160 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



the flanks of the mountains about ten miles north of Salt Lake City, and 

 continue to a greater or less extent all around the rim of the basin. 



On the flanks of the mountains east of the city are the red beds, and 

 probably a careful study would reveal Jurassic, cretaceous, and possi- 

 bly even tertiary beds. President Young has long since offered a 

 large reward to any one who would discover workable beds of coal 

 within a reasonable distance of the city, and a thorough search has been 

 made for them, but thus far without success. A bed of coaly clay only, 

 has been found near the city in the mountains. All the coal used in the 

 valley is transported in wagons from Coalville, on the Weber. The best 

 of red sandstone for building purposes is brought from Eed Sandstone 

 Canon, just east of the town. I think it is of Triassic age. The beauti- 

 ful gray granite which is used in the construction of the Mormon Tem- 

 ple is brought from Cottonwood Valley in the Wasatch Mountains. It 

 is composed of white feldspar, quartz, and black mica. 



The surface of Salt Lake Valley has been rendered fruitful by the in- 

 dustry of the Mormons. Like the greater portion of the West, it was 

 originally a vast sage plain. Now, by irrigation, all kinds of cereals and 

 roots grow luxuriantly, and there are no better apples, peaches, plums, 

 grapes, &c, raised in America. It may eventually become a vine-growing 

 region. 



Following the stage road eastward, sixteen miles from Salt Lake City 

 to the Brewery at the mouth of Parley's Canon, we reach the foot of 

 the mountain, over sand beds which are probably of post-pliocene age. 

 Here a little stream cuts through the sand beds, exposing a vertical 

 bluff two hundred feet high, composed of fine sand, horizontally 

 stratified and overlaid with a great thickness of water-worn pebble con- 

 glomerate. There are indications all along the flanks of the mountains 

 that nearly or quite all the formations already recognized as far west as 

 this point are here represented. At the entrance of the canon the 

 carboniferous limestones dip northeast 70° to 80° ; over them lie the 

 purple and red sandstones and rusty -yellow layers, and under them red- 

 dish shales. Beneath these shales an immense thickness of dark-gray 

 silicious rock stands nearly vertical. All this vast thickness of older 

 rocks, in appearance semi-metamorphosed, is undoubtedly the counter- 

 part of the series described in the Weber Valley, just below the en- 

 trance of Lost Creek. 



The road passes up a monoclinal valley between the ridges of quartzitic 

 rocks, having a brittle fracture, and the monoclinal slopes are covered 

 with debris. No gneissic rocks are noticeable along this road. 



Before reaching the summits, in fact soon after we begin the ascent, 

 we come to the conglomerates and sandstones which accompanied us 

 down the Echo and Weber Valle3 7 s. Near the summit all the hills are 

 rounded by erosion and grassed over, and water- worn boulders are scat- 

 tered about here and there, so that the underlying rocks are partially 

 concealed. Just beyond the summit we arrive at a broad open exposure 

 in the valley of the stream called Parley's Point, half a mile wide and 

 about seven thousand feet above sea level. Settlements are numerous 

 all along the road ; but while there is very good grazing, few of the 

 cereals will grow. 



All the rocks on the eastern slope incline at a greater or less angle 

 apparently toward the east. Just as we enter Silver Creek Valley we 

 come to numerous upthrusts of partially changed sandstones and con- 

 glomerates, the first indications that we get along our route of the neigh- 

 borhood of igneous rocks. Some of the masses of rock which go to make 

 up the conglomerate are of great size, very compact, and of a steel-gray 



