CHAPTER VII. 
FROM KANAB TO THE KAIBAB. 
Distant view of the Kaibab.— The Kanab gap and the Permian— Head of Kanab Canon.— Sunset on 
the Kanab desert.— Hot days and cool nights.— Distant view of the terrace cliffs from the Kanab 
platform. — Reading geology thirty miles away. — Desert vegetation. — Approaching the plateau. 
Stewart’s caSon.— Reaching water. — Sinking of the streams. — Entering the plateau. — Picturesque 
ravines.— Arboreal vegetation.— Forest vistas.— De Motte Park.— Arrangement of the drainage 
channels on the summit of the plateau. — Lagoons and subterranean drainage channels.— The 
Sylvan Gate and Little De Motte Park.— Milk Spring.— Reaching the brink. 
The Kaibab is the loftiest of the four plateaus through which the Grand 
Canon extends. It is from 1,500 to 2,000 feet higher than the Kanab 
Plateau on the west, and from 2,500 to 4,000 feet higher than the Marble 
Canon platform on the east. Its superior altitude is due wholly to displace- 
ment and not to erosion, for the strata upon its summit are the same as 
those upon the surfaces of the others. The upheaval has produced a sharp 
fault upon the western flank and a great monoclinal flexure upon its eastern 
flank. Throughout its entire platform the upper Carboniferous forms the 
surface. The Kaibab begins at the base of the Vermilion Clifis near the 
little village of Paria, its northern extremity terminating in a slender cusp. 
Steadily widening, and increasing very slowly in altitude, it reaches south- 
ward neaily a hundred miles to the Colorado River, where it attains a breadth 
of about 35 miles. Its highest point is about 9,280 feet above the sea, but 
most of its surface is between the altitudes of 7,800 and 9,000 feet. 
When viewed from a distance its summit, projected against the sky, 
looks remarkably smooth and level. The slow increase of altitude from 
north to south may be discerned, and yet, in the absence of positive knowl- 
edge, it would be doubted by the careful observer whether this might not be 
due to perspective, and not real. When we actually visit the plateau we 
find the summit, seeming so smooth when viewed from afar, to be really 
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