Twelve Mormon Homes : Twelve Mormon homes visited in succession on a journey through Utah to Arizona.

Twelve Mormon Homes, page 132

We halted to feast our eyes, and a geologically-disposed Mor- mon approached the carriage window to obscure our perceptions by explaining the spectacle scientifically. 46 These rocks," he said, "are considered to be tertiary sedimen- tary strata; more or less horizontally disposed, with a tendency to cleave or split down vertically-hundreds of feet to a face. The strata uncovered are of different colors, red and rose-pink sandstones, gray and white-pink and tawny-yellow limestones and free-stones, and they are variously stained and striped by beds of ferriferous marl or marlite. They are also of different hardnesses, and weather down with varying degrees of rapidity. Fragmentary pieces of an upper layer of harder rock occasion- ally furnish water-proof roofs which protect the softer rock im- mediately beneath them. Elsewhere it wears down, and thus piers are left standing, fanciful pillars and similar resemblances. Hence arises the remarkable variety of pseudo-architectural scenery which regales your vision." He ended with a concise little bow. I thanked him for his in- formation, and took it down verbatim in his presence, but would have been better pleased to learn that I had looked at a Fata Morgana that was soon to fade away. There was something sad- dening in that distant view of great courts and domes, empty and silent, with no human history or legend attached to them. We were now, as I have said, over the rim of the basin, and rapidly descending; but still at a great elevation, with many summits to cross before reaching the plain. In all our turnings and windings, we saw from the top of each eminence this great group, "the Navajo Blanket series," as the children-bored with 132