vanhise.]  THE    CORDILLERAS.  297 
SUMMARY   OF   RESULTS. 
In  the  Uinta  mountains  the  much  folded,  banded,  and  contorted 
granitic  rock  (so-calied  quartzite)  of  Red  creek  canyon,  in  its  crystal- 
line character,  in  the  intricate  way  in  which  it  is  folded  and  is  cut  by 
ancient  metamorphosed  basic  eruptives,  is  more  nearly  analogous  to  the 
fundamental  complex  of  other  areas  in  the  West  than  to  the  Huronian, 
as  has  been  before  suggested. 
The  lithological  analogy  between  the  overlying  Uinta  series  and  the 
Huronian  Sioux  quartzites,  mentioned  by  Hayden,  is  very  close  indeed, 
but  can  be  considered  as  a  guide  of  no  great  importance.  This  great 
series  of  sandstones,  quartzites,  and  shales,  unconformably  below  the 
Carboniferous  and  separated  by  a  great  unconformity  from  the  funda- 
mental complex,  may,  so  far  as  present  certain  knowledge  goes,  belong 
anywhere  from  the  Devonian  to  the  Algonkian. 
That  it  is  the  equivalent  of  the  Weber  conglomerate  of  the  Wasatch 
and  belongs  to  the  Carboniferous,  as  tentatively  placed  by  the  Fortieth 
Parallel  survey,  is  not  likely.  Its  great  thickness,  its  separation  by  a 
very  considerable  unconformity  from  the  fossiliferous  Carboniferous, 
and  its  lithological  character,  combined  with  the  fact  that  a  careful 
search  by  different  observers  has  revealed  no  fossils,  make  it  probable 
that  it  belongs  as  low  in  the  geological  column  as  the  great  basal  quartz- 
ite series  of  the  Wasatch,  in  which  case  it  is  Upper  Algonkian.  It 
is  not  certain  that  the  series  does  not  occupy  a  still  lower  position,  per- 
haps being  equivalent  to  the  Huronian,  as  already  suggested. 
The  general  structure  of  the  Wasatch,  as  explained  by  the  Fortieth 
Parallel  surveyors,  stands  untouched  by  later  work  ;  that  is  to  say, 
there  is  here  a  great  series  of  pre-Cambrian  rocks,  against  which  was 
deposited  unconformably  an  immense  thickness  of  clastic  deposits,  and 
the  abrupt  western  face  of  the  Wasatch  is  due  to  a  great  fault. 
Passing  to  details,  it  is  plain  that  Geikie's  objections  to  the  pre-Cam- 
brian character  of  the  Cottonwood  granite  mass  have  great  weight.' 
However,  it  is  to  be  said  that  while  the  difficulties  involved  in  the 
explanation  of  the  Fortieth  Parallel  surveyors  is  considerable  enough, 
they  do  not  appear  to  the  writer  to  be  so  great  as  indicated  by  Geikie. 
The  pre-Cambrian  mountain  represented  in  the  sections,  instead  of 
being  12  miles  high,  is  but  half  of  that  height,  since  its  height  is  not 
ascertained  by  measuring  its  horizontal  base,  but  by  the  perpendicular 
distance  between  the  extension  of  the  Cambrian  basal  beds  and  the 
topmost  granite.  Also,  if  the  stratified  beds  are  supposed  to  be  de- 
posited about  the  mountain  with  a  slope  away  from  it,  as  is  common 
along  a  steep  shore  line,  the  altitude  of  the  mountain  would  be  even 
less  than  this.  This  estimate  does  not  provide  for  the  increased  alti- 
tude which  the  mountains  must  have  had  before  being  buried.  If  the 
section  is  turned  back  so  as  to  represent  the  stratified  rocks  as  hori- 
zontal, the  average  steepness  of  the  granite  to  its  culminating  point  is 
found  to  be  in  the  neighborhood  of  45°,  the  lower  reaches  being  less 
