Hayclen.] ^^ [February 19, 



Then again the valley would appear to be monoclinal, the strata on the 

 right side of the river inclining 20'' south, and on the opposite side, though 

 presenting a nearly vertical front, inclining south also. A little farther 

 on down the valley, and on the right side of the river, come beds of red 

 sandstone ; below these again gray sandstone, with a reddish tinge, the 

 red sandstone dipping east 12° ; while on the opposite side of the river, 

 the hills are open, rounded and grass covered. 



The cherty crinoidal limestone extends to Morgan city and generally 

 disappears. The red sandstones are seen among the foot hills. 



At Morgan city, we come out of the principal canon of the Weber, into 

 a broad open bottom, filled with little villages and farm houses. The 

 soil is of great fertility. The hills on either side are smoothed off and 

 covered thickly with loose material and vegetation. The high vertical 

 exposures all disappear. The Wasatch range seems to trend nearly north 

 and south ; even the foot hills of this range are so smoothed off' and 

 covered with drift and then with grass, that the underlying rocks are not 

 to be seen. The industry shown by the Mormons in this valley is worthy 

 of all praise.- The little streams are made use of to irrigate the rich bot- 

 tomlands, which produce abundantly, and the houses look neat and com- 

 fortable. Fruit cannot be raised to any extent in the Weber valley. The 

 varieties of trees are confined mostly to the bitter-cotton-wood, although 

 from Echo city down, we meet with a small dwarf, oak-box, elder, striped 

 maple, and choke-cherry. 



Just below the little village of Enterprise, I saw in the hills rocks 

 composed of an aggregate of quartz pebbles, the whole mass looking like 

 the Potsdam. Still farther down, we come to feldspathic rocks, indicating 

 that the dip of the gneissic beds of the Wasatch range is westward. The 

 Wasatch range is composed of gneiss so far as the rocks can be seen 

 along the Weber. The rocks are beautifully banded everywhere. There 

 are also coarse aggregations of quartz and feldspar with large masses of 

 tourmaline ; and all through the gneiss are seams of feldspar and quartz 

 of various thicknesses. 



The evidence is quite clear that from Morgan city to the entrance of 

 the Wasatch Kanyon stretched a lake, the waters of which must have filled 

 up the valley, rounded off the hills and covered the sides of the mountains 

 with loose debris. Along the sides of the Kanyon of the Wasatch, 4^ miles 

 long, are thick deposits of loose sand interspersed with water worn boul- 

 ders in many places. These deposits have been cut through in making 

 excavations by the railroad, and the lines of current deposition are 

 curiously well marked. About half way through the kanyon, there is a 

 sudden bend in the Weber river, by which a small portion of one of gneis- 

 sic ridges is cut off". Opposite this ox-bow, a kanyon descends the moun- 

 tain side, down which a vast quantity of loose material has been swept, 

 filling the channel of the river with local drift, and probably driving the 

 current through the gneissic ridges. The Weber river, if its channel were 

 straightened, would run through this deposit of drift, which is about ,30 



