dutton] THE PERMIAN. 91 



is a repetition of the one wliieli crowns the western pile. It has the 

 same elliptical contour, and a similar red tablet above. In its effect 

 upon the imagination it is much the same. But from the point from which 

 we first viewed them — and it is by far the best one accessible — it was too 

 distant to be seen to the fullest advantage, and the western temple by 

 its greater proximity overpowered its neighbor. 



Nothing can exceed the wondrous beauty of Little Zion Valley which 

 separates the two temples and their respective groups of towers. Nor 

 are these the only sublime structures which look down into its depths, 

 for similar ones are seen on either hand along its receding vista until a 

 turn in the course carries the valley out of sight. In its proportions it 

 is about equal to Yo Semite, but in the nobility and beauty of the sculpt- 

 ures there is no comparison. It is Hyperion to a satyr. >.*o wonder the 

 fierce Mormon zealot, who named it, was reminded of the Great Zion, 

 on which his fervid thoughts were bent. — "of houses not built with 

 hands, eternal in the heavens." 



From these highly wrought groups in the center of the picture the eye 

 escapes to the westward along a mass of cliffs and buttes covered with 

 the same profuse decoration as the walls of the temples and of the Para- 

 nuweap. Their color is brilliant red. Much animation is imparted to this 

 part of the scene by the wandering courses of the mural fronts which 

 have little continuity and no definite trend. The Triassic terrace out of 

 which they have been carved is cut into by broad amphitheatres and 

 slashed in all directions by wide canon valleys. The resulting escarp- 

 ments stretch their courses in every direction, here fronting towards us, 

 there averted ; now receding behind a nearer mass and again emerging 

 from an unseen alcove. Far to the westward, twenty miles away, is seen 

 the last palisade lifting its imposing front behind a mass of towers and 

 domes to an altitude of probably near 3,000 feet and with a grandeur 

 which the distance cannot dispel. Beyond it the scenery changes almost 

 instantly, for it passes at once into the Great Basin, which, to this re- 

 gion, is as another world. 



THE PERMIAN. 



The idea of a terrace is not so typically represented in the Permian as 

 it is in the superior formations. In many parts of the great stairway it 

 clearly forms the lowest step ; in others it forms one cliff with the Trias ; 

 in still others it is beveled oft* and covered with alluvium. On the whole 

 it is more frequently presented as a distinct terrace. There is another 

 qualification which requires some mention, because when we refer to the 

 geological map to study the surface distribution of the strata, we should 

 find some anomalies unless the point referred to were duly explained. 



Wherever we encounter a cliff which discloses the upper Permian 

 beds we find at the summit of the escarpment a band of pale-brown 



