214 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEEEITOEIES. 



of this region, possesses features peculiar to itself. Although risiBg 

 at ijoints, as will be seen from Professor Hayden's report, to a height 

 of 12,000 and even 13,500 feet above the level of the sea, shooting up 

 sharp and lofty peaks above the limit of arborescent vegetation, yet 

 it possesses, to a greater or less degree, that peculiar evidence of the 

 remarkable effects of erosion seen in the lower ridges in this section. 

 But the description of this interesting region by Professor Hayden is 

 so full that it is unnecessary for me to add more than that here is 

 found a heavy forest growth of excellent pine timber, which on account 

 of its proximity to the Union Pacific Eailroad will probably, at no very 

 distant day, prove a source of wealth to this region. 



Passing a little farther westward, we encountered the great Wahsatch 

 Eange, which, stretching north and south for four hundred miles, forms 

 the vast terrace above the Great Salt Lake Basin. To understand the 

 relation that this range bears to the eastern range running through 

 Colorado and Wyoming, we must bear in mind the fact that from Salt 

 Lake to Cheyenne there is one great mountain which has been lifted in 

 the air an average height of 7,000 feet above the level of the sea, and 

 between 2,000 and 3,000 feet above the mass of debris piled against its 

 flanks. Its broad summit formed of the plains, hills, ridges, and peaks 

 which intervene, these ranges are its flanking walls, forming the eastern 

 and western escarpments. The Wahsatch Eange, though rugged and 

 rocky, does not, at least on its western slope, ijossess the jagged char- 

 acter to such a high degree as the Colorado Mountains, but, on the con- 

 trary, is sharply indeuted and furrowed, much like the Sierra Blanco 

 Mountains which surround San Luis P^rk on the northeast. The west- 

 ern slope, especially from Ogden to the south end of Utah Lake, instead 

 of sloping down regularly to the surface of the basin, seems to plunge 

 down through the debris which presses against it as the cliff" plunges 

 down into the waters of the ocean which lave its side. There is here 

 but one culminating xJoint, which acts as the radiating center for the 

 water systems of the region. This is at the place where the Uintah 

 Mountains connect with the Wahsatch Eange, almost immediately at the 

 southwest angle of Wyoming Territory, but situated in Utah. Here 

 White, Uintah, Bear, Weber, and Provo Elvers have their origin, the first 

 two connecting with Green Eiver and the others entering the Salt Lake 

 Basin at different points. 



Moving northward across the broad, open space occupied by the Green 

 Eiver Plains and Laramie Plains, the one lying on the Atlantic and the 

 other on the Pacific slope, connected by an imperceptible divide, we en- 

 counter another striking feature, varying the apparent monotony of 

 this mountain region. I say " apparent monotony," for, in reality, the 

 scenery is constantly changing at every step to the ardent student of 

 nature. Stretching east and west from the north end of the Black 

 Hills of Wyoming to the south end of the Wind Eiver Eange is a series 

 of remarkable granite hills skirting the valley of the Sweetwater. These 

 have much the appearance of the sharp pealts and crests of a submerged 

 range, which, shooting up through the sea of sand, mark its course. 

 So striking is this appearance that even the most casual observers 

 almost involuntarily make the comparison. 



From this jioint northward the range (by this I intend the entire belt) 

 contracts and changes its direction. From the thirty-seventh to the forty- 

 third parallels its course is almost directly north, and extending in width 

 from the one hundred and fifth to the one hundred and twelfth meridians, 

 an air -line distance of about three hundred and fifty miles. Here it bends 

 northwest, making an angle with its former course of some twenty or 



