dutton] SYLVAN SCENERY. 137 



June until September there is a display of wild flowers which is quite 

 beyond description. The valley sides and platforms above are resplen- 

 dent with dense masses of scarlet, white, purple, and yellow. It is note- 

 worthy that while the trees exhibit but few species, the humbler plants 

 present a very great number, both of species and genera. In the 

 upper regions of the nigh Plateaus, Mr. Lester F. Ward collected in a 

 single season more than GOO species of plants, and the Kaibab, though 

 offering a much smaller range of altitude and climate, would doubtless 

 yield as rich a flora in proportion to the diversity of its conditions. 



At a distance of about eight miles from its mouth, the ravine we have 

 chosen has become very shallow, with gently sloping sides. At length 

 we leave it and ascend its right bank to the upper platform. The way 

 here is as pleasant as before, for it is beneath the pines standing 

 at intervals varying from 50 to 100 feet, and upon a soil that is smooth, 

 firm, and tree from undergrowth. All is open, and we may look far 

 into the depths of the forest on either hand. We now perceive that the 

 surface of the plateau undulates with rolling hills and gently de- 

 pressed vales. These valleys are the ramifications of the drainage chan- 

 nels. They are innumerable and cover the entire surface of the plateau. 

 The main channels all deepen as they approach the edges of the plateau 

 and often attain considerable depth, becoming at the same time precip- 

 itous. The deepest are those which emerge near the elbow of Stewart's 

 Canon and north of that point. These attain depths exceeding a thou- 

 sand feet. The ravines which descend towards the eastern flank of the 

 plateau terminate in a different manner. In the interior parts of the 

 plateau these drainage valleys are all shallow, rarely exceeding 300 or 

 400 feet in depth, and seldom abrupt. 



After two or three miles upon the summit, the trail descends into 

 another valley, whose course we follow upward for about seven miles. 

 At the distance of about twenty miles from Stewart's Caiiou, we find 

 that we have gained about 1,200 feet of altitude, and that the vegetal ion 

 has changed its aspect somewhat. The pines, though still abundant, are 

 now in the minority, and the spruces and aspens greatly predominate. 

 The spruces form dense thickets on either hand, which nothing but the 

 direst necessity would ever induce us to enter. Of this genus there are 

 several species, varying much in habit. The great firs (Abies grandi.s, A. 

 Enyelmanni) are exceedingly beautiful on account of their sumptuous 

 foliage. But die most common species is a smaller one (A. siilxtlpuia). 

 with a tall and straight trunk, its branches spreading only five or six 

 feet. These trees cluster so thickly together that a passage through 

 them is extremely difficult and sometimes impossible. But we are not 

 constrained to attempt it, for they seldom grow in the valley bottoms. 

 Again we leave the ravine, and winding about among the hills, passing 

 from glade to glade, we at length find ourselves upon the summit of 

 a long slope, which descends rapidly into a great park, the largest on 

 the Kaibab. It has received the name of 



