shale contains considerable alkaline material, which 
is objectionable in farming, it makes in general some of the best 
farming land in western Colorado. Near the river it forms flat 
valley bottoms, as at the village of Clifton, but by proper under- 
draining even such flat lands may be made very productive. Orchards 
abound in this valley, and much fruit is shipped 
Clifton. from Clifton. Before the water of Colorado River 
eipeation 4,713 feet. was diverted and carried onto this land it was a 
Bye ts a waste desert, inhabited only by jack rabbits and 
coyotes, but irrigation has transformed it into nt 
fertile land, figuratively “flowing with milk and honey.” Is it any 
wonder that millions of dollars have been spent in diverting water 
from Colorado River in the canyon above Palisade and in construct- 
ing great canals for delivering it to the thirsty land? But even after 
all our great irrigation works have been completed there will still 
be millions of acres of waste land, which could be converted into 
sites for homes of peace and plenty if water were available. The 
great problem of the future is to conserve all the water that is pro- 
duced by the melting of snow in the high mountain regions, by hold- 
ing it in storage reservoirs until it is needed, and then to distribute 
it to the desert land. Such work will require enormous sums of 
money, but it will in return supply homes to many thousands of 
people and bring immense wealth to the country. | 
General views of the valley may be obtained from places near 
Clifton. On the east tower the wooded slopes of Grand Mesa; on 
the south, far in the distance, may be caught glimpses of the gently 
swelling surface of the Uncompahgre Plateau—a surface composed 
of the massive sandstones which at some places underlie the Mancos 
shale and which everywhere overlie the granite that forms the base- 
ment upon which all this country is. built. 
