CHAPTER II. 
THE TERRACES. 
View from the southern brink of the Mark£igunt. — ^The Eocene. — The Pink Cliffs. — Correlation of the 
Pink Cliffs beds with the lower Eocene of the Green River basin and the Uintas. — Unconformity 
with the Cretaceous. — Brackish water deposits at the base. — Only the lower Eocene deposited here. 
Volcanic sands. — Remnants of the Eocene in the littoral belt to the southwest of the Markdgnirti. 
Sources of their materials in the Mesozoic land of the Great Basin. — The old shore line. — Outlier 
on the Kaiparowits. — Absence of the Eocene from the heart of the Plateau Province. — The Cre- 
taceous. — Its extent and thickness. — Its topographical features. — Its occurrence in the littoral 
belt. — Its exposures in the Kaiparowits. — Its extension into the great mesas of Arizona. — Former 
extension westward of the great Cretaceous ocean and connection with the area of the Plateau 
Province. — The Jurassic. — The subdivisions of the formation. — The great cross-bedded sandstone. 
— Its characteristic cliffs. — Its forms on the Colob. —Absence of this sandstone from the eastern 
part of the province and its blending with the Trias.— The Jurassic in the littoral belt, in the ter- 
races in the west flank of the Kaiparowits and Paria and in the Echo Cliffs. — The Trias. — Its 
obscure separation from the Jura. — Lithological characters of its beds. — Its appearance in the 
terraces. — The Vermilion Cliffs. — Its extension in the Paria Plateau and in the Echo Cliffs. — 
Outlying remnants in the Sheavwits Plateau and Grand Wash. — Its exposures in the littoral 
belt. — The Permian. — Us separation from the Trias. — Its numerous remnants over the Grand 
CaQou platform. — Pacts of general application to the terraces. — The prevailing dip of the whole 
Mesozoic series towards the north. — Sudden increments of dip at the bases of the cliffs. — Attenu- 
ation of the strata towards the east. — Subordinate watersheds of the terraces. — Drainage basin of 
the Virgen. — Basin of Kanab Creek. — Canons of Upper Kanab. — The Paria. — Coiuses of the 
drainage with reference to structural slopes. 
In describing those subdivisions of the Grand Canon district which 
are of greatest moment to the present discussion, I shall begin with the ter- 
races terminating the High Plateaus. 
Before the observer who stands upon a southern salient of the Mar- 
k4gunt Plateau is spread out a magnificent spectacle. The altitude is nearly 
11,000 feet above the sea, and the radius of vision reaches to the south- 
ward nearly a hundred miles. In the extreme distance is the calm of the 
desert platform, its surface mottled with indistinct lights and shades, too 
remote to disclose their meaning. Against the southeastern horizon is 
projected the pale blue escarpment of the Kaibab, which stretches 
away to the south until the curvature of the earth carries it out uf sight. To 
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