THE ^YYOMING FOSSIL FIELDS EXPEDITION 461 



at tlie point where the sediinentai\y rocks appear. These rocks are 

 made up of red, brown, ])ink, and light-colored l)ands,throiioh which 

 the caiion has been carved, and here one is doul)!}' impressed by the 

 remarkable coloring and the great walls of lime and sandstone, that 

 are nearly 1,000 feet in vertical height. As the river enters the sedi- 

 mentary rocks it gradually widens, and the stream, that was less than 

 50 feet in width when passing the narrows, broadens out to about 300 

 feet as it leaves the canon. Throughout the entire length of the 

 caiion there are only a few places on the eastern wall where one can 

 descend to the water's edge, and these are all very dangerous and 

 should not be attem])ted by those unaccustomed to dizzy heights. 



By climbing over huge blocks of stone, through dense underbrush, 

 and along narrow, projecting ledges, where one has to cling by liis 

 finger-ends for fear of falling a hundred feet or more, one can enter 

 the mouth of the caiion and occasionall3^ reach the water's edge as 

 far south as the sedimentary rocks extend. Here the walls and tlie 

 water meet, as they do in most of the granitic portions. There is 

 good evidence that several thousand feet of sedimentar}' rocks have 

 been removed from the granitic area, so this is only the remnant of 

 a greater gorge, whose walls were thousands instead of hundreds of 

 feet high. The Grand Canon of the Platte is one of Wyoming's 

 finest pieces of scener}^ — a gem that has been passed by and a place 

 destined in the near future to be one of tlie famous resorts of the 

 Rocky Mountains. 



Everyone was reluctant to bid farewell to Camp No. 9, on Cotton- 

 wood Creek, but the journey had to be resumed, and from now on 

 it was toward Laramie, the trail following the rim of Bates Hole to 

 Deadman Gulch, thence skirting the foot of the Laramie Mountains 

 eastward. 



Bates Hole is another instance where a region brimful of geo- 

 graphic and geological interest has been almost entirely overlooked. 

 "The Hole," as it is usually called, was named after a hunter and 

 trapper who formerly had his home there. In reality, it is a great 

 valley that has been eroded out of the soft tertiary beds, and approx- 

 imates 20 miles in length and from 6 to 12 miles in width. At its 

 southern end this depression is 500 feet and at its northern end 1,500 

 feet deep. It is surrounded l)y tertiary rocks that are called " the 

 rim ;" but to the east, north, and west, and at some distance away 

 rise mountain ranges varying from S,()(i() to lo.ooo feet in beight. 

 From the rim of this depression the slopes are very precipitous. In 



