21 



II. UTAH. 



Concerning the topography of the Uintah Range, how- 

 ever, we will go a little more into detail ; especially in regard 

 to the valley, which we endeavored to study with more care 

 than any other part. A careful comparison of what may be 

 said here with the map before one's eyes, will give an ade- 

 quate idea of the many beauties, as well as the remarkable 

 structural features, of the valley. We regret very much 

 that we are not able to give any pictures of this strange 

 place. Prof. O. C. Marsh says* of the Green River Basin, in 

 the March number of the American Journal of Science and Art 

 for 1871, p. 197 : 



"While descending the northern slope of the mountains toward the great 

 Tertiary Basin of the Green River, which lay in the distance 2000 feet below us, 

 we passed over a high ridge, from the summit of which appeared one of the 

 most striking and instructive views of geological structure to be seen in any 

 country. Sweeping in gentle curves around the base of the mountains from 

 where we stood, many miles to the northward was a descending series of con- 

 centric, wavelike ridges, formed of the upturned edges of differently colored 

 strata, which dipped successively away from the Uintahs, those nearest to us 

 40 or more, those at a distance seeming but little, altogether a scene never to 

 be forgotten. Apparently, we had before us a geological series from the Palae- 

 ozoic to the Tertiary." 



Fort Bridger is situated in this valley, about fifty miles to 

 the north of the point from which, we suppose, this view 

 was taken, and we can do no better than to quote Prof. 

 Marsh once more, when he says : 



"Fort Bridger is situated at the northern base of the Uintah Mountains, 

 about 7000 feet above the sea. The surrounding plain is part of a great basin 

 of denudation, washed out of light clays and soft sandstones of the Tertiary 

 age ; the deposits in one of the great fresh-water lakes that replaced the Creta- 

 ceous sea, from which the mass of the Rocky Mountains emerged. Remnants 

 of the strata removed may be seen at various points around ; some in the shape 

 of flat, isolated buttes, and others forming benches resting horizontally against 

 the sides of the mountains. These fragments serve to show the great original 

 thickness of this lake deposit, which cannot have been less than 1500 feet, and 

 may have been much greater." 



The Uintah Range is a system which leaves the Wahsatch 

 Mountains in about latitude 40 N. with an elevation of nearly 



* See also Dr. Jos. Leidy, Geol. Survey of the Ter., 1872, p. 651. 



