TO JUNCTION OF GRAND AND GREEN RIVERS. 95 



gigantic scale. These buttes are composed of the liver-colored sandstones and choc 

 olate shales of the walls of the Canon Colorado, which consist of a great number of 

 alternations of thinner or thicker layers of sandstone with those of shale. This struc- 

 ture in erosion gives rise to many curious and beautiful results, such as a beaded ap- 

 pearance in columns, while harder or thicker layers form their capitals and bases. It 

 also produces what seem to be walls of masonry, with frieze and cornice. 



Soon after issuing from the mouth of Canon Colorado, the little intermittent stream 

 which traverses it begins to cut the floor of the rocky plain that borders the Colorado 

 Uiver, and, following that stream as the only possible avenue through which we could 

 reach our destination, we were soon buried in a deep and narrow gorge, which is thence 

 continuous till it joins the greater canon of Grand River. This canon, from its many 

 windings and the many branches which open into it, we designated by the name of 

 Labyrinth Canon. Its walls are from one to two hundred feet in height, so that there 

 is no egress from it for many miles. The bottom is occupied with cotton-woods, and 

 thickets of narrow-leaved willow, cane, and salt-bush ; all of which, with fallen rocks, 

 quicksands, and deep water-holes, made the passage through it almost impossible- 

 Some two miles below the head of Labyrinth Canon we came upon the ruins of a large 

 number of houses of stone, evidently built by the Pueblo Indians, as they are similar 

 to those on the Dolores, and the pottery scattered about is identical with that before found 

 in so many places. It is very old but of excellent quality, made of red clay coated 

 with white, and handsomely figured. Here the houses are built in the sides of the 

 cliffs. A mile or two below we saw others crowning the inaccessible summits inac- 

 cessible except by ladders of picturesque detached buttes of red sandstone, which 

 rise to the height of one hundred and fifty feet above the bottom of the canon. Simi- 

 lar buildings were found lower down, and broken pottery was picked up upon the 

 summits of the cliffs overhanging Grand River; evidence that these dreadful canons 

 were once the homes of families belonging to that great people formerly spread over 

 all this region now so utterly sterile, solitary, and desolate. 



At the ruined pueblos we reached the surface of the Carboniferous formation ; 

 having passed through the entire thickness of the Gypsum series since leaving the 

 Sage-plain. 



The complete section of the walls of the Canon Colorado continued to this point, 

 is as follows: 



Feet. 



1. Yellow massive calcareous sandstone, base of preceding section 400 



2. Red micaceous sandstones, interstratified with red shales 150 



3. Red and brown massive sandstone 270 



4. Green and red shelly sandstones, and red shales, softer than No. 2 350 



5. Greenish-gray micaceous conglomerate 15 



G. Red and purple shale 60 



7. Grayish sandstone 18 



8. Chocolate and purple soft sandstones and shales in thin bands 275 



9. Soft liver-colored and white sandstone - . 75 



10. Brick-colored massive, calcareous sandstone, weathering into towers and bot- 

 tle-shaped buttes 80 



