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GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 



flows in these washes, but occasionally heavy rains or cloudbursts 

 in the foothills send down a torrent that sweeps like a wall of water 

 down the valley. The flood crumbles the banks of soft shale and 

 clay, sweeps away bridges, uproots orchards and crops, and produces 

 general devastation, although the rain that caused all this destruc- 

 tion may have been limited entirely to the foothill belt, none having 

 fallen where the damage is done. 



Near the A*illage of Loma the river, which has been in sight in 

 many places on the south (left) at the foot of the upturned red 

 sandstone, turns to the left and enters a canj'on in 

 Loma. fi^Q Gunnison formation. The High Line canal of 



Elevation 4.525 feet. ^\-^q Eeclamatiou Scrvice has been constructed far- 

 Denver 466 miles. ther wcst than Loma and provides for the irrigation 

 of 35,000 acres by the gravity system and 10,000 

 acres by the pumping system, Xorth of Loma several of the pro- 

 jecting points of the Book Cliffs are colored red and give to this 

 part of the .cliffs a different color tone from that which they have 

 farther east. The red color is due to the burning of one or more 

 coal beds and the consequent baking and reddening of the adjacent 

 rocks. The Book Cliffs seem to have lost the abruptness that char- 

 acterizes them near Palisade. They are broken into a number of 

 terraces, which rise one above another until the height of the whole 

 mass is about equal to that of the cliffs farther east. 



Although the river has entered the canyon in the pink rocks on the 

 south, the valley formed by the erosion of the shale and followed 

 by the railroad continues in a northwesterly direction. Some of the 

 land is in^igated, but most of it is in its original condition and the 

 general aspect of the country is not particularly promising until the 

 traveler reaches Mack, the terminus of the L'intah Railway, a nar- 

 row-gage line that leads from Mack northwestward 

 Mack. Q^gj, ^Yie Book Cliffs and down to Dragon and "\Vat- 



Eievation 4,540 feet. ^ "j^j^^j^ jj^g region about Mack is barren and 



Denver 469 miles. "= i i i i i •! 



uninviting, but the grounds around the hotel built 

 here by the Uintah Railway form an oasis in the desert. This quaint 

 bungalow is embowered in trees, and on a hot day it makes an in- 

 viting resting place for those who have been exposed to the scorch- 

 ing sun or who are changing from one road to the other. 



The Uintah Railway is used largely to transport gilsonite from the 

 mines in the vicinity of Watson. Utah, to the main line of the Denver 

 & Rio Grande Western Railroad, for shipment to market. The veins 

 and mines are described below bv D. E. Winchester.^* 



™ Gilsonite is a hard but brittle black 

 hydrocarbon with a glassy luster, which 

 occurs in great vertical veins at many 



places in northeastern Utah and is 

 being mined extensively near Watson 

 and Bonanza. The pure gilsonite is 



