barranca

noun

1. A steep-sided gulch or arroyo; a canyon or ravine.

   ““Well: hardly,” said the Consul, softly as before, casting a suspicious eye for his part in the other direction at some maguey growing beyond the barranca, like a battalion moving up a slope under machine-gun fire.”

   “Have you ever been south of Monterey? / Barrancas carve the coastline / And the chaparral flows to the sea / 'Neath waves of golden sunshine”

   “[…]his hero, the Consul, is shot and thrown down the barranca followed by a dead dog.”