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 transportation, has been finally gained only by a long
series of persistent efforts, attended by dangers, privations,
reverses, discouragements, 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 intertribal highways which are found in all districts, but it
was neither one thing nor another to him.

*This name is a substitute for the misnomer "Indian." Its use avoids
confusion.


So the river rolled on through its solemn canyons in primeval