On the northeast side of the Little Colorado a great mesa country
stretches far to the northward. These mesas are but minor plateaus that
are separated by canyons and canyon valleys, and sometimes by low sage
plains. They rise from a few hundred to 2,000 or 3,000 feet above the
lowlands on which they are founded. The distinction between plateaus and
mesas is vague; in fact, in local usage the term mesa is usually applied
to all of these tables which do not carry volcanic mountains. The mesas
are carved out of platforms of horizontal or nearly horizontal rocks by
perennial or intermittent streams, and as the climate is exceedingly
arid most of the streams flow only during seasons of rain, and for the
greater part of the year they are dry arroyos. Many of the longer
channels are dry for long periods. Some of them are opened only by
floods that come ten or twenty years apart.

The region is also characterized by many buttes. These are plateaus or
mesas of still smaller dimensions in horizontal distance, though their
altitude may be hundreds or thousands of feet. Like the mesas and
plateaus, they sometimes form very conspicuous features of a landscape
and are of marvelous beauty by reason of their sculptured escarpments.
Below they are often buttressed on a magnificent scale. Softer beds give
rise to a vertical structure of buttresses and columns, while the harder
strata appear in great horizontal lines, suggesting architectural
entablature. Then the strata of which these buttes are composed are of
many vivid colors; so color and form unite in producing architectural
effects, and the buttes often appear like Cyclopean temples.

There is yet one other peculiarity of this landscape deserving mention
here. Before the present valleys and canyons were carved and the mesas
lifted in relief, the region was one of great volcanic activity. In