National Academy of Sciences. 







THE COLORADO CAfiONS. 



BY MAJOK J. W. POWKLL. 



This was an elaborate descriptive essay, an 

 account of the progress made in tho survey of the Colo- 

 rado and its tributaries by parties under direction of tho 

 Bmitbsouian Institution. The following extracts show 

 the character of the. country : 



The whole region embraced ID the survey is a canon 

 country. At the very beginning wo liavo a series of 

 carious through the Umtalt Mountains, as the channel of 

 Green River, Flaming Gorge. King-fisher Canon, Ked 

 Canon, tbc. Canon of Lodore, Whirlpool Cation, and Split 

 Mountain Canons. Then Yanipa Canon, the canon along 

 the lower course of the river of the same name, and many 

 other triburary canons. Then below, in. descending the 

 river, the Cafion oi' Desolation, Gray Canon, Libyrinth 

 Canon, and Si illwatcr Canon, with their laterals; then 

 Cataract C.ifion, a profound eiiasin below tlio junction of 

 the Grand and Green, then Narrow Canon, which termi- 

 nates at the mouth of the Dirty Devil River; many 

 canons lateral in all these have also been explored. 



Along all the streams mentioned we have series of 

 canons, and yet all of these represent but a part of the 

 caiious explored and mapped, for there are many pra- 

 fouud chasms, the channels of intermittent streams, dry 

 during the greater part of tbe season, that are hundreds 

 of feet deep, and that never have a continuous stream 

 for their entire length. But I cannot slop to enumerate 

 all of these dry gorges. 



Then Glen C. iion, a b'eautirul chasm curved by tbe 

 river, in tbe bright-red homogeneous sandstone of Ti i- 

 assie age. From the mouth of the Puria River to tbe 

 mouth of the Colorado Chiquito is the beautiful gorge to 

 which we have given the. name of Marble Canon. The 

 walls are of limestone, and near the toot are of a crys- 

 talline structure which receives a beautiful polish ; 

 white, gray, slate-color, pink, brown, and s iffron-col- 

 ored marbles are here found, carved and fretted by the 

 waves of the river, and polished by tbe floods of sand 

 which are poured over the walls during the seasons of 

 showers, giving to the walls of the canons, which have 

 assumed architectural forms on a giant scale, an appear- 

 ance of great beauty and grandeur. 



Thou we have the Grand Cafion, tbe most profound 

 chasm known on the globe. "Were ahundred mountains, 

 each as large as Mount Washington, plucked up by the 

 roots to tbe level of tbe sea aud tumbled iulo tbe gorge, 

 they would not till it. 



Perhaps tho most wonderful of the topographic fea- 

 tures of this country are the lines of chit-, escarpments 

 of rock separating upper from lower regions by hold, 

 often vertical and impassable barriers, hundred or thou- 

 sands of leet high und scores or hundreds of miles in 

 length. 1 wiil enumerate some of the more important. 

 First, we have the Brown cliffs, an escarpment which 

 forms the southern boundary of the plateau 

 through which the Cafiou of Desolation is carved ; 

 then the Azure cliffs, the southern escarpment of 

 the plateau through which Grav Canon is cut ; 

 then the Orange cliffs, a broken escarpment, 

 which commences at the foot of the Sierra La 

 Sal, on the ea.-te.rn side of Grand Kiver, past the Grand, 

 then across the Green River, and then down in a south- 

 westerly direction para; lei to the Colorado River ab.mt 

 fltty miles, and then turns again to the south-east and 

 crosses tbe Colorado, terminating in the slo[.c of the 

 Sierra La Sal, two or three scores of miles south of tin; 

 initial point. Thus tho h-ad of die Colorado, the junc- 

 tion of the Grand and Green, is encompassed by a tow- 



ering wall tbe Sierra T/i Sal on the east ; on I lie north, 

 west, and south the Orange Cull'-; on i-verv side ; 

