P OP ULAR MIS CELL ANY. 



569 



interest in the Uintah Mountains is the evi- 

 dence of enormous denudation, continued 

 through a protracted cycle of geological time. 

 The horizontality of the strata along the 

 central parts of the range is such that ter- 

 race above terrace can be traced by the 

 eye for miles around any commanding peak. 

 The rocks there have escaped crumbling and 

 fracture to a remarkable degree. It can 

 therefore be seen that the deep gullies and 

 clefts, the yawning precipices and cations, 

 the wide corries and vast amphitheatres by 

 which the surface is so broken up have 

 been produced not by underground disturb- 

 ances but by erosion at the surface. Most 

 of this tremendous denudation has doubt- 

 less been effected by ordinary atmospheric 

 action. One of the valleys in this section 

 he describes as crossed by beautiful horse- 

 shoe moraines that had once formed a suc- 

 cession of lakes, the sites of which are now 

 occupied by meadows. In these and other 

 high grounds, the beaver, by its dams, has 

 converted the small streams into a succession 

 of shallow lakes, and hundreds of acres of 

 bog-land have been thus produced. The 

 grand canon of the Yellowstone, gouged out 

 of volcanic formations. Professor Geikie de- 

 scribed as exhibiting, perhaps, the most 

 marvelous piece of mineral color to be seen 

 anywhere in the world. It has been cut 

 out of tuffs and lavas, showing sulphur-yel- 

 low, verdigris, or emerald-green, vermilion, 

 crimson, and orange tints, so remarkable 

 that, if transferred to paper or canvas, they 

 would be pronounced incredible and impos- 

 sible. In the Yellowstone Valley abundant 

 evidence of extensive glacial action was 

 found. On entering the second canon in 

 their ascent of the valley, it was seen to be 

 most exquisitely glaciated from bottom to 

 top, thus making it clear that the canon 

 was older than the glacial period ; it had 

 supplied a channel through which the gla- 

 cier had ground its way out from the moun- 

 tains. According to the indications on the 

 sides of the valley, this glacier must have 

 had a thickness of sixteen or seventeen 

 hundred feet. The Professor next described 

 the famous geyser region. The ground was 

 honeycombed with holes, filled with boiling 

 water. One geyser, known as " Old Faith- 

 ful," went off with wonderful regularity 

 every sixty-three minutes ; the others were 



more variable. The " Devil's Paint-Pot," a 

 mud-geyser, boiled like a great vat of thick 

 porridge, throwing out white and brilliantly 

 colored mud. Professor Geikie acknowl- 

 edges with admiration the labors of the ex- 

 plorers who first made known the wonders 

 of this remote and inaccessible region. The 

 reports of Hayden and his associates were 

 found to be most trustworthy and useful. 

 Nor could one forget the sagacity with 

 which Ilayden proposed, and the enlight- 

 ened liberality with which Congress enacted, 

 that for all time the Yellowstone region 

 should be a tract set apart as a national 

 park for the instruction and recreation of 

 the people. On reaching the basin of the 

 Great Salt Lake, our traveler was impressed, 

 by the evidences on every hand of the for- 

 mer vast extent of this inland sea. Lines 

 of terrace ran along the sides of the moun- 

 tains, the highest standing a thousand feet 

 above the present level of the water. The 

 rocks in some of the canons descending 

 from the Wahsatch Mountains, in the Salt 

 Lake Basin, were found smoothed, polished, 

 and striated by the glaciers that had come 

 down from the heights above, bringing with 

 them great quantities of moraine matter. 

 Mounds of rubbish blocked up the valleys 

 here and there, and some of them were ob- 

 served to descend to the highest terrace. 

 Hence, when the Salt Lake extended far 

 beyond its present area, and was about one 

 thousand feet deeper than now, the glaciers 

 from the Wahsatch Mountains reached its 

 edge, and shed their bergs into its waters. 

 Bones of the musk-ox had been found in 

 one of the terraces, showing that Arctic 

 animals lived in this region during these 

 cold ages. 



Death of Professor B. F. Madge.— We 



have to record the death, at his home in 

 Manhattan, Kansas, on the 21st of Novem- 

 ber last, of Professor B. F. Mudgc, whose 

 geological and paleontological researches 

 and writings had gained for him a high 

 place among Western men of science. Pro- 

 fessor Mudge began his working life at the 

 age of fourteen as a shoemaker, but at 

 twenty fitted himself for college, and en- 

 tered Wesleyan University, where he grad- 

 uated in 1840. He then studied law ; was 

 admitted to the bar in 1842, and for the 



