CIRCLE CLIFFS— ESCALANTE CASTONS. 289 



them is possible. It seems as if a few hours of lively traveling would 

 bring us there, but it is a two days' journey with the best of animals. They 

 are by far the most striking features of the panorama, on account of the 

 strong contrast they present to the scenery about them. Among innumer- 

 able flat crest-lines, terminating in walls, they rise up grandly into peaks of 

 Alpine form and grace like a modern cathedral among catecombs — the 

 gothic order of architecture contrasting with the elephantine. Beyond the 

 spurs of Mount Ellen may be seen the northernmost summits of the Sierra 

 La Sal, 120 miles distant; but the main range is hidden by the mass of the 

 Henry Mountains. 



The view to the south and southeast is dismal and suggestive of the 

 terrible. It is almost unique even in the catagory of plateau scenery. The 

 streams which head at the foot of the lava-cap on the southern wall of the 

 Aquarius flow southward down its long slopes. The amphitheaters soon 

 grow into canons of profound depth and inaccessible walls. These pas- 

 sages open into a single trunk canon, and their united waters form the 

 Escalante River, which flows out of Potato Valley due eastward for 12 or 

 15 miles, and then turns to the southeastward, reaching the Colorado about 

 60 miles from the turn. It enters its canon at the foot of Potato Valley 

 (see map. Atlas Sheet No. 1), and at no point can its walls be scaled.* 

 Numberless tributary cafions open into it along its course from both sides, so 

 that the entire platform through which it runs is scored with a net-work of 

 narrow chasms. The rocks are swept bare of soil and show the naked 

 edges of the strata. Nature has here made a geological map of the coun- 

 try and colored it so that we may read and copy it miles away. The rocks 

 exposed are Trias and Jura, each preserving emphatically its characteristic 

 color and architecture. 



The descending spurs from the southeastern salient terminate upon a 

 spot which is about as desolate as any to be found on earth. It is a large 

 plain, about 25 miles long and 10 miles wide, elliptical in shape and girt 

 about by a circuit of cliffs of great altitude. On the eastern side are the 



* Mr. Jacob Hambliu, of Kanab, entered tliis chasm and traversed it nearly to the Colorado River, 

 bnt at length found it impassable on account of quicksands and fallen rocks. His journey waa a terri- 

 ble one, and he sought in vain to reach the country above. The depth of the Escalante Ca&on -where 

 its river first enters the Monocline is about 1,600 feet, and increases as the river flows on. 



19 H P 



