TOPOGRAPHIC TERMS OF SPANISH AMERICA 
301 
The escarpments bordering the mesas and surrounding the 
plaza countries can also be readily described in this nomencla- 
ture. Theoretically, the simplest scarp form may be merely a 
ceja or cliff, but in this region, where hard and soft layers alter- 
nate, the escarpments are nearly ever}^where compound, con- 
sisting of a surmounting ceja cornice, leading down by slopes 
(bajadas) and cejitas to a lower pediment, usually made of 
escabroduras (bad lands). 
Let us also see how these terms Avill apply to the description 
of what we commonly know as drainage basins. 
East of the mountains the two through-flowing streams of 
major magnitude, the Pecos and Canadian, pass from mountains 
into mesa regions and thence to plazas. The streams of second 
magnitude, such as the Red, Brazos, and Colorado, originate on 
mesas and pass through rincons or quohados into plazas. The 
streams of both these classes leave the plaza countries through 
fry-pans. The fry -pan of the Pecos is the southern end of the 
Pecos plaza where this stream, near the thirty-first meridian, 
enters a canon made by the gathering walls of the Stockton and 
Edwards plateau. The Colorado, west of Austin, finds its way 
across the western escarpment of the Grand Prairie by means of 
a similar fry-])an yalle 3 ^ The Brazos, Colorado, Trinity, and 
Red river all make similar fry-pan indentations into the west- 
ern edge of the Grand Prairie escarpment. 
The Canadian mav be thus described : . The caletas leading 
down from the cuchillas of the Snowy range in the mountain- 
ous })ortion of the stream cpiickly gather into tijeras. Reaching 
the Ocate and Las Vegas mesas, the streamway through them 
is a canon. The boca of this canon is where the stream enters 
the plaza region, between tlie thirty-fifth and thirt^'-sixth paral- 
lels. From tlie Ijoca to the 102d meridian the streamway 
threads the plaza country of the Canadian, oidy limited on 
either side hv' the great cejasof the Llano Estacado on the south 
and of the Las Vegas mesa on the north. The ])laza of the 
Canadian as a whole is subdivided cejitas into numerous 
succe.ssive plazas. The stream leaves the ])laza country through 
a frv-pan and traverses the eastern ])ortion of the plateau of the 
Plains through a canoncita. 'I’his canoncita also has a l)oca 
near tlie KJOth meridian, marking the entrance of the river into 
the still greater plaza of the Central Denuded region. Here the 
topograph}' again changes, the center (jf the streamway becomes 
■JO 
