Some of the most remarkable things, though, were collected before any of us were born. A small but hard working crew of students, under the direction of Professor J. C. Merriam, travelled through the area. Some fine exposures were examined but no trace of remains. The over topping lava contains much tufa which scales off and slides down over the sedimentary strata covering it with sharp edged fragments . . . Up and up and above the valley, above the fossil beds into the lava terraces among the junipers.
Time is lost and years are but the pulse beat.
The cliffs are not less than 400 ft. high from top to floor. Cut and furrowed into chasms and pinnacles bare as a tombstone. The first impressions I received was that of Dante's illustrations of the inferno. To heighten the impression some of the strata are of a dull dirty green color most repulsive in tone. What a place for bones of ancient monsters of a long passed age.