THE KAIBAB PLATEAU 
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very rugged. It is scored with a minutely ramified system of ravines, vary- 
ing much in depth, but averaging about 300 feet in the heart of the plateau, 
and much deeper at the flanks. The whole summit is magnificently forest- 
clad. In this respect it is in strong contrast to the other plateaus, excepting, 
however, in a much inferior way, the higher parts of the Uinkaret. The 
other plateaus are formidable deserts ; the Kaibab is a paradise. The for- 
ests are due to the superior altitude of the plateau, for the higher the altitude 
the moister the climate. Through the southern portion of the Kaibab is 
cut the finest portion of the Grand Canon. Vast and imposing as is the 
scenery at the foot of the Toroweap, the scenery of the Kaibab is much 
more impressive. I propose in the present chapter to describe, in familiar 
language, a journey from Kanab to the Kaibab, and to the brink of the 
chasm, where we may contemplate its sublimity. 
Before us is the Permian terrace, rising by the gentlest of slopes; 
through it the Kanab River has cut a wide, shallow gap, in which stand 
several pretty little buttes carved sumptuously in the characteristic style of 
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Fig. 3.— Section across the Kaibah. The Yertical scale is double the horizontal, a, West Kaibab fault, b, East 
Kaibab monocline. Length of section about 32 miles. 
Fig. 4. — Section across the Kaibab. a a', two branches of the “West Kaibab fault, b b', two branches of the East 
Kaibab monocline. The vertical scale is double the horizontal. 
the formation. Beyond it the Carboniferous platform extends southward 
without visible bound. Over the Permian terrace the Kaibab is in full 
view, its flat unruffled summit occupying a whole quadrant of the horizon. 
