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Show 198 EXPLORATION OF THE OANONS OF THE OOLORADO. who first studied this region, in his report on the geology of the country v. hich he visited, says: "Having tlus question constantly in mind, and examining, with all possible care, the structure of the grPat canons which we entered, I everywhere found evidence of the exclusive action of water in their formation. The opposite sides of the deepest chasm showed perfect correspondence of stratification, conforming to the g-eneral dip, and nowhere displacement; and the bottom rock, so often dry and bare, was perhaps deeply eroded, but continuou~ from side to side, a portion of the yet undivided series lying below." Professor Newberry saw the great canon region which I have described only on its southern border, but where the canon features are developed on the grandest scale. My own observations overlap his, and extend to the north many hundreds of miles; and during the last six years I have explored many thousands of miles of canons, and everywhere the facts observed confirm Professor Newberry's conclusions, as stated above. T~ough the entire region has been folded and faulted on a grand scale, these displacements have never determined the course of the Rtreams. The cafions are. seen to. cut across them, either directly or obliquely, here and there, and m a few mstances, I have observed canons to follow the course of faults for a short distance. They have also been observed to run back and forth across a fault; but such instances are surp1~isingly rare. In all the cau~ns _where the streams are no~ so large as to cover the bottom, the contmmty of the strata below has been apparent; and in the canons traversed by the larger streams, the beds on either side have been found at th.e same altitude; and if it is supposed that these wa.t er · ways were d eter-m. m ed by fissures, then such fissures were m'a de witho ut a·t sp 1a cement, and d1d not extend to the depths now reached by the streams If •t · "bl • • 1 IS poss1 e to conceive of such fissures, they must have been quite · r . . . . · narrow; m J.act, t 11 e whole suppos1tLon IS evtd. ently. absurd · All the facts concerm· ng t h e re1 a t·w n of the water-ways of th1s re0'10n to the mountains h'll . . . o , 1 s, canons, and chffs lead to the mevttable conclusion that the system of d. · d · ' • . 1 am age was etermmed nnteccdeut to the faultmg, and foldinO' and erosion 1 · h b o' < , w uc are o served and antecedent, ah;o, to the formation of tho eru1)t'tvn b d d ' v e s an cones. LIEUTENANT lVES ON TDE GHAND OANON. 199 THE U-JN-KA-RE'l' MOUNTAINS. 'rhe plateaus are yet modified in another way. Eruptive mountains, beds of black basalt, and volcanic cones are found here and there, and scoria and ashes are Rcattered over the land. There are three great, irregular mountains standing on the bench between the To-ro'-woap Fault and the Hurricane Ledge Fault. These great, complex masses of rock, or irregular mountains, are called by the Indians U-in-ka'-rets, (Pine Mountains.) Lieutenant Whipple, on the first of January, 1854, while making a t:econnaissance for a railroad route to the Pacific Ocean, camped at a spring about thirty miles to the southwest of the San Francisco Mountain, to which he gave the name "New Year's Spring." From this elevated position on the plateau he looked north, and over the chasm, in the distance, 200 miles away, he saw these mountains. Perhaps he discovered but a single peak, but on the map of the country over which the reconna.issance was made, he has indic.ated these peaks, and called them "High Mountains." Probably he intended this as a provisional name only. In the winter of 1857-'58, when Lieutenant Ives explored tho Lower Colorado, he reached, with a boat, a point on the river about ten miles below the Rio Virgen, and about eighty miles below the Grand Canon. Being unable to proceed farther in his boat, a land expedition was organized, and he explored the plateaus to the south, descending to the mouth of Diamond Creek, as I have mentioned. His first view of the canon, and the great plateaus through which it is carved, was obtained April 3, 1858, and is thus described: "At the end of ten miles the ridge of the swell was attained, and a splendid panorama burst suddenly into view. In the foreground wore low table hills, intersected by numberless ravines; beyond these a lofty line of bluffs marked the edge of an immense canon; a wide gap was directly ahead, and through it were beheld, to the extreme limit of vision, vast plateaus, towering one above the other, thousands of feet in the air, the long, horizontal bands broken, at intervals, by wide and profound abysses, a· extending a hundred miles to the north, till the deep azure blue faded into a light cerulean tint, that blended with the dome of the heavens. 'rho famous Big Canon was before us, and for a long time we paused in wonder- |