from three to seven thousand feet deep. Then, grand-
est of all is the grand canon of the Colorado, 300
miles long, and from 3,000 to 6,200 feet in depth, also
the result of erosion.
There are likewise many other noted wonders in California, as Bower cave near by, with its cleft, per- pendicular chamber walls and subterranean lake, clell, grotto, and grove; the Alabaster stalactite cave of El Dorado on our right ; the Calaveras cave of skulls in which, when discovered, were found human skeletons coated with carbonate of lime; the Santa Cruz cave, and numerous natural bridges. Bower cave, situated in Mariposa county, consists of a crevice in the lime- stone hollowed out by water; hence it is open at the top but widens out cave-like beneath the surface. It is 133 feet long, 109 feet deep, and 80 feet wide. Three maple trees grow within it, sending their branches out through the split roof, and the water on the bottom is so transparent, that the deep cavities which are worn on either side above and below, may be distinctly followed beneath the surface to a depth of forty feet. Alabaster cave, in Placer county near Auburn, is a large canity, discovered by lime-burners while quarrying. There are two chambers, one 100 by 200 feet, and the other 25 by 100 feet, and from 4 to 20 feet in depth. Brilliant stalactites of various shades and shapes hang in irregular rows, interspersed with spaces stained with a sort of grotesque graining. One of the chambers, called the Cr3^stal Chapel, looks like an embowered arctic region petrified. Over a branch of the Trinity river nature has thrown a ledge of rocks 300 feet wide and 150 feet thick, under which runs the stream through an arch 80 feet wide and 20 feet high. Among others, Coyote creek, in Tuolumne county, is spanned by two natural bridges.
To these scenes of grandeur and beauty vegetation contributes its quota. Among twenty clusters of mammoth trees, there are eight principal groves, of
