260 GEOLOGY OF THE HIGH PLATEAUS. 



terminal moraines, of which more will be said hereafter. A fine stream 

 runs along the valley, and at the southern end is joined by a still larger one, 

 issuing from Fish Lake, a few miles to the south-west. 



FISH LAKE PLATEAU. 



An easy way of reaching the top of this plateau is by ascending its 

 northeastern angle from Summit Valley. If the route be well chosen, we 

 may reach the highest point without once dismounting. The summit is 

 about 12 miles in length and 2 miles in width; is nearly level, or very slightly 

 undulated ; and stands about 1 1,600 feet above sea-level. On every side it 

 is bounded by precipitous cliffs, except along a part of its southwestern 

 flank, but here and there the walls are broken and notched. Along the side 

 facing west-northwest runs a cliff of vast proportions, second only to 

 the western front of the Sevier Plateau in magnitude and grandeur. Upon 

 the very brink of this wall is the highest point of the plateau, from which, 

 in a clear day, we may easily discern the peaks of the Wasatch around 

 Salt Lake City and beyond. These are more than 150 miles distant. 

 Mount Nebo, 70 miles northward, seems like a near neighbor, and the gray 

 peaks of the Tushar are seen towering beyond the heights of the Sevier 

 Plateau. To the southward looms up the grandest of all the plateaus — the 

 Aquarius — its long straight crest-line stretched across the whole southern 

 horizon, and seeming but a few hours' ride away from us. Here we do not 

 feel that sense of being upon a plain which impresses us while traveling 

 upon the other plateaus, but we realize that this summit is at a great eleva- 

 tion; for we may look afar off in every direction to valleys and plains 

 which lie thousands of feet below us, and beyond which we perceive other 

 summits rising to altitudes nearly or quite eqiial to our own. But perliaps 

 the most impressive feature of the scenery lies almost beneath our feet. It 

 is a grand amphitheater, eroded deep into the plateau mass. Its dimensions 

 and grandeur are surpassed only in the great amphitheater in the Sevier 

 table near Monroe. It is less rugged and diversified than the latter, but is 

 more picturesque, chiefly because the eye can command the whole of it at 

 once. The summit upon which we stand is upon the edge of a straight 

 unbroken wall 4 miles long and nearly vertical for 1,200 feet, then descend- 



