COMPOSITION OF THE GEAOTTE. 69 



sides are the cliffs of the sedimentary rocks, which bound the area of the 

 crystalline rocks, while near the horizon at the east and west are seen the 

 bare wastes of the Plains. Immediately around the peak on the east and 

 south and west rise a myriad of serrated peaks only less than Harney in 

 height — all weathered and scored and gradually crumbling under the hand 

 of time. Toward the west and southwest the peaks become less numerous 

 and prominent as they recede from the granite range, and the country is 

 seen to open up in little parks and grassy glades; and in the far southwest 

 it spreads out into Ouster Park. East and south the rough and mountainous 

 character is maintained, though a few openings may be seen on the head- 

 waters of Battle and French Creeks. In the southeast, however, the rugged 

 character of the country is most continuous and marked. 



The rock of all the granite masses of the hills varies little in character. 

 Its texture is so extremely coarse that it would scarcely be recognized as 

 granite by one accustomed to the fine-grained varieties of New England or 

 the Rocky Mountains. It is granite on a large scale, with all the elements 

 of that rock — feldspar, quartz, and mica — present, but instead of their being 

 mixed with tolerable uniformity throughout the mass each constituent is 

 very highly crystalline and aggregated by itself. Feldspar is the most 

 abundant constituent and forms 70 or 75 per cent of the whole. It is 

 always highly crystalline and sometimes exhibits large ciystal faces but 

 no perfect crystal was discovered. It is generally of a pearly white or 

 grayish white color, having on fresh fractures a bright luster, but it is 

 occasionally flesh- colored and it often receives a reddish or pinkish stain 

 from the decomposition of associated ferriferous minerals. This discoloration 

 is more observable in the southern part of the granite area and in places 

 where the feldspathic mass is especially w r eathered and rotten. To the 

 preponderance of the feldspar is mainly due the rapidity of the decomposi- 

 tion of the granite, the pinnacled, sharp, and rugged mode of its weather- 

 ing, and the superficially shattered character of its masses. So readily 

 does it decompose and crumble that it is in many places difficult to get 

 even a hand specimen of firm and unchanged rock. 



