76 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEEEITORIES. 



the sides of the lower hills and passing under the valley. Here and 

 there a high ridge is observed jutting up against the base of the mount- 

 ains, a remnant of the lake-deposit which has escaped erosion. The 

 central portion of the range, in which the diiferent branches of the East 

 p- Gallatin have their 



origin, is comx)osed 

 mainly of basalt, ba- 

 saltic tuffs, and brec- 

 cia. Th ese h a ve been 

 worn into the most 

 fanciful architectural 

 forms. Mr. Jackson, 

 the photographer of 

 the survey, pene- 

 trated this region for 

 the first time last 

 summer, and ob- 

 tained 'from it some 

 most marvelously 

 beautiful views of the 

 scenery. I doubt 

 whether there is a 

 portion of the West 

 where all the ele- 

 ments of landscape 



DECEPTIVE WEATHERING, LIBERTY PEAK 



A, Trae dip of beds. 



beauty are more happily combined. Palace CaSon and Palace Butte are 

 formed of stratified tuffs and breccia, and these palace-like forms are 

 carved out of the solid beds by the slow process of erosion by water. In 

 the canons, the limestone-strata frequently crop out from beneath 1,500 to 

 2,000 feet in thickness of this volcanic material. The reader is referred 

 to the report of Dr. Peale»for the details of the geology of this most 

 interesting region. From the East Gallatin to the Wi3st Ga,llatin Canon 

 there are perhaps fifteen or twenty little branches, each of which rises 

 near the crest of the range and carves out a gorge from five to fifteen 

 miles in length. Each of these canons would aiibrd a grand study for 

 the geologist as well as the photographer. But we could examine only 

 a few of them. From the entrance of West Gallatin Caiion the view 

 down the valley cannot be surpassed for beauty in this land of pictur- 

 esque scenery. The gently-rolling, grass-covered hills 5 the little streams 

 meandering through them, fringed on either side with a thick growth of 

 cottonwoods ; the numerous farms, golden with their fields of wheat ; 

 and over all, in the distance, that peculiar, soft, golden haze, which char- 

 acterizes the autumn-days in this mountain-region, lends to the whole 

 vision a charui that is long remembered. As the setting sun of autumn 

 shines upon the valley and surrounding mountains, all objects seem to 

 be invested with an unusual beauty, which reminds one of the lines 

 of the poet: 



Aud sweet, calm days, with golden haze, 



Melt down the ambet sky. 



The little side streams that come in from the mountains, and the 

 various main branches as they traverse the broad, grassy, rolling val- 

 ley, with their fringes or belts of green cottonwood foliage, added much 

 to the charming beauty of the scene. Then, hemming it in on every 

 side, are fine ranges of mountains, which now seem depressed into low 

 passes or are isolated, then rise or swell into lofty peaks, which seem as 

 it were to have been thrust up from the level plains around. Late in. 



