24 
THE GRAND OASTON DISTRICT. 
We may reckon the length of the entire chasm in several ways with 
vaiying results. If the line of measurement he laid along the middle of 
the water surface of the river, following all its meanderings in detail, the 
length would be about 220 miles. If it be laid along the median line be- 
tween the crests of the summits of the walls with two-mile chords it would 
be about 195 miles. The distance between the confluence of the Little 
Colorado and the foot of the canon at the Grand Wash in a single straight 
line is only 125 miles. The length of the Marble Canon can be measured 
in only one way, and may be stated at 66 miles. 
There are three principal streams which drain the terraces. The west- 
ernmost is the Virgen River, which heads in many filaments along the south- 
ern escarpment of the Markdgunt. Reaching the Triassic teirace by two 
principal forks, it then deflects to the westward, and crossing the Hurricane 
Ledge leaves the Plateau Province altogether. Flowing thence southwest- 
ward, it threads its way through that dismal region which lies west of the 
Grand Wash and south of the Great Basin. 
The second and median drainage channel of importance is Kanab 
Creek. It heads at the divide separating the waters which run to the Colo- 
rado from those which flow northward through the Sevier River into the 
Great Basin. Its springs are near that portion of this divide which lies be- 
tween the Paunsdgunt and Markdgunt plateaus. It flows due south, and 
enters the Grand Canon by a mighty gorge opening midway of the Kanab 
division of the chasm. 
The third principal drainage channel is the Paria River. It heads in 
the grand Paria amphitheater, receiving the wash of the eastern wall of the 
Paunsdo'unt and the western front of Table Cliff. It flows about south- 
o 
southeast, passing between the Paria Plateau and the Kaiparowits, and 
enters the Colorado at the head of the Marble Canon. 
These three rivers ai-e the only living streams which enter the Colorado 
on the north side between the head of the Marble Canon and the mouth of 
the Virgen— a distance of more than 300 miles. Only one of them, Kanab 
Creek, enters the Grand Canon, and even Kanab Creek is dry along a por- 
tion of its bed during tlie greater part of the year, its waters sinking out of 
eight but rising again near their confluence. We cannot fail to be struck 
