VIEW FEOM POWELL’S PLATEAU. 
163 
far as could be made out for a distance of seven or eight miles. But south 
of the Grand Canon a short and rather small monocliual flexure is seen in 
the wall, in which the platform west of the fault is actually higher than that 
on the east. It is believed to be a continuation of the same displacement, 
but in the confused mass of objects in the great chasm the continuity has 
escaped identification. Little doubting this continuity, I may cite this case 
as an instance of the complete reversal of the throw of faults as we trace 
them along their trend. 
The descent into the Muav saddle is very steep, and, though hardly 
dangerous, requires caution and the steadiest and best trained pack animals 
to go safely past some points. At the bottom a fine camp may be made 
beneath the yellow pines, and good water may be obtained from a spring 
about a qurarter of a mile away, issuing from a ledge of the lower Aubrey 
sandstone. No permanent water is found on Powell’s Plateau, and what- 
ever is required for the visitor there must be brought from this spring. 
The ascent on the other side of the gap is steep and difficult, but requires 
nothing more than the ordinaiy strength of youthful limbs and healthy 
lungs. Reaching the platform above, it is quite like that of the Kaibab, 
beautifully forest-clad and undulating, with shallow ravines and intervening 
ridges. Once away from the immediate vicinity of the brink, there is nothing 
to indicate the proximity of stupendous scenery. 
Powell’s Plateau is about five and a half miles in length and two miles 
in width. It declines gently in altitude from northeast to southwest, the 
latter extremity being about 500 feet lower than the former. This declen- 
sion is part of the general slope which descends from the summit of the 
great Kaibab mass to the central part of the Kanab and Coloi-ado platforms, 
at a I’ate not often exceeding 150 feet to the mile, and usually less. The 
situation of this outlying butte — for such it may be very properly con- 
sidered — is directly in the course pursued by the Colorado in the Kaibab 
division. As the river approaches its base it makes a sudden detour to the 
west, and skirting around its furthermost point it winds back to the north- 
east until at the mouth of the Tapeats amphitheater it reaches the head of 
the Kanab division. There it bends once more to the west-southwest, and 
holds that course for nearly sixty miles. Thus the plateau lies in the pro- 
