ROCK-CUT SURFACES IN THE DESERT RANGES?’ 
SIDNEY PAIGE 
In an article entitled ‘““The Geographical Cycle in an Arid 
Climate’? William M. Davis has presented a physiographic analysis 
of the ultimate results of erosion in an arid region. His conclusions 
are based partly on the work of Passarge and others and partly 
upon his own deductions. The system erected is in its larger 
features so complete that those who follow in interpreting particu- 
lar physiographic products need only assign such features to their 
proper place in the larger system already established. That the 
following conclusions, therefore, were reached independently and 
seem to fit perfectly with the system outlined by Davis is an addi- 
tional corroboration of the soundness of his deductions, and the 
excuse for their publication must rest upon the wish expressed by 
Davis “that the scheme of the arid cycle may lead to the detection 
of many facts concerning the evolution of land forms in desert 
regions that have thus far escaped notice.” 
G. K. Gilbert’ stated in describing the Basin Range system of 
the West: ‘‘Between them [the ranges] are valleys floored by 
the detritus from the mountains which conceals their depth and 
leaves to the imagination to picture the full proportions of ranges 
of which the crests alone are visible, while the bases are buried 
beneath the débris from the summits.” It is with the processes 
by which gravel sheets engulf mountain masses and with certain 
erosional features associated with such accumulations that the 
following notes have to do. An explanation is sought for a number 
of rock-cut benches or surfaces, occurring at the edges of Quaternary 
gravel sheets in the Silver City quadrangle, New Mexico. The 
facts will be presented first; what is believed to be an analogous 
« Published with the permission of the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey. 
2 Journal of Geology, XIII, No. 5, July-August, 1905. : 
3 Report upon Geographic and Geologic Surveys West of the tooth Meridian in 
Charge of Lieutenant George William Wheeler, Vol. II, p. 22. 
442 
