On one side of the shelf-like mountain road rose the sharp hillside, clothed in close-packed, straight-rising redwoods; on the other the ground fell away so precipitously to the tiny thread of creek below that they looked down upon the water through the top branches of the trees.
"Sisters"
Kathleen Norris
Therefore the pollution of the Earth - the waste, contamination, and destruction - will decrease precipitously, and we will be able to have a little hope for the future of humanity and the Earth.
"Down-with-the-Cities"
Nakashima, Tadashi
At the end of the tangled garden there was a white stone cross, and here was a most wonderful view, the high hill running precipitously down to the flat silver expanse of the Nestor that ran like a gleaming girdle under the breasts of the slopes beyond.
"The Dark Forest"
Hugh Walpole