4 
THE GEAND OASOK DISTRICT. 
convei’gence of three groups of facts upon a common inference: 1, the 
stratification; 2, the displacements; 3, the lateral drainage system In 
some respects the argument is novel, and in all respects its various ele- 
ments are pushed to a much greater extreme than there is precedent for in 
the works of physical geologists ; but this is held to he justified b}" the 
wonderful clearness and simplicity of the observed facts, which are quite 
unparalleled in any other portion of the world. 
In Chapter V the descriptive treatment is resumed for the purpose of 
developing additional facts bearing upon the broader problems of the evo- 
lution of the physical features of the region, upon the sequence of events 
and the epochs of their occurrence. With this purpose the reader is con- 
ducted in an imaginary journey from the base of the Vermilion Cliffs across 
the Carboniferous platform to the Toroweap Valley and to the Grand 
Canon. The Toroweap is a broad lateral valley upon the eastern flank of 
the Uinkaret, cut down only two-fifths of the depth of the great chasm. It 
enters the Grand Canon, opening upon the great esplanade between its 
upper walls. The canon here is at its narrowest. It consists of an inner 
and an outer chasm. The upper or outer one is about five miles in width, 
with a row of palisades on either side 2,000 feet high, and with a flat broad 
esplanade between. In the floor of this esplanade is sunk the inner gorge 
3,000 feet deeper, and from 3,000 to 3,500 feet wide. The total depth 
of the canon here is about 5,000 feet. After a hunled mention of the 
principal features of this stupendous scenery the reader is invited to 
take his seat up#n “Vulcan’s Throne,” a basaltic cinder cone 600 feet high, 
planted upon the brink of the inner gorge just where the axis of the Toro- 
weap intersects that of the canon. Apart from the merel)^ scenic effects it 
would be hard to find anywhere in the world a spot presenting so much 
material for the contemplation of the geologist. The Toroweap fault is 
clearly revealed in the opposite canon wall and its recency disclosed. It is 
also shown that the vast inner gorge has been very recently excavated, and 
that it was swiftly cut. Its age is regarded as being mostly Post-Tertiar}^ 
The outer chasm is shown to be much older, and it is very probable that the 
river, after cutting down to the level of the esplanade, remained for a time 
stationary, and ceased temporarily to deepen its channel. The age of the 
