118 GRAM) CANON DISTRICT. 



faces pressed neatly together. But the only attainable view of it is 

 from the distance of a mile. Yet miles here are less than furlongs in 

 other countries, and all details as well as broader features are upon the 

 Brobdingnagian scale. What a nearer view might disclose is of course 

 impossible to conjecture. The plane of the fault is about vertical, though 

 there seems to be a slight inclination to the east, which maybe apparent 

 only and a result of perspective. 



After a careful study of the surroundings of the fault, it becomes 

 apparent that it is of recent occurrence in comparison with other events 

 which have been in progress here. The tenor of all evidence bearing 

 upon the subject goes to show that these faults were not suddenly pro' 

 duced by violent convulsions, but gradually developed through long 

 stretches of time, and inch by inch or foot by foot. The Toroweap fault 

 gives no evidence of being exceptional in this respect. Its recency is 

 disclosed by many facts. It is seen that the amount of erosion in the 

 face of the transverse "cliff of displacement" produced by the faulting 

 is very small. This cliff has not receded from the fault plane to any con* 

 siderable extent. Yet the giant palisades which wall the outer chasm 

 have receded from the median line of the canon more than two miles since 

 the corrasion of the river laid bare the edges of their strata. It seems 

 very plain that the outer chasm had been formed and attained very 

 nearly its present condition before the fault started. But there is still 

 more conclusive evidence of recency. At the foot of the southern pali- 

 sade and at the jaws of the lateral valley are several basaltic craters. 

 They look like mere bee-hives under the eaves of such an escarpment,' 

 though in truth they are four or live hundred feet high. From their 

 vents streams of basalt are seen flowing down into the lateral valley 

 across the fault plane, and clear to the brink of the inner abyss. The 

 fault shears the lava Hoods as neatly as it does the Bed Wall limestone.* 

 Many other facts might be cited to the same purport, but this one is 

 so conclusive that nothing further is necessary. We shall find similar 

 evidences of recency when we come to the study of the great Hurricane 

 fault. 



Another subject which will awaken the enthusiasm of the geologist 

 who visits this unique spot is the volcanic phonomena, Turning to*the 

 northwestward he beholds the heights of the Uinkaret. Upon its broad 

 expanse stand many basaltic craters in perfect preservation. We know 

 of about a hundred and fifty distinct cones in this plateau, included in 

 the space which lies between the Grand Cafion and a limit fori v miles 

 north of it. But it is in the vicinity of the chasm that they cluster most 

 thickly together and present the largest proportions. This part of the 

 Uinkaret is thickly covered with basalt, above which rises the tumultu- 



* It seemed to me, so far as could bo judged from a distance, that a part of the fault- 

 ing had been accomplished before the lava outflowed. The main fact, however, is clear 

 that most of the faulting took place after the eruption, and of course settles the question 

 ot relative ago or recency. 



