GANNETT] TOPOGKAPHY. 13 
the range was elevated, and have retained them by the simple process 
of sawing through the range as it gradually rose. The smaller ones, 
whieh head just west of the crest of the range, are doubtless conse- 
quent streams, produced by the elevation of the range itself, and which 
have in virtue of their rapid descent and great cutting power eroded 
their heads baek beyond the crest of the range. 
A series of plateaus which continues the range southward is proba- 
bly a part of the same uplift, wherein the eastward dip has been lost, 
the beds lying nearly horizontal. These plateaus range in elevation up 
to 11,000 feet, the highest of them being quite as high as the highest 
peaks in the range. 
In the northeastern part of the State is a range which is unique in 
the United States in the fact that its trend is east and west — the Uinta 
Range. It consists of a broad anticlinal uplift, from the summit and 
higher parts of which most of the stratified beds have been removed 
by erosion. It is the highest range in the State, its summit peaks 
exceeding 13,000 feet in altitude. On the west it drops off to a 
plateau having an elevation of about 8,000 feet, by which it is con- 
nected with the Wasatch at about its middle point. 
RIVERS. 
Through this great range Green River, which heads far to the north, 
in Wind River Mountains, flows in a series of deep canyons. This 
range is the first of the obstacles which Green and Grand rivers 
eneounter in their long and troubled journey to the Gulf of California. 
In this case, as in the case of the Weber, Ogden, Provo, and other 
streams, the river had the right of way, and as the range rose slowly 
directly across its path it sawed its way through the barrier, retaining 
not only its general course southward, but even the minor details of 
its windings. To this fact are to be attributed many of the strange and 
errant movements of the river in avoiding what seems to be an easy 
route and going out of its way to get into trouble. The country east 
of the Wasatch Range and south of the Uintas is a plateau region — 
a region of broad, level, or slightly inclined table-lands, terminated by 
cliffs; a region in which the streams flow in deep, narrow gorges far 
below the surface. These plateaus differ greatly in elevation, rang- 
ing from 11,000 feet down to 4,000 feet. It is drained by Colorado 
River and its tributaries, the Green, which is its head stream, and the 
Grand, its great eastern branch, which has its source in Middle Park, 
Colorado. To it flow from the west Uinta, Price, Fremont, Escalantc. 
and Paria rivers, and from the east White and San Juan rivers. 
Green River, on emerging from a series of canyons by whieh it 
traverses the Uinta Range, crosses a broad valley, in which it is joined 
by the Uinta from the west and White River from the east. Below 
