THE GREAT UNCOXFOEMITT. 
181 
They were then enormously eroded. Across the belt of country bounded 
on the east by the longitude of Cape Final and extending as far west as the 
lower end of the Grand Caiion, a rectilinear distance of nearly 110 miles, 
and, for aught we know, indefinitely further westward, nearly the whole 
mass of these strata Avas denuded. A few, and perhaps many, small rem- 
nants at the base of the series were preserved, but over most of the area 
the Archaean schists were laid bare and suffered erosion. Still later the 
region was again submerged. Over the rugged country thus ravaged 4,500 
feet of Carboniferous beds and 9,000 to 10,000 feet of Mesozoic beds and, 
perhaps, 1,000 to 1,200 feet of lower Eocene (lacustrine) were deposited. 
It is with extreme regret that I am obliged to confess that there seemed 
to be no way to obtain access to these beds for the purpose of studying 
them in detail. At present the)'" can be reached only by boat through the 
Marble Canon, and the locality can be left only by descending the Colorado 
as far as the Kanab Canon. There seemed to be no possible way of getting 
down the gigantic walls which inclose this valley of Rasselas. The Red 
Wall limestone is apparently everywhere a vertical escarpment a thousand 
feet high, except at some of the long- spurs, where it breaks into needles and 
minarets, which look almost as hopeless. ’ 
Point Final is doubtless the most interesting spot on the Kaibab. In 
pure grandeur it is about the same as Point Sublime, though less typical of 
the canon. The two localities differ much in the characteristics of the 
scenery. The former gives us, in addition to canon scenery, a vast pano- 
ramic view of the distant regions in the heart of the Plateau Province, 
where nothing is distinctly visible, but where the imagination perceives more 
than the eye. Tliere is a dim vision of cliff upon cliff and throngs of richly- 
carved buttes, where the fancy runs riot, while the sober sense tells us that 
it is a mauvaise terre — a land of marvels indeed, but also a land of terrors and 
desolation. 
Leaving Point Final we return northward, keeping now near the east- 
ern front of the Kaibab. Here the great feature is the Kavagunt Valley, 
an excavation which is quite analogous to the ordinary amphitheaters of the 
fii’st order, which we have alread}^ seen. It lies along the southern portion 
of the eastern base of the Kaibab, reaching up to the north Avard about 15 
