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Show ' Figuro 4!:!.-Caflon in EHcalanti Basin. POTATO VALLEY. 137 toward the east it increases in height, till at last it stands for thirty ·miles an inaccessible, vertical wall, 2,500 feet high. Its eastern boundary is a line of cliffs, commencing at the foot of Potato Valley, and presenting an almost unbroken front to the Colorado River, at a point but four miles above the terminus of the western line, thus giving to the plateau a trapezoid~! outline, having a length of fifty five miles, a breadth at the base of fifteen, at the apex of four, and standing at an altitude of 9,000 feet above sea level. For fifteen or twenty miles the western end is cut by a petfect net work of canons and short lines of cliffs, making travel across it almost impossible . The middle and eastern portions are quite level, and when once on the sum•- mit progress in any direction is easy. So far as I have been able to ascertain, we were tho first white men to visit the plateau. The Indian name for a small elevation near the north end is Kai-par'-o-wits, so we called the whole plateau by that name. Our course from Camp No. 6 was northeast, down Potato Valley. At first we had low, rolling hills on either side, but these soon changed into vertical wal18, and the valley became a wide canon, with a floor descending Reventy five feet to the mile. Three miles from camp we came to tho head of a small creek, which, receiving accessions from the north side, soon became a considerable stream, with such steep banks and swift cutTent that great difficulty was experienced in fording. W ~ called the creek by tho same name as tho valley, Potato Creek. At the end of twenty miles this canon valley was abruptly ended by a line of cliffs, that stood directly across its course, and into which the stream we followed entered by a narrow canon, 1,~00 feet deep at tho very outset, and filled fi·om wall to wall by a torrent. It wa.s down this gorge Mr. Hamblin and party traveled in 1871; but as such a route was manifestly impracticable in tho present stage of water, we. wont into camp, and climbed the cliff to got a view of the country. On reaching tho summit we found we were on the western rim of a basinliko region, seventy mi1es in length by fifty in breadth, and extending from tho oa.l'torn slope of tho Aquarius Plateau, on the north, to the Colorado River, on tho south, and from the Ilenry Mountains, on the east, to our point of ob,ervation, on the west. A large portion of this area is naked, 18 OOL |
