8 INTEODUCTORY. 



the westward, looking across' a valley floored with recent alluvium to typi- 

 cal Basin Ranges lying to the westward. The "district of the High Plateaus 

 is therefore a portion of the western belt of the Plateau Province, and its 

 western boundary is the trenchant one just described. 



THE PLATEAU PKOVINCE AT LARGE. 



To the eastward of the High Plateaus is spread out a wonderful region. 

 Standing upon the eastern verge of any one of these lofty tables where 

 the altitudes usually exceed 11,000 feet, the eye ranges over avast expanse 

 of nearly level terraces, bounded by cliff's of strange aspect, which are truly 

 marvelous, whether we consider their magnitude, their seemingly intermi- 

 nable length, their great number, or their singular sculpture. They wind 

 about in all directions, here throwing out a great promontory, there reced- 

 ing in a deep bay, but continuing on and on until they sink below the 

 horizon, or swing behind some loftier mass, or fade out in the distant haze. 

 Each cliff marks the boundary of a geographical terrace sloping gently 

 backward from its crestline to the foot of the next terrace behind it, and 

 each marks a higher and higher horizon in the geological scale as we 

 approach its face. Very wonderful at times is the sculpture of these 

 majestic walls. Panels, pilasters, niches, alcoves, and buttresses, needing 

 not the slightest assistance from the imagination to point the resemblance ; 

 grotesque forms, neatly carved out of solid rock, which pique the imagina- 

 tion to find analogies; endless repetitions of meaningless shapes fretting the 

 entablatures are presented to us on every side, and fill us with wonder as 

 we pass. But of all the characters of this unparalleled scenery, that which 

 appeals most strongly to the eye is the color. The gentle tints of an east- 

 em landscape, the rich blue of distant mountains, the green of vemal and 

 sxmimer vegetation, the subdued colors of hillside and meadow, all are 

 wanting here, and in their place we behold belts of fierce staring red, 

 yellow, and toned white, which are intensified rather than alleviated by 

 alternating belts of dark iron gray. The Plateau country is also the land 

 of canons. Gorges, ravines, canadas are found in every high country, but 

 canons belong to the region of the Plateaus. Like every other river, the 

 Colorado has many tinbutaries, and in former times had many more than 



