12 



is fairly well watered, tbere still remains a tract approximately 85 by 

 130 miles in extent, embracing more than 11,000 scjuare miles, an area 

 mncli larger than the State of Massachusetts. This vast area is 

 included in that part of Sweetwater County east of Green liiver and 

 certain portions of Carbon County west from the Platte. 



TOPOGRAPHY. 



The Red Desert is a high, undulating ]ilain or plateau, crossed and 

 intersected at intervals by low ranges of liills (PI. 1, fig. 2). Occasional 

 buttes occur, standing sentinel over the groui^s of hills that rim in the 

 shallow basins or form the zigzag blufts of the many dry draws or the 

 infrequent creeks. 



Far toward the northern boundary one sees the large, isolated butte 

 known as Steamboat Mountain, and beyond this, on the horizon's rim, 

 Antelope Hills, Green Mountains, and 1^'erris Mountiiins. This series, 

 extending from east to west, forms the watershed on the south side of 

 Sweetwater liiver and the northern boundary of the desert. To the 

 north of the railroad are the Leucite Hills. IJlack Rock Butte and 

 Orendo Butte are well known landmarks. Toward the east, as viewed 

 from the heart of the desert, no relief appears, unless, perchance, a 

 little toward the north one sees the tops of the Seminole Mountains. 

 The southern boundary is made by ranges of hills and occasional 

 wooded mountains, the view of which, however, is intercejited by the 

 high blurt's that border the narrow valleys. On the western border, 

 in the Green River bluffs, there is scenery of no mean type. Here 

 buttes, long famed, overlook a valley that has had a reputation for 

 grandeur and pictures! pieness for more tlian half a century. 



Crossing the desert from north to south, east of the center, is the 

 height of land — the watershed of the continent Here are parted the 

 waters of the Platte and the Green, liowing, respectively, toward 

 the Atlantic and Pacific. The railroad intersects this line near Cres- 

 ton, the exact point being marked by a signboard announcing this 

 fact. 



From an altitude of 7,0.j8 feet at Creston, the land slopes away grad- 

 ually toward the east and toward the west, but probably the average 

 altitude for the whole region, if one takes into account the increased 

 altitudes both in the northern and southern jiortions, is not far from 

 7,000 feet. The lowest altitudes are found in the narrow, bluff-bordered 

 valley of Bitter Creek, which (PI. II, fig. 1), with an elevation of (;,7(K) 

 feet at Bitter Creek Station, drojis to (i,077 feet at its junction with 

 Green River near the town of that name. 



GEOLOGY.' 



The geology of the Red Desert is so varied that it is almost imi)os- 

 sible to give a suitable brief descrijjtion. Considering that the desert 



' The aiillior is iiidcOited to Prof. W. ('. Kiiij^ht for this summary of the geological 

 features of Ibu lied Desert. 



