My Dogs Were In The Best Spirits, As They Had
Moved A Considerable Number Of Partridges During This Morning's March,
And They Heard The Peculiar Loud "Chuck-A-Chuck, Chuck-A-Chuck," Of The
Red-Legs In All Directions.
As we advanced the hills increased in
height, and we passed through a valley, bordered on the right by abrupt
cliffs, forming a wall-like summit to the exceedingly steep slope
beneath, which had been created by the debris from the wasting face of
rock.
This flat-topped height may have been about 500 feet above the
valley, and the white cliff, which was quite perpendicular from the
summit for about one hundred feet to the commencement of the steep green
slope beneath, was in one place artificially scarped, and had been cut
perfectly smooth like the wall of a stone building. In the centre of
this smooth face we could plainly distinguish a square-cut entrance, to
which an exceedingly narrow ledge cut in the rock formed a most
dangerous approach, more adapted for wild cats than for human occupants.
I halted to examine this with a good glass, and I could perceive that
the greatest care had been taken in the formation of a smooth
perpendicular front, and that the narrow ledge which formed the approach
was a natural feature that had been artificially improved. There were
several similar lines observable at unequal distances nearly parallel
with each other: these were the natural limits of overlying strata in
the sedimentary rock, which, as the general surface had fallen through
decay, still preserved their character, and formed ledges.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 132 of 524
Words from 35833 to 36100
of 143016