 facade of storm-carved rocks is prcx-nted. Tin- In- 

 dian name for this basin j- Tum inn in' n, </ (u- 

 irn//>. the land of standing rode-, j: n:<--, 

 pinnacles, thousands and lens ot l IKHI ..i :nN 

 forma Of rock, naked rock ol 1 many dill' rent <"!., i- am 

 here seei: ; so that bel'.ovo wo had learned llie lnili.ui 

 name wo thought fof calling if tho Btone I I or 



Painted 81 one Forest; und these 1'Ouka are not Ir igiiieni s 

 or piles of irregular masses, lint stand :ig I'.inns, carved 

 by the rain drops from the solid m i sire hedft, Weird, 

 strange and grand is the Tuni-iiin n-n in ir In ir,,i,i. 

 Passing by many others, lei i.s -p -ale <.i tin- im.r.- only. 

 Tho Ilunicane ledge is an escarpment due to a fault 

 having a northerly and smirherly direction, .-larting 

 away to the North of Tokerville, in U u ah Terniorv, and 

 running South across the, Colorado Ki\v. I: probably 

 continues iu this direction as a laull or a told tor iu!) 

 miles. 



The Vermillion cliffs have an easterh an 1 we-terly 

 trend ; this lino then crosses, in an irregular way, the 

 bead waters of the Rio Virgin, still on Hi 1 ea-t crossing 

 the bead waters of t:ie K in ib and tao folds around tho 

 uort hern extremity of the Kaibab plateau, then ero-ses 

 the Colorado and turns in a so utaarly direction across 

 tbe Little Colorado by a monocliual fohl. Tais escarp- 

 ment presents a wall of tnassic red sand-stone, and is 

 due to erosion ; tho l)eds below have been strippe-l away 

 by the rains and rivers. 



Wlnte cliC's are approximately parallel M these; the 

 line is a broken angular escarpment in Jurassic linn-stone 

 and homogeneous gray sandstone, capped by beds of 

 limestone. 



T<i the knowledge of the geography of this country 

 we have given a great number of plateaus. Tuoso 

 along the course of the Green and Upper Col- 

 ora.lo I may not stop to mention. Geographers 

 and geologists have heretofore spokcu of a great 

 Colorado plateau, referring to the district of 

 country through which Marble and Grand can >ns are 

 cut, for so it appeared to the observer standing on the 

 south-west margin of this great district of conn ry ; but 

 it has proved, in fact, to bo a complex .-y-t -m of 

 plateaus, bounded by walls of faults, escarpments or 

 cliffs oi erosion, and canon gorges. Chief among tiie-o 

 arc the Mark-a-guut, P.iuus-a-gunr, A<|a.min. an I K.ii- 

 por-o- wits plateaus, lying to the north in the Mirve\el 

 district, aud in which head tbe Dirty D,-vil, the 

 Escolaute, tho Paria, tho K.inab. and the llio Virgiu 

 R'vers. The upper beds of which these plateaus are 

 composed are of tertiary age, but they carry on, 

 their backs extensive outflows of lava and numbers of 

 dead vo c tnoes. The numerous plateaus, mesxs, and 

 terraces to tue south of these are co.npoM'd of beds of 

 cretaceous and Jurassic age, but I pass them by without 

 further mention. Tae Paria plateau, ou [he south dido 

 of tho river of tho saiuo name, is a great tablo 

 of trias. Ou tho north side of the grand canou 

 wo have the Kaibab, tbo Kanab. the Vin -karet and 

 Shevwitz plateaus. Tuuse are extensive tables 

 of carboniferous age with many eruptive m.i- 

 and volcanic cones. For tin 1 great plati'aii to the south 

 of the Colorado River, hounded on the north by the 

 grand canon, on tbe south-west by an e.-,earpmeiit. 

 which is the continuation of the Ilunicane ledge, but 

 which In this locality has received the Dame or Aubrey 

 dill's, and on the north-eist by a i,rea! cs-irpi.iont 

 which faces the Little Colorado, and who-.- . .i,t.-rii 

 boundary is not dctermiuud, I propose to retain tha 



