VIEWS OF OTHER OBSERVERS 519 



Paleozoic sediments in this region 20,000 to 30,000 feet thick, followed 

 by an immense thickness of Mesozoic in like position, or is there some- 

 where a break, and how much does it affect the correlation involved in 

 the first problem? 



Others have occasionally touched these questions in their pursuit of 

 related investigations— among them Marsh,* Dutton,f Eldredge,| White.g 

 and Boutwell || — but so far as the writer knows, nothing has been pub- 

 lished to date that even tends toward a settlement of the problems. 



Any change in the assumed position of the great basal quartziteinthe 

 geologic scale involves a rearrangement of more than half of the total 

 Palezoic section for the Uintas. A good idea of the extent of the sedi- 

 ments in question may be shown by the following quotation from King: f 



"In the Wasatch it [the " Weber"] attains a thickness of 6,000 feet, in the 

 Oquirrh, 8,000 feet, and in middle Nevada probably considerably greater thickness. 

 If we are right in assigning the great sandstone series of the Uintas to this member 

 it would have there its maximum development, reaching, according to our obser- 

 vations, 12,000 feet, or 14,000 feet as developed in canon sections observed by 

 Powell." 



King** states one of the points at issue as fully as need be and as 

 clearly as it can be made : 



" Between the ' Weber quartzite' and the upper Coal Measure limestone in the 

 Great Basin and in the Wasatch there is no question of an absolute conformity. 

 In the region of the Uintas, between Professor Powell and ourselves, there is a 

 difference of opinion as to this relation. Powell holds that, although they are 

 conformable in angle, he has discovered an unconformity of erosion, meaning by 

 that that the surface of the sandstone series had been eroded into hills and bluffs, 

 over which, with no difference of angle, the limestone beds were deposited. Having 

 frequently examined the Uinta throughout its whole length, we are of the opinion 

 that this unconformity is illusory, and that the apparent discrepancies can be 

 accounted for by the effects of perspective in observing the outcrops, and by the 

 wonderful series of faults which accompany the Uinta uplift, often bringing the 

 upper limestones down into contact with the quartzites far below the top of the 

 latter series." 



On the one hand, after studying the magnificent plates of Powell in his 

 Geology of the Eastern Uintas, one is loath to believe that he was so badly 

 mistaken ; while on the other, realizing the exceptional facilities for obser- 

 vation throughout the whole region enjoyed by the Fortieth Parallel geol- 

 ogists, one is equally cautious about neglecting their opinion. 



* On the geology of the eastern Uinta mountains. Am. Jour. Sci., 1871. 

 t Dutton : The high plateaus of Utah. 



JEldredge: Asphalt and bituminous rock deposits. Twenty-second Ann. Rep. U. S. Geol. 

 Surevy, part i. 

 § White : U. S Geol. Survey, Ninth Ann. Rept., pp. 687-688, 1889. 

 | Boutwell : U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 225, pp. 221-228, 1904. 



H Clarence King : U. S. Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel, vol. i, p. 240. 

 ♦♦Fortieth Parallel Survey Report, vol. i, p. 241-242. 



