298 GEOLOGY OF THE HIGH PLATEAUS. 



view, though less pleasing, is no less impressive. None of the cliffs are 

 lofty, but the grandeur of the spectacle consists in the great number of 

 cliffs rising successively one above and beyond another, like a stairway for 

 the Titans, leading up to a mighty temple. The Eocene beds which form 

 the upper table are rosy red, and carved in a manner which is so suggestive 

 of intelligence that it is difficult to persuade ourselves that the blind forces 

 of nature could have achieved such a result. 



KAIPAROWITS PEAK. 



Kaiparowits Peak is a mountain-like butte south of Table Cliff, capped 

 by Tertiary beds, with the Upper Cretaceous upon its flanks. It is obvi- 

 ously a mere remnant of the continuous Eocene formation which formerly 

 stretched indefinitely southward. Its slopes descend to the platform of the 

 Kaiparowits Plateau, which is composed of Middle Cretaceous beds. This 

 plateau is properly a member of the Kaibab system, and is one of the most 

 interesting. It is a broad causeway, reaching to the Colorado, where it is 

 cut off momentarily by the Grlen Canon. Beyond the river the Cretaceous 

 beds continue far into Arizona, and expand into the great mesas and ter- 

 races which cover a large part of that Territory. Along this plateau there 

 are still preserved the unity and virtual continuity of the formations which 

 constitute the District of the High Plateaus and the mesas of New Mexico 

 and Arizona, while elsewhere throughout the heart of the Plateau Province 

 they have been removed by the great erosion. The little remnant of Ter- 

 tiary beds upon the summit of Kaiparowits Peak is one of the many indi- 

 cations that the Lower Eocene also once reached across the same interval. 



