The hills presently became broken up into fantastic shapes, while isolated rocks and pinnacles rose high above the general level.
"How curiously they are coloured," Tom remarked, "just regular bands of white and red and green and orange; and you see the same markings on all these crags, at the same level."
"Just so, Tom. We reckon that this country, and it is just the same down south, was once level, and the rains and the rivers and torrents cut their way through it and wore it down, and just these buttes and crags and spires were left standing, as if to show what the nature of the ground was everywhere. Though why the different kinds of rocks has such different colours is more than I can tell. I went out once with an old party as they called a scientific explorer. I have heard him say this was all under water once, and sometimes one kind of stuff settled down like mud to the bottom, sometimes another, though where all the water came from is more nor I can tell. He said something about the ground being raised afterwards, and I suppose the water run off then. I did not pay much attention to his talk, for he was so choke-full of larning, and had got such a lot of hard names on the tip of his tongue, that there were no making head or tail of what he was saying."
Tom had learnt something of the elements of geology, and could form an idea of the processes by which the strange country at which he was looking had been formed.
"That's Frémont's Buttes," the Indian said presently, pointing to a flat-topped hill that towered above the others ahead.
"Why, I thought you said it was a fifty-mile ride to-day, Jerry, and we can't have gone more than half that."
"How far do you suppose that hill is off?"
"It is over twenty, lad. Up here in the mountains the air is so clear you can see things plain as you couldn't make out the outlines of down below."
"But it seems to me so close that I could make out people walking about on the top," Tom said a little incredulously.
"I dare say, lad. But you will see when you have ridden another hour it won't seem much closer than it does now."
Tom found out that the miner was not joking with him, as he at first had thought was the case. Mile after mile was ridden, and the landmark seemed little nearer than before. Presently Hunting Dog said something to the chief, pointing away to the right. Leaping Horse at once reined in, and motioned to his white companions to do the same.