CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PLATEAU AREA. 
293 
latter, on the headwaters of the Canadian, there are several small areas 
of timber on the plateaus, and farther south, between the Pecos and 
Rio Grande, the minor ranges of the Guadelupe, Sacramento and Jim- 
enez. 
The country between the latter ranges and the Rio Grande is a sage 
barren, depreciating in some places to a desert, excepting that close to 
the river, which is covered with good grass. 
Ou the west of the Rio Grande, the mountains are timbered, with the 
exception of a few small ranges in the south, such as the Burro and 
Miembres Ranges. The country is mainly an undulating plateau, and 
is in most localities covered with short but abundant grass. In the 
northwestern corner of the Territory, however, conditions of greater 
aridity prevail, and the prevalent growth is sage. 
The Plateau Area. 
This region may be roughly defined as the area drained by the Colo- 
rado River and its tributaries. The principal of these head in the 
mountains, yet their courses are almost entirely in this peculiar region. 
Exception should be made, however, of the Gila and Williams Rivers, 
of Arizona, which drain a region resembling that of the Great Basin in 
Nevada, of low, isolated, parallel ranges, separated by desert valleys. 
The plateau region includes the western portion of Colorado, the east- 
ern and southern parts of Utah, and most of Arizona. Most of it con- 
sists of plateaus, horizontal or inclined, differing widely in elevation 
and in degree of natural fertility. The streams, as a rule, flow in cauons 
far below the surface, though in a few cases they are in broad valleys. 
The Green River Basin, one of these broad valleys, has already been 
treated of in detail. South of this, and separating it from the charac- 
teristic plateau region to the southward, is the Uinta Range, a broad, 
heavily timbered mountain mass, trending east and west. This range 
is well timbered, the forests extending nearly to the base everywhere. 
On the east and west borders of the plateau region the table lands 
are high, reaching along the borders of the mountains proper nearly or 
quite to timber line. These plateaus are heavily timbered. Among 
them may be mentioned the following: On the east, in Colorado, the 
White River Plateau, at the head of the river of that name ; the Grand 
and Xorth Mam Plateaus, between the Grand and Gunnison Rivers; 
and ou the west, in Utah, the Aquarius and other high table lands, 
which continue the direction of the Wahsatch Range and the Kaibab 
Plateau, through .which the Colorado cuts its Grand Canon. 
The Roan or Book Plateau, and the inclined steppes north of it, which 
extend across the whole region from east to west, having heights rang- 
ing from 6,000 to 8,000 feet, have considerable range in natural produc- 
tions near; their crests producing mainly grasses, with occasional groves 
of timber, and iu the lower portions sage only. 
The Uinta Valley, at the south base of the Uinta Range, is described 
