Notices respecting New Books. 555 



and fertile Kaibab plateau, elevated by two great parallel displace- 

 ments (a fault and a monocline) higher up than the others, reaching 

 to more than 9000 feet in height, and 35 miles broad. 5th. The 

 Paria plateau (lower by nearly 4000 feet) on the Marble Canon. 6th. 

 The Kaiparowits, high and broad, composed of Cretaceous strata, 

 further to the N.E., abutting upon the Glen Canon, and traversed 

 by a plexus of canons formed in Miocene or Pliocene times. These 

 plateaus are north of the great river. The expanse of plateau-land 

 south of the river is called the Colorado Plateau. 



The " Plateau Province " comprises, besides the foregoing, the 

 Uinta Mountains, the Henry Mountains, and the High Plateaus of 

 Utah. Much of this great region has already been described and 

 illustrated in the Eeports of the U.S. Geographical and Geological 

 Surveys. The region of the Great Basin of Nevada and Western 

 Utah was an old mainland in Mesozoic times, and the Trias, 

 Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Eocene strata have been traced in its 

 proximity as littoral belts ; indeed the Cretaceous deposits, covering 

 a much greater area than the Tertiary, reached perhaps from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific. 



Other geological points are carefully discussed, such as the vol- 

 canic rocks, and the great faults* and bendings of strata, giving 

 decided features to the country. The drainage-system of the whole 

 region, and the subordinate drainages of terraces and escarpments 

 are specially looked to. The mechanical laws, forces, and methods 

 of action by w T hich the enormous valley has been eroded and the 

 caiion " eorraded," are carefully discussed, explaining " how those 

 abnormal architectural forms so abundantly displayed in the chasm 

 and in the region round about have been generated." The wonder- 

 ful features of the chasm itself are studied from four points espe- 

 cially. One is " Vulcan's throne," a basaltic cinder-cone, 600 feet 

 high, on the brink of the inner gorge where the axis of the older 

 Toroweap valley strikes that of the canon, probably of Post-tertiary 

 date ; not a very rare instance of a tributary showing evidence of 

 being older than the canon in its present condition. Another is 

 "Point Sublime" in the Kaibab division, a promontory projecting 

 far out in the chasm, and opening on an indescribably sublime pano- 

 rama, one of many here. Tapeat's Amphitheatret, Surprise Valley, 

 Shinums and Hindoo Amphitheatres, Shiva's Temple, The Transept, 

 the Bright-angel and Ottoman Amphitheatres, the Cloister Buttes, 

 and Vishnu's Temple are some of the remarkable places of scenic 

 effect in this most gorgeous of wonderlands. Points Royal and 

 Final, at the east end of the Kaibab, also give panoramas of great 

 beauty and powerful effect. 



* There are seven or eight great N.-S. parallel faults in the country 

 north of the Colorado ; they lead some drainage-lines, but are crossed by 

 others, especially by the great river. 



t The il amphitheatres " are great, dry, lateral, branching valleys, the 

 interiors of which present wonderful aspects of geological landscape, when 

 viewed from the Grand Canon itself. 



