ddenly, to my amazement, Sounder's deep bay rose from the abyss
below. I ran along the rim, called till I was hoarse, leaned over so
far that the blood rushed to my head, and then sat down. I concluded
this canyon hunting could bear some sustained attention and thought, as
well as frenzied action.

Examination of my position showed how impossible it was to arrive at
any clear idea of the depth or size, or condition of the canyon slopes
from the main rim wall above. The second wall--a stupendous,
yellow-faced cliff two thousand feet high--curved to my left round to a
point in front of me. The intervening canyon might have been a half
mile wide, and it might have been ten miles. I had become disgusted
with judging distance. The slope above this second wall facing me ran
up far above my head; it fairly towered, and this routed all my former
judgments, because I remembered distinctly that from the rim this
yellow and green mountain had appeared an insignificant little ridge.
But it was when I turned to gaze up behind me that I fully grasped the
immensity of the place. This wall and slope were the first two steps
down the long stairway of the Grand Canyon, and they towered over me,
straight up a half-mile in dizzy height. To think of climbing it took
my breath away.

Then again Sounder's bay floated distinctly to me, but it seemed to
come from a different point. I turned my ear to the wind, and in the
succeeding moments I was more and more baffled. One bay sounded from
below and next from far to the right; another from the left. I could
not distinguish voice from echo. The acoustic properties of the
amphitheater beneath me were too wonderful for my comprehension.

As the bay grew sharper, and correspondingly more significant, I became
distracted, and focused a strained vision on the canyon deeps. I looked
along the slope to the notch where the wall curved and followed the
base line of the yellow cliff. Quite suddenly I saw a very small black
object moving with snail-like slowness. Although it seemed impossible
for Sounder to be so small, I knew it was he. Having something now to
judge distance from, I conceived it to be a mile, without the drop. If
I could hear Sounder, he could hear me, so I yelled encouragement. The
echoes clapped back at me like so many slaps in the face. I watched the
hound until he disappeared among broken heaps of stone, and long after
that his bay floated to me.

Having rested, I essayed the disco