JOUENEY OVER THE MARKAGUNT. 



195 



It is a valley of erosion carved into the plateau by a plexus of streams. 

 The proportions are grand, and the abrupt slopes which wall it about on 

 every side are very impressive. It is a vast Coliseum, opening to the west- 

 ward by a deep and narrow canon leading to the floor of the Great Basin 

 near Parowan. The walls west, south, and north are all Tertiary (Bitter 

 Creek) and luminous with colors, which are all the more conspicuous from 

 contrast with the dark trachytic beds which overlook them from the east- 

 ern side. Several great valleys of similar aspect and excavated in the same 

 manner occur elsewhere in the sedimentary belt which borders the western 

 portion of the Markdguut. The plateau is there yielding slowly to the 

 destroying agents, and the continuance of the process through indefinite 

 time will at last destroy its eminence. It taxes the credulity to think that 

 this work has'been gradually accomplished by the feeble action now in prog- 

 ress ; but the results here witnessed sink into insignificance when compared 

 with those which are forced upon the conviction when we look upon the 

 regions drained by the Colorado. 



Eastward from the foot of the mountain the plateau slopes almost 

 insensibly to the base of the Sevier Plateau, which rises against the eastern 

 sky. The country is rough with hills and rocky valleys, though these ine- 

 qualities upon so vast an expanse as the back of the Markdgunt are as mere 

 ripples or waves upon the bosom of a great lake. In this direction none 

 but old volcanic rocks and conglomerates are visible. To the southward 

 the view is not extensive. The plateau slowly increases in altitude in that 

 direction until it becomes more lofty than the peak. So much of it as is 

 visible presents a pleasant but rather monotonous appearance, with rolling 

 hills and ridges, grassy slopes and scattered groves of pines. 



A journey over this broad surface is a pleasure excursion, but not 

 remarkably ins.tructive to the geologist. The explorer will enjoy the lus- 

 cious camps beneath the shade of century-old pines, beside sparkling streams 

 of the purest water, and will see with pleasure the keen relish with which 

 the animals devour the luxuriant wild grass. Nature is here in her gentle 

 mood, neither wild nor inanimate, neither grand nor trivial, but genial, tem- 

 perate, and mildly suggestive. A few canons which it is a pleasure to cross;- 

 long grassy slopes which seem to ask to be climbed ; hill tops giving charm- 



