THE DISTRIBUTIOlSr OP THE EOCENE. 
27 
the southward rise in merest outline, and devoid of all visible details, the 
dark mass of Mount Trumbull and the waving cones of the Uinkaret. Be- 
tween these and the Kaibab the limit of the prospect is a horizontal line, like 
that which separates the sea from the sky. To the southwestward are the 
sierras of the Basin Province, and quite near to us there rises a short but 
quite lofty range of veritable mountains, contrasting powerfully with the flat 
crestlines and mesas which lie to the south and east. It is the Pine Valley 
range, and though its absolute altitude above the sea is smaller than many 
other ranges of the West, yet since their bases are comparatively low (3,000 
to 3,500 feet above the sea), the mountain masses themselves are very high. 
THE EOCENE. 
The foreground of the picture is full of strength and animation. At 
our feet is the brink of a precipice where the profiles descend 800 feet upon 
rugged slopes which shelve away downwards and mingle with the inequali- 
ties of a broad platform deeply indented with picturesque valleys. The 
cliff on which we stand is of marvelous sculpture and color. The rains 
have carved out of it rows of square obelisks and pilasters of uniform pat- 
tern and dimensions, which decorate the front for many miles, giving the 
effect of a gigantic colonnade from which the entablature has been removed 
or has fallen in ruins. The Plateau Country abounds in these close resem- 
blances of natural carving to human architecture, and nowhere are these 
more conspicuous or more perfect than in the scarps which terminate the 
summits of the Markdgunt and Paunsdgunt Plateaus. Their color varies with 
the light and atmosphere. It is a pale red under ordinary lights, but as the 
sun sinks towards the horizon it deepens into a rich rose-color, which is 
seen in no other rocks and is beautiful beyond description. These cliffs are 
of lower Eocene age, consisting of lake marls very uniformly bedded. At 
the base of this series the beds are coarser, and contain well-marked, brack- 
ish-water fossils; but as we ascend to the higher beds we find the great 
mass of the Eocene to consist of fresh-water deposits. 
These beds are identical in age with the lower divisions of the Eocene, 
