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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1883 
LTE, TERTIARY HISTORY OF THE GRAND 
CANON DISTRICT 
A Monograph by Capt. C. E. Dutton. Being Vol. II. of 
the Monographs of the United States Geological 
Survey. With Atlas. 4to. [Vol. I. is not yet pub- 
lished.]. (Washington, 1882.) 
ie a handsome quarto volume, with a large atlas of 
maps and coloured views, the recently-constituted 
United States Geological Survey begins its series of 
memoirs descriptive of the geological structure and 
history of the country. Most appropriately the subject 
selected for illustration is at once the grandest and most 
unique feature in the geology of the United States, and 
to which indeed there is no parallel elsewhere in the 
world. Ever since the early Report by Ives and New- 
berry, in which the marvels of the Rio Colorado of the 
West were first made known, there has been a strong 
desire among geologists to learn more of that region, to 
have accurate measurements and careful drawings, and 
to be told authoritatively the details and the history of 
what they could not but admit to be the most stupendous 
example of river-erosion on the face of the globe. 
‘Major Powell’s bold descent of the river and the 
charming volume in which he described it threw much 
fresh light on the wonders of the cahons. But he had no 
opportunity of properly exploring the surrounding regions, 
though we looked forward to his return to the scene of his 
exploits and the consequent elaboration of another me- 
moir discussing the whole problem of the origin and 
history of the geological features of that remarkable area. 
Pressure of other duties has prevented him from realising 
this hope. But, though unable himself to resume this 
task, he deserves our best thanks for having induced the 
late Director of the Survey, Mr. Clarence King, to 
intrust the detailed survey of the Grand Cafion to Capt. 
C. E. Dutton, who had already done excellent service 
among the high volcanic plateaux farther north. Capt. 
Dutton unites some of the highest qualities of a geo- 
logical explorer. He is an excellent stratigrapher, a good 
petrographer, an enthusiast in the study of rock-sculpture, 
writes clearly and pleasantly, has a physical frame 
capable of carrying him triumphantly through any 
amount of physical fatigue, and is the happy possessor of 
a bright, cheerful nature, that must lighten the hardships 
of camp-life in the remote West both for himself and for 
his companions. We can well imagine how such a man, 
wandering among the lofty plateaux of Utah that had 
been assigned to him for exploration, should have cast 
many a longing gaze southward to that strange wild 
desert region of rocky platforms and winding mesas, 
through which the gorges of the Colorado and its tribu- 
taries have been sunk; how he should have been unable 
to resist the temptation to stray into that wonderland ; 
and how he must in some measure have almost welcomed 
the blasts of early winter that drove him down from the 
survey of the plateaux, and allowed himto ourney through 
the canon country on his way back to the Mormon settle- 
ments and the nearest railroad. 
When at last the task of actually exploring and describ- 
VOL. XxXviIl.—No. 694 
ing that region was intrusted to him, he already possessed 
a general acquaintance with its character and with many 
of its details. A stranger who first finds the cafion 
scenery before him is so excited by its novelty and 
grandeur, that for a time he feels utterly bewildered. 
Only after his eye has in some measure recovered its 
power of grasping the broad effects, without being lost in 
the details, does he begin to realise what are the elements 
of this stupendous grandeur. But Capt. Dutton had 
gone through this preliminary training. He had been 
led to scrutinise the scenery in detail, to discover the 
relations of part to part, and to speculate upon the evo- 
lution of the whole. Yet no one can read his pages 
without feeling that this analytic process has in no way 
dulled his sense of the beauty and majesty of the scenery. 
His words glow with the light that floods those flaming 
precipices. The blue aérial perspective of chasm and 
cliff receding into the dim distance in the central gorge 
seems to rise before our eyes as we read. With no 
irreverent hand does he tear the mask off the face of 
Nature. Rather does he make us feel how deeply the 
mystery of the scene has entered into his soul, as he 
gently lifts the veil that we may see a little way within, 
even as far as he has himself been enabled to penetrate. 
And this is the true spirit in which such scenery should’ 
be described and discussed. The man who could sit 
down and dissect these cafions in cold blood, and with as 
little emotion as he would show in cutting up a joint of 
beef, would be a creature not to be envied. Nowhere in 
this world does the scenery appeal so powerfully to the 
imagination. Among the Alps the rocks have been so 
stupendously crumpled that we may be pardonably at a 
loss to tell how far the outlines of a mountain are due to 
subterranean movements or to subsequent erosion. But 
among the western canons there is no room for any such 
doubt. The rocks lie for thousands of square miles as 
flat as when they were laid down upon the floors of 
ancient seas and lakes, and their horizontal undisturbed 
beds may be followed by the eye, winding in and out from 
cliff to cliff, preserving the same breadth, colour, features, 
and serving as so many datum-lines from which to measure 
the amount of solid rock that has been removed from the 
gorges. In tracing back the origin of these landscapes, 
and seeking out the causes of their infinite variety of 
detail yet marvellous harmony of effect, the mind natu- 
rally compares them with the feeble illustrations of erosion 
with which alone we are usually personally familiar. Such 
a comparison, however, will almost suggest a doubt as to 
whether we ever before could have had any proper con- 
ception of what the power of running water actually is, so 
utterly beyond description is the impressiveness with 
which this power is now realised. Nor is one disposed 
to deny that nowhere else is the dominant influence of 
geological structure upon the ultimate contours developed 
by erosion so significantly displayed. On every part of 
the scenery the story of its origin is impressed in charac- 
ters that cannot be mistaken. Yet these characters are 
on so colossal a scale that the dry prosaic language of 
otdinary geological description seems utterly incongruous 
when applied to them. It must be a difficult task to 
preserve the sober decorum of scientific treatment, and 
to convey at the same time an adequate impression of 
the infinite majesty of the subject. 
R 
