COLORADO RIVER BASIN 
293 
unt Plateau, in southern Utah, and witness one of the most 
magnificent spectacles ever granted to the eye of man. Stretch¬ 
ing out for a hundred miles before him, and five thousand feet 
below him, is a series of stratigraphic steps unequaled elsewhere 
in the world. At the distal end of the stairway is the inner 
gorge of the incomparable Colorado stream. 
Omitting the specific names of the terranes comprising the walls 
of the Canyon proper, the steps of this colossal stairway range in 
age from Ter tic to Carbonic time, and present perhaps the grandest 
prospect of multi-colored formations upon the earth. The 
Carbonic platform, in the distance, consists essentially of grayish 
limestones and sandstones, intercalated, at depth, with shades of 
pinks and reds. Next above, and farther back from the River, 
is the Permo-Carbonic formation, consisting of an intricate alter¬ 
nation of vari-colored bands, chiefly shades and tints of reds. 
Next above are the Triassic beds, composed principally of blood- 
red sandstones, varying from one thousand to two thousand feet 
in thickness, and locally called the Vermillion Cliffs. This is 
followed by Jurassic strata, principally yellow below and white 
above. Next is the Cretacic section, made up mainly of buflp 
sandstones and grey shale. At the top are the Tertic terranes, 
unrivalled in their coloring, predominately pink, but possessing a 
variety of hues wholly indescribable. Here and there the upper 
members of the stairway are largely covered with pine trees and 
undergrowth, so that wherever they are exposed they are em- 
blazened by the contrast. The lower formations are almost rudely 
nude in their barrenness. 
Aside from the coloring and the stairway, the observer is 
almost overwhelmed with the country’s sculpturing. In numer¬ 
ous places, domes, pinnacles and spires, in the form of giant 
monoliths, are silhouetted against the horizon, like the water front 
of a populous city. In other places vast level tracts stretch out 
to distances where vision ends. Wherever the eye can turn the 
evidences of interminable and prodigious erosion are ever present. 
If one could but descend this giant stairway, in strides of a 
dozen miles, he would find himself, after completing four or five 
steps, on the plain of the Colorado platform. Another fifty 
miles, directly ahead, would lead him over comparatively level 
