THE SOUTHWEST 



639 



ive character, while the slopes are mostly 

 of shale and talus. The inner V-shaped 

 gorge, i,ooo to 1,200 feet deep, in which 

 the river now flows, is eroded in granitic 

 rocks. The succession of strata pre- 

 sented in the canyon walls near El Toval 

 Hotel is as follows : 



Kaibab limestone. — Light-colored lime- 

 stone, cherty in upper part, 700 feet. 



Coconino sandstone. — Gray massive 

 cross-bedded sandstone, 300 feet. 



Supai formation. — Red shale and red 

 slabby sandstone, 1,100 feet. 



Redwall limestone. — Very massive 

 gray limestone, mostly red on surface, 

 550 feet. 



Tonto formation. — Slabby sandstones 

 and greenish shales on massive basal 

 sandstone, 700 feet. 



The basal sandstone of the Tonto lies 

 on granite and gneiss, of which over 

 1,000 feet are exposed, but locally on the 

 opposite side of the canyon the Tonto is 

 underlain by a mass several thousand 

 feet thick, of Unkar formation, consist- 

 ing of red sandstone, limestone, and ba- 

 salt of Algonkian age. 



The rim of the canyon near the hotel 

 Bl Tovar has an elevation of 6,866 feet, 

 and on the river bank below there is a 

 U. S. Geological Survey bench mark 

 reading 2,436, a drop of 4,430 feet. The 

 river appears like a silvery thread when 

 viewed from the rim of the canyon, but 

 on going to the bottom of the granite 

 gorge the river is found to be 250 feet 

 wide, 20 to 30 feet deep, dashing along 

 with a declivity of about 13 feet to the 

 mile, and in places broken by strong 

 rapids. One can then appreciate the 

 heroism of Major Powell's famous trip 

 "down the river in 1869 — a thousand-mile 

 voyage in small boats through the entire 

 length of this then unexplored canyon. 



The canyon was discovered by Car- 

 denas, who went to its edge in 1540 on 

 a branch trip from Coronado's expedi- 

 tion, on information obtained by Tovar 

 from the Hopi Indians. The original 

 name given to the river was Tison, Span- 

 ish for firebrand, and it is to be regretted 

 that the name has not been retained to 

 avoid the present confusion due to the 

 river having the same name as the state. 



Formerly to reach the Grand Canyon 

 it was necessary to stage 60 miles across 

 the plateau, but now there is a branch 

 from the Santa Fe railroad at Williams 

 which takes the tourist to the fine hotel 

 El Tovar, built on the brink of the can- 

 yon at one of the best view points. 



some: naturai. wonde:rs 



Coon Butte, another of the greatest 

 wonders in our country, is also situ- 

 ated in the Southwest, but owing to its 

 distance from the railroad it is seldom 

 visited. It is a great crater-like bowl in 

 the plateau, about 10 miles south of Can- 

 yon Diablo station. The "crater" is 

 about 4,000 feet wide and 600 feet deep, 

 with an irregular encircling rim of loose 

 rock fragments from 120 to 160 feet 

 high. The wall of the depression shows 

 broken-ofif edges of sandstones and lime- 

 stones considerably upturned, and the 

 rim consists of the ejected material. 

 Some have advanced the theory that the 

 features are due to the impact of a huge 

 meteor, and a mining company has spent 

 large sums drilling holes to find the iron 

 or other meteoric material, but without 

 success. Mr Gilbert's suggestion that 

 the cause v/as a great volcanic steam 

 eruption is much more plausible, how- 

 ever, for there are numerous volcanic 

 vents at no great distance. 



The petrified forests attract many vis- 

 itors, especially the most accessible one 

 south of Adamana, a station on the Santa 

 Fe railroad a few miles east of Hol- 

 brook. There is a large quantity of the 

 material in sight here, some of it in large 

 logs. One of these logs spans a small 

 draw as a natural bridge. 



Arizona possesses a very picturesque 

 natural bridge of limestone spanning 

 Pine Creek, in Gila County, 70 miles 

 south of Flagstaff. It does not, how- 

 ever, rival the great bridges recently dis- 

 covered in Utah. Its span is 80 feet, its 

 height about 125 feet, and its length up 

 and down the creek is over 400 feet.* 



Canyon de Chelly is one of the most 

 notable scenic features in Arizona (see 



* See "The Great Natural Bridges of Utah." 

 By Byron Cnmmings, pp. 157-167, Nat. GtOG, 

 Mag., February, 1910. 



