Beyond the West: containing an account of two years' travel in the other half of our great continent far beyond the old West, on the plains, in the Rocky mountains, and picturesque parks of Colorado. Also, characteristic features of New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho ... Oregon, Utah, Nevada, and ... California, the end of the West ... the great continental railroad, together with the ... most wonderful natural scenery in the world .../ by George W. Pine.

BEYOND THE WEST.
country outside of these nature-rmasoned walls is at
least a mile higher. This rocky basin has been
slowly assuming its present form for many long centuries past.
Some miles east of the head of the basin lie the
great mountain ranges, where snows annually fall
and melt. The waters wear a channel till they find
the head of this, their reservoir, and then dash
themselves down into it. Also other rivers (there
are no creeks in this country as with us) are formed,
push away the barriers and leap headlong into the
basin. The rains and the frosts assist the many
streams to wear away the rocks on all sides, till the
hardest portions are left perpendicular or rounded
over into polished domes, or standing in spires, like
those of an old cathedral. The debris of the rocks
washes down in the course of time, and forms piles
from two to four hundred feet high, and making
a soil at the bottom of the basin. Thus it is gradually filled up, the river is raised, trees and grass
grow, and so we Dow find it-the walled picturesque
valley-whose sides are all rock, which, we are
told, that if these rocks should fall together at the
same moment and come together in the middle, there
would be an arch over the valley a half a mile high;
but who can realize it? There is nothing but the
dome of heaven by which to make comparison.
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