r, warped in and out as
they ascended."

Here he surprises the secret of the making of Zion.

"As a monument of denudation, this chasm is an example of downward
erosion by sand-bearing water. The principle on which the cutting
depends is almost identical with that of the marble saw, but the sand
grains, instead of being embedded in rigid iron, are carried by a
flexible stream of water. By gravity they have been held against the
bottom of the cut, so that they should make it vertical, but the current
has carried them, in places, against one side or the other, and so far
modified the influence of gravity that the cut undulates somewhat in its
vertical section, as well as in its horizontal."

[Illustration: _From a photograph by the U.S. Geological Survey_

ZION CANYON FROM THE RIM]

[Illustration: THE THREE PATRIARCHS, ZION CANYON

These red-and-white structures rise more than two thousand feet above
the canyon floor]

This, then, is how Nature began, on the original surface of the
plateau, perhaps with the output of a spring shower, to dig this whole
mighty spectacle for our enjoyment to-day. We may go further. We may
imagine the beginning of the titanic process that dug the millions of
millions of chasms, big and little, contributing to the mighty Colorado,
that dug the Grand Canyon itself, that reduced to the glorified thing it
now is the enormous plateau of our great southwest, which would have
been many thousands of feet higher than the highest pinnacle of Little
Zion had not erosion more than counteracted the uplifting of the
plateau.

Little else need be said to complete this picture. The rains and melting
snows of early spring produce mesa-top torrents which pour into the
valley and hasten for a period the processes of decorating the walls and
levelling the plateau. So it happens that waterfalls of power and beauty
then enrich this wondrous spectacle. But this added beauty is not for
the tourist, who may come in comfort only after its disappearance.

But springs are many. Trickling from various levels in the walls, they
develop new tributary gorges. Gushing from the foundations, they create
alcoves and grottos which are in sharp contrast with their desert
environment, enriching by dampness the colors of the sandstone and
decorating these refreshment-places with trailing ferns and flowering
growths. In these we see the origin of the Indian name, Mukuntuweap,
Land of the Springs.

The Indians, however,