6 EXPLORATION OF THE CANONS OF THE COLORADO. 
is a loose sandstone, the disintegration of which has left broad stretches of 
drifting sand, white, golden, and vermilion. 
Where this sandstone is a conglomerate, a paving of pebbles has been 
left, a mosaic of many colors, polished by the drifting sands, and glistening 
in the sunlight. 
After the canons, the most remarkable features of the country are the 
long lines of cliffs. These are bold escarpments, often hundreds or thou 
sands of feet in altitude, great geographic steps, scores or hundreds of miles 
in length, presenting steep faces of rock, often quite vertical. 
Having climbed one of these steps, you may descend by a gentle, some 
times imperceptible, slope to the foot of another. They will thus present a 
series of terraces, the steps of which are well-defined escarpments of rock. 
The lateral extension of such a line of cliffs is usually very irregular; sharp 
salients are projected on the plains below, and deep recesses are cut into the 
terraces above. 
Intermittent streams coming down the cliffs have cut many canons or 
canon valleys, by which the traveler may pass from the plain below to the 
terrace above By these gigantic stairways, you may ascend to high plateaus, 
covered with forests of pine and fir. 
The region is further diversified by short ranges of eruptive mountains. 
A vast system of fissures huge cracks in the rocks to the depths below 
extends across the country. From these crevices, floods of lava have poured, 
covering mesas and table lands with sheets of black basalt. The expiring 
energies of these volcanic agencies have piled up huge cinder-cones, that 
stand along the fissures, red, brown, and black, naked of vegetation, and 
conspicuous landmarks, set, as they are, in contrast to the bright, varie 
gated rocks of sedimentary origin. 
These canon gorges, obstructing cliffs and desert wastes, have prevented 
the traveler from penetrating the country, so that, until the Colorado River 
Exploring Expedition was organized, it was almost unknown. Yet enough 
had been seen to foment rumor, and many wonderful stories have been told 
in the hunter's cabin and prospector's camp. Stories were related of parties 
entering the gorge in boats, and being carried down with fearful velocity into 
whirlpools, where all were overwhelmed in the abyss of waters ; others, of 
