Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian., 1859-01-15
A WILD AND STERILE REGION.

a WILD AND SIEhlLE REGlON.
This is vast table land, hundreds of miles
in breath, extending eastward to the noun
tains of the Sierra Madre, and stretching far
north into the plateaus riseing, one above the
other, in successive steps the floors most
elevated being from seven or eight thousand
feet above the level Of the sea. The Colora-
do and its tributaries, seeking the level of the
lower region to the southwest, have, by ages
Of wear and abrasion, cut their way through
this huge formation, making canons that are
in some places more than a mile in depth
The mighty avenues Of the man water cours-
es are the thoroughlares into which smaller
but still giant chasms beDouche, and these in
turn have their own subordinate tributaries,
forming maze ofyawning abysscs, generally
inaccessible, and whose intricacies it would
be hopeless task to attempt to unravel. Twice
only, after long and difficult clambering down
the sides of prccipices, and though walled ap-
proaches that seemed to be leading into the
bowels of the earth, were the bank of the
streams below finally attained. One place
was on the Colorado itself, and the other near
the mouth of one of its larger tributaries
Except at the place of descent, the canon of
the river, as far as it could be seen, showed
no place of practicable ingress or outlet, and
the appearance of the torrent, foaming and
surging along it's confined bed, left, little room
for doubt as to what would be the result OF
any attempt, such has been sometimes sug-
gested, to explore the river in boats from its
sources above.
So numerous and so closely interlaced are
the canons in some portions of this singu-
lar region, that they have displaced all but
scattered remnants of the original plateau,
leaving narrow walls, isolated ridges, and spi-
res so slender that they seem to totter upon
their bases, shooting up to an enormous height
from the vaults below.
The natural surface of the country opposes
in surmountable barriers to travelling in any
fixed direction, and the aridity of the accessi-
ble portions of the table-ands rendered the
explorations difficult. Though the season of
the year was the most favorable tor finding
water, much Inconvenience was experienced
from its scarcity, and it is doubtful whether,
during the dry months, the examinations could
have been prosecuted at all.
West of the Little Colorado, belts Of cedar
and pine forests somewhat relieve the general
aspect of barrenness, but travelling eastward,
between that river and the towns of the Mo-
quis Indians, the country becomes almost en-
tirely desert. The immense stretches OF
sandy soil are broken only by ridges of bril-
liant red and yellow marls, that intensity the
heat and glare of the sun. The mirage, or
dnarily existing in such localities, assumes,
generally, the appearance of water, and is rem,
dercd peculiarly unpleasant from the known
absence of that element over the whole region
in question. Still farther east the table-lands
beg in to ningle with spurs from the Sierra
Madre the country becomes more broken
and diversified, and the desert gives place
to the habitable Navajo Territory that Dor.
| bers to the mountains west of the RiC
Grande