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 



Elevation 4,713 feet, was diverted and carried onto this land it was a 

 DeSver*44° miiel waste desert, inhabited only by jack rabbits and 

 coyotes, but irrigation has transformed it into a 

 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. 



