es a story worth while; and here, too, are some of Nature's
best pictures for those who revel only in the lovely and the wild.
It is a strikingly picturesque by-world, where there are many
illuminated and splendid fragments of Nature's story. He who visits
this section will first be attracted by an array of rock-formations,
and, wander where he will, grotesque and beautiful shapes in stone
will frequently attract and interest his attention.

The rock-formation is made up of mixtures of very unequally tempered
rock metal, which weathers in strange, weird, and impressive shapes.
Much of this statuary is gigantic and uncouth, but some of it is
beautiful. There are minarets, monoliths, domes, spires, and shapeless
fragments. In places there are, seemingly, restive forms not entirely
free from earth. Most of these figures are found upon the crests of
the mountains, and many of the mountain-ridges, with their numerous
spikes and gigantic monoliths, some of which are tilted perilously
from the perpendicular, give one a feeling of awe. Some of the
monoliths appear like broken, knotty tree-trunks. Others stand
straight and suggest the Egyptian obelisks. They hold rude natural
hieroglyphics in relief. One mountain, which is known as Turret-Top,
is crowned with what from a distance seems to be a gigantic
picket-fence. This fence is formed by a row of monolithic stones.

One of the most remarkable things connected with this strange locality
is that its impressive landscapes may be overturned or blotted out, or
new scenes may be brought forth, in a day. The mountains do not stand
a storm well. A hard rain will dissolve ridges, lay bare new strata,
undermine and overturn cliffs. It seems almost a land of enchantment,
where old landmarks may disappear in a single storm, or an impressive
landscape come forth in a night. Here the god of erosion works
incessantly and rapidly, dissecting the earth and the rocks. During
a single storm a hilltop may dissolve, a mountain-side be fluted with
slides, a grove be overturned and swept away by an avalanche, or a
lake be buried forever. This rapid erosion of slopes and summits
causes many changes and much upbuilding upon their bases. Gulches are
filled, water-courses invaded, rivers bent far to one side, and groves
slowly buried alive.

One night, while I was in camp on the slope of Mt. Coxcomb, a
prolonged drought was broken by a very heavy rain. Within an hour
after the rain started, a large c