296 
COLORADO RIVER BASIN 
wine goblet. That the work is not yet abandoned is proved by the 
fact that during periods of intense blowing, the wind still carries 
particles of sand with sufficient velocity to sting the hands and 
face of the observer. The goblet, of course, like millions of other 
forms, is only ephemeral, and in course of geological time will 
crumble and disappear. 
By no means of least interest in southeastern Utah are the stu¬ 
pendous natural bridges of that region. The history of their 
origin is simple. Ages ago the streams traversing that section 
flowed along courses made up of broad, winding curves. At a 
certain depth below the general level of the country a layer of 
soft argillaceous sandstone was encountered. This was easily 
attacked by stream action, and the narrow necks separating the 
channels, were undercut in such a manner that the overlying 
strata were left spanning the gaps in the form of gigantic natural 
bridges. Virginia has long boasted of her wonderful natural 
bridge, but Utah possesses half a dozen which are vastly its su¬ 
perior. The great Nonnezoshie Arch is sufficiently large to permit 
of the erection of a twenty-story office building beneath it. Almost 
every year reports are coming in of the discovery of other bridges, 
and the end does not seem to have been reached. The inaccessa- 
bility of this region can be somewhat understood when it is stated 
that less than a year ago a bridge, of nearly two hundred feet 
span, was found near Moab, at a point less than seventy-five 
miles from a trans-continental railroad. 
The San Juan bridges are notable. From the top of Elk Moun¬ 
tain looking toward the west, the traveler obtains his first view of 
the platform in which the bridges are situated. It lies more than a 
thousand feet below him and stretches out toward the south and 
south-west almost as far as the eye can see. When thus viewed 
from the distance, this vast, level plain appears to be practically 
unbroken, except by outliers, large and small, which rise abruptly 
from its surface, like so many flat-topped icebergs from an undis¬ 
turbed sea. 
This vast platform is so completely dissected by an intricate 
labyrinth of box-canyons that passage directly across it is wholb’ 
impossible. Not infrequently the explorer is compelled to travel 
many miles around circuitous cliffs in order to reach a desired 
