STEEP TRAILS 



who, long before Columbus saw America, 

 built thousands of stone houses in its crags, 

 and large ones, some of them several stories 

 high, with hundreds of rooms, on the mesas 

 of the adjacent regions. Their cliff-dwellings, 

 almost numberless, are still to be seen in the 

 canon, scattered along both sides from top 

 to bottom and throughout its entire length, 

 built of stone and mortar in seams and fis- 

 sures like swallows' nests, or on isolated ridges 

 and peaks. The ruins of larger buildings are 

 found on open spots by the river, but most of 

 them aloft, on the brink of the wildest, giddi- 

 est precipices, sites evidently chosen for safety 

 from enemies, and seemingly accessible only 

 to the birds of the air. Many caves were also 

 used as dwelling-places, as were mere seams 

 on cliff-fronts formed by unequal weathering 

 and with or without outer or side walls; and 

 some of them were covered with colored 

 pictures of animals. The most interesting of 

 these cliff-dwelUngs had pathetic little ribbon- 

 like strips of garden on narrow terraces, where 

 irrigating-water could be carried to them — 

 most romantic of sky-gardens, but eloquent of 

 hard times. 



In recesses along the river and on the first 

 plateau flats above its gorge were fields and 

 gardens of considerable size, where irrigating- 

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