4 
The Colorado River 
cious tidal bore where it dies in the sea, it wages a ceaseless 
battle as sublime as it is terrible and unique. 
Such is the great Colorado River of the West, rising amidst 
the fountains of the beautiful Wind River Mountains of 
Wyoming, where also are brought forth the gentler Columbia 
and the mighty, far-reaching Missouri. Whirling down ten 
thousand feet in some two thousand miles, it meets the hot 
level of the Red Sea, once the Sea of Cortes, now the Gulf of 
California, in tumult and turmoil. In this long run it is cliff- 
bound nine-tenths of the way, and the whole country drained 
by it and its tributaries has been wrought by the waters and 
winds of ages into multitudinous plateaus and canyons. The 
canyons of its tributaries often rival in grandeur those of the 
main stream itself, and the tributaries receive other canyons 
equally magnificent, so that we see here a stupendous system 
of gorges and tributary gorges, which, even now bewildering, 
were to the early pioneer practically prohibitory. Water is the 
master sculptor in this weird, wonderful land, yet one could 
there die easily of thirst. Notwithstanding the gigantic work 
accomplished, water, except on the river, is scarce. Often for 
months the soil of the valleys and plains never feels rain; even 
dew is unknown. In this arid region much of the vegetation 
is set with thorns, and some of the animals are made to match 
the vegetation. A knowledge of this forbidding area, now 
robbed of some of its old terrors by the facilities in transporta¬ 
tion, has been finally gained only by a long series of persistent 
efforts, attended by dangers, privations, reverses, discourage¬ 
ments, and disasters innumerable. 
The Amerind,* the red man, roamed its wild valleys. 
Some tribes built stone houses whose ruins are now found 
overlooking its waters, even in the depths of the Grand Canyon 
itself, or in the cliffs along the more accessible tributaries, 
cultivating in the bottoms their crops. Lands were also tilled 
along the extreme lower reaches, where the great rock-walls fall 
back and alluvial soils border the stream. Here and there the 
Amerind also crossed it, when occasion required, on the great 
* This name is a substitute for the misnomer “Indian.” Its use avoids 
confusion. 
