22 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



Ktones inclined at a high an.i^le eastward, and gave to the west side of the 

 range of hills a slope like the steep roof of a house, but the elevations 

 of the basalts, which occur mostly on the east side, carried the strat- 

 iiiod beds up toward the summit of the ridge in such a way that a sort 

 of local synclinal was formed. The abruptness of the sides of this range 

 of hills, and the dark color of the massive basalts, with the variegated 

 color of tlie changed and unchanged rocks, which send the ridge-like 

 cones up 1,000 to 1,200 feet above the valley, give a remarkably rugged, 

 l)icturesque character to the scenery. The valley at the base is a meadow 

 in the luxuriance of its vegetation. It is divided up into farming lands 

 and meadows, and the numerous little streams which gash deeply the 

 sides of the mountains and flow down the steep foot-hills can be easily 

 guided all over the fertile valley. 



The immediate valley of Bear Eiver, near the crossing, is somewhat 

 interesting on account of the fine development of the lake deposit. It 

 is here composed of clay, sand, and marl, yellow and rusty-drab .color, 

 and attains a thickness of 200 to 30Q feet. The elevation of Bear 

 Eiver Yalley at the bridge is 1,512.5 feet, and the highest terrace on the 

 east side 1,737.7 feet, and the highest on the west 4,779.3 feet. The 

 immediate valley of Bear Eiver may be said to have been worn out of 

 the Pliocene or lake deposit. Looking southward along the eastern side 

 of Cache Yalley, the Tertiary beds can be distinctly seen, jutting up 

 against the sides of the mountains, and literally filling up tbe low places 

 in the range. Looking northward the same beds seem to jut up against 

 the hills, but the river appears to cut narrow, gorge-like channels through 

 several of the parallel ranges of hills or mountains. From time to time 

 we find heavy beds of conglomerates resting upon the finer sediments 

 of the lake deposit, the exact age of which is obscure, though probably 

 formed just prior to the present order of things. 



Before leaving this beautiful valley we may say a word about its agri- 

 cultural resources. It is about 7 miles wide, and 60 in length from 

 north to south. It was a matter of great surprise to all my party to 

 find these mountain valleys filled up with inhabitants, and the land 

 under a high state of cultivation. In Cache Yalley there are at least 

 ten thousand people at this time industriously cultivating the soil, with 

 all the appliances of comfort around them!^ Whenever this country 

 escapes the ravages of the destructive grasshopper the crops are abun- 

 dant. On either side of the valley great numbers of little streams, after 

 cutting deep gorges into the mountains, flow down into the plains, and 

 are guided by the farmer all over his lands. There is no cultivation 

 without iiTigation, and with it, crops of all kinds are most excellent. 

 The average elevation is only between 4,000 and 5,000 feet. We leave 

 the valley, on our journey by way of Bed Eock Pass, which is formed of 

 a group of Carboniferous limestones, a portion of which have a reddish 

 appearancein the distance, from the presence of oxide of iron. The small 

 stream, which constitutes the drainage of the upper or north edge of the 

 valley, has, at some points, cut a narrow channel through what may have 

 been a sort of anticlinal fissure, for the si rata of limestone incline each 

 way from the opening or pass, 10^ to 20^. These masses of limestone all 

 point to a period of great erosion, and are monuments to indicate the 

 huge and extensive thickness of the limestone strata in this region. 

 East Eed Eock is 300 feet from summifto base. The divide between the 

 drainage of Bear Eiver and that of Port Xeuf, which flows into Snake 

 Eiver, is 5,041.9 feet in elevation. From Eed Eock Pass we travel down 

 Marsh Yalley, with high hills and some quite lofty peaks on either side, 

 composed of the same quartzites and limestones that we have before 



