U-IN-KA-EET MOUNTAINS. 189 
. The Shi' -wits Plateau is naked and desolate, but here and there springs 
burst from beneath the basaltic cliffs, and deep gulches and canons are cut 
from its margin and run into side cafions of the Colorado. About these 
springs and in the deep gulches the Shi'-wits Indians live, cultivating 
little patches of corn, gathering seeds, eating the fruits and fleshy stalks of 
cactus plants, and catching a rabbit^ar a lizard now and then ; dirty, squalid, 
but happy, and boasting of their rocky land as the very Eden of the earth. 
In the region above the Hurricane Ledge there are extensive grazing 
lands, and where there are a few springs,. which can be used for irrigation, 
the Mormon people have succeeded in raising the products of a temperate 
climate. In the region below there are two or three small towns along the 
course of the Virgen and Santa Clara Rivers, where the inhabitants have 
succeeded in cultivating sub-tropical products, and you can throw a stone 
from the land of the potato and apple to the land of the fig and sugar cane. 
On this great table-land, immediately north of the Colorado River, there 
is a group of mountains and volcanic cones, known as the U-in-ka-rets, of 
which mention will be made hereafter. 
The benches I have described are steps in the great stairway to the 
Kaibab Plateau, where the clouds yield their snows even in July, and the 
moisture of this upper region has disintegrated the rocks, and formed a soil 
which gives footing to vast pine forests. Springs of water abound, beautiful 
lakes are scattered here and there, and meadows, clothed with verdure, give 
pasturage to herds of deer. This is the summer home of the Kai-vav' -its. 
The plain between the foot of the Kaibab Plateau and the Echo Cliffs, 
along the Paria Fold, is naked and desolate. Through its center runs the 
deep gorge known as Marble Canon, with its many side canons and gulches. 
On the eastern slope of the Echo Cliffs a number of springs are found, 
and these are famous watering places for the Navajo Indians. 
The western slope of the range is composed of homogeneous, but 
rather friable, sandstone, and the rain-water rills have corraded deepi chan 
nels, interrupted by many pot-holes. After a shower, these pot-holes are 
found filled with water. There is a place, near by the trail which passes 
from the mouth of the Paria to the province of Tusayan, where there is a 
collection of these water-pockets, known as the Thousand Wells. 
