202 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
running most of the way through badlands of soft shale that have 
been cut by rain and running water. It passes so near the cliffs that 
the traveler may see all the delicate fiuting and also the sharp points 
of the salients which are protected by caps of heavy sandstone. 
Although the variety of details is infinite, the general similarity of 
the forms produced grows wearisome, and the traveler finally wel- 
comes the emergence of the train from the badlands into the open 
plain, which leads down to Green River. This change occurs at a 
siding called Solitude, which indeed is rightly named. Here noth- 
ing is in sight but the endless expanse of plain covered with the 
stunted vegetation of the desert on the one side and the equally end- 
less badlands on the other. To the eye of the sheep herder, however, 
this region is not desolate, for it affords fine feeding ground for his 
sheep. The impression of it, then, depends on the point of view; what 
the stranger sees as desolation no words can describe one familiar 
with the scene views without aversion and accepts at its real worth. 
Immediately after the train rounds the curve beyond Solitude the 
town of Greenriver comes in sight, although it is almost 12 miles 
distant. At least the green trees in and surrounding the town can 
be seen, but they are nearly straight ahead and the traveler may have 
difficulty in locating them. 
As the train passes down this even slope much of the surrounding 
landscape is spread out before the traveler. The Book Cliffs on the 
right swing far to the north in a great reentrant which Green River 
has cut in their generally even front. Across the river there is 2 
strong salient, which is known as the Beckwith Plateau, named for 
Lieut. Beckwith, who was associated with Capt. Gunnison in his 
survey of this route for a Pacific railroad and who crossed Green 
River September 30, 1853. Capt. Gunnison lost his life in an en- 
counter with a band of Indians after he had crossed the Wasatch 
Plateau, and Lieut. Beckwith prepared the report of the explora- 
tion. The most attractive features in the landscape are the wonderful 
tablelands and the peaks resembling ruined cities, which can be seen 
far across the river in the north end of what is known as the San 
Rafael Swell. This region is described in greater detail on pages 
207-208. 
As the traveler descends the smooth shale slope he can make out 
the point where Green River emerges from the mountainous country 
to the north by the deep reentrant in the line of the Book Cliffs. By 
close examination he may be able to see a butte on the west side of 
the river, which is marked by a series of pinnacles and which is 
known as Gunnison Butte, in commemoration of the survey of this 
region by Capt. Gunnison. (See Pl. LXXXII,@.) This butte towers 
2,700 feet above the river, but as seen from the train it seems to be 
Se a ce ca eee 
a ee ee a ee 
oe epee ee 
elie aati, sf 
