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Show 254 GEOLOGY OF THE HIGH PLATEAUS. From the center of the great Paria Valley or amphitheater the dip of the strata is semi-quaquaversal; that is, towards the east, north, and west, and all intermediate directions; but towards the south the strata incline upwards. The erosion has been greatest in the center of the amphitheater, and has proceeded radially outwards just as in the San Rafael Swell. This process has left the strata in terraced cliffs facing the center of the amphitheater, and as we look across from the southern cape of the Paunsagunt to Table Cliff and Kaiparowits Peak, more than 30 miles distant, we behold the edges of the strata, sculptured and carved in a fashion that kindles enthusiasm in the dullest mind. At the base of the series the vermilion sandstones of the Upper Trias are seen in massive palisades and gorgeous friezes, stretching away to the southward till lost in the distance. Above them is the still more massive Jurassic sandstone, pale gray and nearly white, without sculptured details, but imposing from the magnitude and solidity of its fronts. Next rises in a succession of terraces the whole Cretaceous system more than 4,000 feet in thickness. It consists of broad alternating bands of bright yellow sandstone and dark iron-gray argillaceous shales, the several homogeneous members ranging in thickness from 600 to 1,000 feet. But the glory of all this rock-work is seen in the Pink Cliffs, the exposed edges of the Lower Eocene strata. The resemblances to strict architectural forms are often startling. The upper tier of the vast amphitheater is one mighty ruined colonnade. Standing obelisks, prostrate columns, shattered capitals, panels, niches, buttresses, repetitions of symmetrical forms, all bring vividly before the mind suggestions of the work of giant hands, a race of genii once rearing temples of rock, but now chained up in a spell of enchantment, while their structures are falling in ruins through centuries of decay. Along the southern and southeastern flank of the Paunsagunt these ruins stretch mile after mile. But the crowning work is Table Cliff in the background. Standing 11,000 feet above sea-level and projected against the deep blue of the western sky, it presents the aspect of a vast Acropolis crowned with a Parthenon. It is hard to dispel the fancy that this is a work of some intelligence and design akin to that of humanity, but far grander. Such glorious tints, such keen contrasts of light and shade, such profusion of sculptured forms, can never be |