exhibits in its cliffs a distinct style of architecture, which is not reproduced among the cliffs of other formations, and these several styles differ as much as those which are cultivated by different races of men.

The character which appeals most strongly to the eye is the coloring. The gentle tints of an eastern landscape, the pale blue of distant mountains, the green of vernal or summer vegetation, the subdued colors of hillside and meadow, are wholly wanting here, and in their place we behold belts of brilliant red, yellow, and white, which are intensihed rather than alleviated by alternating belts of gray. Like the architecture, the colors are characteristic of the geological formations, each series having its own group and range of colors.

The Plateau country is also the land of canyons, in the strictest meaning of that term. Gorges, ravines, and canadas are found, and are more or less impressive in every high region; and in the vernacular of the West all such features are termed canyons, indiscriminately. But those long, narrow, profound trenches in the rocks, with inaccessible walls, to which the early Spaniards gave the name cayon, or canyon, are seldom found outside the plateaus. There they are innumerable and the almost universal form of drainage channels. Large areas of Plateau country are so minutely dissected by them, that they are almost inaccessible, and some limited, though considerable, tracts seem wholly so. Almost everywhere the drainage channels are cut from 500 to 3,000 feet below the general platform of the immediate country. They are abundantly ramified and every branch is a

canyon. The explorer on the mesas above must take heed to his course in such a place, for once caught in the labyrinth of interlacing side-gorges, he must possess rare craft and self-control to extricate himself. All these drainage channels lead down to one great trunk channel, cleft through the heart of the Plateau Province for eight hundred miles-the chasm of the Colorado, and the canyons of its principal fork, the Green River. By far the greater part of these tributaries are dry during most of the year, and carry water only at the melting of the snow, and during the brief periods of the autumnal and vernal rains. A very few hold small, perennial streams, coming from the highlands around the borders of the province, and swelling to mad torrents in times of spasmodic floods.

The region is, for the most part, a desert of the barrenest kind. At levels below 7.000 feet the heat is intense and the air is dry in the extreme. The vegetation is very scanty, and even the ubiquitous sage (Artemesia tridentata is sparse and stunted. Here and there the cedar (Juniperus Occidentalis) is seen, the hardest of arborescent plants, but it is dwarfed and sickly and seeks the shadiest nooks. At higher levels the vegetation becomes more abundant and varied. Above 8.000 feet the plateaus are forest-clad and the ground is carpeted with rank grass and an exuberant growth of beautiful summer flowers. The summers there are cool and moist; the winters severe and attended with heavy showfall.

The Plateau Province is naturally divided into two portions, a northern and a southern. The dividing barrier is the Uinta range. This fine moun

VERMILLION CLIFFS AT KANAB-SHOWING FORM OF PLATEAU.

tain platform is, in one respect, an anomaly among western mountain ranges. It is the only important one which trends east and west. Starting from the eastern flank of the Wasatch, the Uintas project eastward more than 150 miles, and nearly join perpendicularly the Park ranges of Colorado. Of the two portions into which the Plateau Province is thus divided, the southern is much larger. Both have in common the plateau features; their topographies, climates, and physical features in general, are of similar types, and their geological features and history appear to be closely related; out each has, also, its peculiarities. The northern portion is an interesting and already celebrated field for the study of Cretaceous strata and the Tertiary lacustrine beds. The subjects which it presents to the geologist are most notably those which are embraced under the department of strati graphy-the study of the succession of strata and co-related succession of organic life. Otherwise the region is tame, monotonous, and unattractive. The southern portion, while presenting an abundance of material for stratigraphical study, and in this respect fully rivalling, and, perhaps, surpassing, the northern portion, also abounds in the grandest and most fascinating themes for the student of physical geography. The northern portion is almost trivial as to the scenery, while the southern is the sublimest on the continent. With the former we shall have little to do; it is the latter which claims here our exclusive attention.

The southern part of the Plateau Province may be regarded as a vast basin everywhere bounded by highlands, except at the southwest, where it opens wide and passes suddenly into a region having all the characteristics of the Great Basin of Nevada. The northern half of its eastern rim consists of the Park ranges of Colorado. Its northern rim lies upon the slopes of the Uintas. At the point where the Uintas join the Wasatch, the boundary turns sharply to the south, and for 200 miles the High Plateaus of Utah constitute the elevated western margin of the province.

The Grand Canyon District--the region draining into the Grand and Marble Canyons is the westernmost division of the Plateau Province. Nearly four-fifths of its area are situated in northern Arizona. The remaining fifth is situated in southern Utah. Let us turn our attention for a moment to the portion situated in Utah. It consists of a series of terraces quite similar to those we have already seen descending from the summit of the Wasatch Plateau to the San Rafael Swell, like a colossal stairway. At the top of the stairs are the broad and lofty platforms of the High Plateaus of Utah; at the bottom is the inner expanse of the Grand Canyon District. The summits of the High Plateau are beds of the Lower Eocene Age. Descending southward, we cross, step by step, the terminal edges of the entire Mesozoic system and the Permian, and when we reach the inner floor of the Grand Canyon District we find that it consists of the summit beds of the carboniferous series, patched here and there with fading remnants of the Permian.

Thus we may note that the northern and eastern boundaries of the Grand Canyon District are cliff-bound terraces. Crossing the district, either longitudinally from north to south, or transversely from east to west, we find as we approach the southern or western border, that the carboniferous platform ascends very gradually, and at last it terminates in a giant wall, plunging down thousands of feet to the platform of a country quite similar to the Great Basin of Nevada. All the features are repeated and the desolation intensified in the dreadful region which is west and south of the Grand Canyon region.

Here, then, we have a birds-eye view of the topography of this region, written by one who is familiar with every part of it. We can see from the description that the Great Plateau was isolated from every other part of the continent. It was surrounded by higher mountains, and beyond the mountains by wide valleys-the Great Mississippi Valley on the east, the valley of the Snake River on the north, the valley, which is

called the Great Basin, on the west, and the valley of the Lower Colorado on the south.

Dana, the celebrated geologist, says that a continent is characterized by a great valley situated between two or more ranges of mountains. According to this definition we may conclude that the Great Plateau is a continent above a continent, and may well be called the Air Continent; for it is lifted high up in

the air, but is at the same time surrounded by higher peaks, and beyond the peaks are the great depths of air, which surround it as thoroughly as did once the rolling depths of water, which laved the shore in the ancient period when the mountains were new.

II. We turn, then, to the scenery. Of

this we have some very graphic descriptions. These show the impressions which are made upon educated minds, but at the same time illustrate the necessity of coming into sympathy

with the scene by long dwelling amid it, and becoming familiar with its changes.

The following description is from Mr. C. E. Dutton's report:

The Grand Canyon of the Colorado is a great innovation in modern ideas of scenery, and in our conceptions of the grandeur, beauty, and power of nature. As. with all great innovations, it is not to be comprehended in a day or a week, nor even in a month. It must be dwelt upon and studied, and the study must comprise the slow acquisition of the meaning and spirit of that marvelous scenery which characterizes the Plateau country, and of which the great chasm is the superlative manifestation. The study and mastery of the influences of that class of scenery and its appreciation, is a culture, requiring time, patience, and long familiarity, tor its consummation. The lover of nature, whose perceptions have been trained in the Alps, in Italy, Germany, or New England; in the Appalachians or Cordilleras, in Scotland or Colorado, would enter this strange region with a shock, and dwell there for a time with a sense of oppression, and, perhaps with horror. Whatsoever things he had learned to regard as

SAND ROCKS.