DAVIS: MOUNTAIN RANGES OF THE GREAT BASIN. 147 
steepening near their mouth ; the slope of the side walls is 30°. All 
the ravines open close to the level of the Bonneville beach, instead of 
being cut down nearer to the level of the piedmont plain ; as in the 
Provo Wahsatch, this peculiar relation should be here also at least in 
part ascribed to the recent up-faulting of the mountain block. 
The Wahsatch range has many other canyons and ravines of similar 
form, so far as observation from the plain in front of the mountains can 
determine, and so far as description by local observers testifies. 
The southwestern slope of the Santa Rosa range north of Cane spring 
deserves further statement. I had time to examine its general features 
from a spur next south of Cane spring, whence the mountain front was 
seen somewhat to the right of the view shown in Plate 2,8. The strike 
of various ledges outcropping on the bare mountain flanks was in general 
northeastward ; that is, about at right angles to the trend of this part of 
the mountain base. The dip of the ledges was steep southeast, or nearly 
vertical. Rock structure was, however, very faintly exhibited as a ruie ; 
the mountain mass is for the most part worn to the stage of smoothly 
graded summits and spurs, whose graceful forms were beautifully brought 
out in late afternoon light. The spurs terminate in strong slopes, some- 
times maintaining convex longitudinal profiles almost to their base. 
The valleys and ravines are steep-walled and narrow-floored to their very 
mouths. The mountain base is of long and gentle curvature, here con- 
vex to the southwest. Faint scarps in the washed gravels close to the 
mountain base were seen at several points, and were noted as indicating 
modern faulting. The gravel wash extends far forward on an even slope, 
thus suggesting a vigorous discharge of waste from the mountain valleys. 
For several miles east of Cane spring, the strong wash from the moun- 
tains on the north meets a much weaker wash from a series of low spurs 
on the south; these spurs descend gently, some reaching further forward 
than others, and all blending by gradual concave slopes with the inclined 
gravel plain before them. So distinct a contrast between the forms of 
the mountains on the north and those of the spurs on the south must 
have a meaning. No meaning seems so probable as that which associates 
the mountain with strong block faulting and active carving, both contin- 
ued into recent time, and the spurs with a long period of undisturbed 
erosion, 
As a characteristic of this arid and thinly settled region, note may be 
made of the fruit ranch of a Basque at the mouth of one of the valleys 
in the Santa Rosa mountains. The small stream from the valleys sup- 
plies water enough to irrigate an orchard of a thousand apple-trees and 
