The marvellous country, or, Three years in Arizona and New Mexico.: Containing an authentic history of this wonderful country and its ancient civilization ... together with a full and complete history of the Apache tribe of Indians .../ By Samuel Woodworth Cozzens. Illustrated by more than one hundred engravings.

WE ASCEiVD A THOUSAND FEET.
us as we toiled up the steep, precipitous sides of the mesa,
enchaining our attention so completely that we gave heed
to but little else, and had actually ascended the highest
of the three terraces before I was aware that we were
standing upon a narrow shelf scarcely twelve inches in
width, although eight hundred feet above the plain.
When I at length realized the fact, I was indeed startled
at the novel and perilous situation in which we found ourselves; nor were my fears in the least allayed by noticing
the nervous and excited manner with which Don Rafael,
who seemed ever on the alert for our safety, called our attention to the fast-ogrowing darkness, as he urged us to at
once commence the descent.
Upon our left was a huge wall of rock and earth, towering
nearly three hundred feet above our heads, and apparently
so smooth as not to afford footing for a living creature,
while upon our right for nearly eight hundred feet below
was empty space.
The dizzy height at which we stood, the narrow path
before us, the vast abyss below, the growing darkness,
the danger of the descent, all seemed to have been forgotten
in the desire to hear the old man, who still kept on in his
low monotone, utterly oblivious of everything save the
Zunis and their history; when, carelessly stepping upon a
small stone which rolled under my foot, before I could
possibly recover myself I was precipitated over the bluff,
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