They went round by the western end, for their camp was near its north-east side.

As they proceeded, they began to fear that there was no place where the hill could be climbed.

On all sides it appeared to be a precipice rising perpendicularly from the plain! Here and there loose rocks lay at its base, as if they had fallen from above; and trees grew out of its face, clinging by their roots in the seams of the cliff.
Scattered pines standing upon its topmost edge, stretched their branches out over the plain; and the aloe plants, the yuccas, and cacti, added to the wild picturesqueness of its appearance.
On reaching the westernmost point of the butte, a new object presented itself to the eyes of our adventurers.

It resembled a range of cliffs, or low mountains, at a great distance off to the west, and running from north to south as far as they could see.

It _was_, in fact, a range of cliffs--similar to those of the butte.