ART. X.-ON A NEW CAYE FAUNA IN UTAH. 



By a. S. Packard, Jr., M. D. 



Figs. 5-10. 



TTliile attached to the Uaited States Geological and Geographical 

 Survey of the Territories in the summer of 1875, during a visit to the 

 Great Salt Lake, my attention was called by Jeter Clinton, esq., to a 

 curious cave on his estate, about half a mile east of his hotel at Lake 

 Point. It is, at a rough guess, about two hundred feet above the level 

 of the lake, and the mouth faces the northeast. It was evidently due to 

 wave-action, being situated on an ancient beach-line, while the top and 

 bottom of the cave were formed by a breccia. As my examination of it 

 was a hasty one, no measurements having been taken, I quote the follow- 

 ing account of it by Mr. G. K. Gilbert, in his report '' On the Geology 

 of Portions of our Western Territory, visited in the years 1871, 1872, and 

 1873 " : — * 



" Along many of the beaches, and especially at points where they are 

 carved in solid rock, the beach or terrace below the water-line is com- 

 posed of calcareous tufa usually full of small Gasteropod shells, and often 

 involving so many fragments of the contiguous rock as to constitute a 

 breccia. In the localities where I found it best exhibited, the beach was 

 carved in limestone, but the deposit is probably independent of the char- 

 acter of the adjacent formation. Mr. Howell observed it upon Granite 

 Mountain, coating granite, and remote from limestone exposures; and a 

 similar association was seen by Prof. W. P. Blake on the Colorado Desert. 

 Down some steep slopes it stretches as an apron for several rods, and, 

 when it rests on soft materials, the waves of the retiring lake have under- 

 mined it and formed caves. Several of these are to be seen on the north 

 end of the Oquirrh range, and the largest, which is XDopularlj- reputed 

 to have been excavated by Spaniards years ago as a mine, is remark- 

 able as a specimen of 'Purgatorial' wave-work. The Carboniferous 

 strata have a local northward dip of 80^, and trend parallel to the face of 

 the declivity. Two beds of limestone, which constitute the walls of the 

 cavern, are separated 12 feet at the entrance, and evenly converge to 

 the rear end, where they are 4 feet apart. At the end, a shale, in place, 

 iills the interval, but I was unable to determine whether this had once 

 occupied the entire excavated space. The roof is built entirely of recent 



* Extracted from vol. iii of the United States Engineer Reports of Explorations 

 and Surveys West of the lOOtli Meridian, Lieut. G. M. Wheeler in charge. 



157 



