40 
THE GRAND OAlJON DISTKIOT. 
Trias can be distinguished from it miles away. One of the most conspic- 
uous characteristics of the latter series is the very great number of distinct 
beds or layers. Most of them are but a few feet in thickness, and there is 
but one stratum which attains very great dimensions. In lithological char- 
acters the series is highly variable. The majority of the members are com- 
mon sandstones, and these predominate most in the upper portions. In the 
middle part they still preponderate, but are individually thinner and are 
more often separated by shaly layers and not unfrequently by bands of 
almost pure gypsum. In the lower jDortions sandy and argillaceous shales 
of wonderful color predominate ; but nowhere is even a solitary band of 
limestone known to occur. Lime, indeed, is found in these rocks and is 
tolerably abundant, but it is always in the form of gypsum or occasionally 
of selenite. 
The Trias makes its appearance upon the extreme outer flank of the 
Markdgunt, a little north of the Mormon town Cedar, rising by a fault out 
of the valley alluvium. With a constantly^ expanding exposure it extends 
southward along the upthrow of the Hurricane fault until the whole of its 
great mass comes to the surface ; then broadening out into a wide terrace, 
it gradually sweeps around the southwestern limit of the Colob over into 
the valley of the Virgen, where it breaks into clitfs, temples, and buttes of 
ineffable splendor and beauty. Thence, with a still wider terrace, bounded 
by magnificent cliffs, it stretches to the southeast as far as Pipe Spring 
Here is the southernmost promontory, from which it ti’ends away to the east- 
northeast in proportions considerably diminished, but still vast and impos- 
ing, as far as the Paria River. The distance is more than 100 miles, in 
which the sinuosities ai’e not reckoned ; and thi-oughout this entire sweep 
it presents to the southward a majestic front richly sculptured and blazing 
with gorgeous colors. The clifi’ line is exceedingly tortuous, advancing in 
long promontories, with bays and broad canon valley^s setting far back into 
the Triassic mesa like a long stretch of coast line gashed with fiords. 
Perhaps the contour of a maple leaf may be a suggestive analogy^ 
The altitude of the cliffs is greatest in their western portions, where it 
often exceeds 2,000 feet, while in the portion reaching from Pipe Spring to 
the Paria it seldom exceeds 1,400 or 1,500 feet. In the deep bays it is still 
