Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1883-07-18
The Plateau Province.

Directly west of the Rocky Noun
tains lies tract of more than 100. 90,
square miles, named by Major Powell
the Plateau Province" which resem
bles no other spot on the globe. 1t oc-
cupies Southern Wyoming, Eastern and
Southern Utah, Northern and Eastern
Arizona. and narrow strip of West
ern Colorado and New Mexico: but it
Is with the southern SectiOn-bounded
on the north by the Uinta Mountains
| least of Great Salt Lake,, and ending
IN Central AriZona-that we have here
to do. On the east is country of gi-
gantic mountain ranges, with fertile
valleys, and perennial streams draining
] eventually into the Gulf of Mexico; on
the west is the Great Basin, a low, bar
ren desert broken by short and ragged
ranges, and without any drainage at all =,
"a district of salt lakes and brackish
streams sinking in the sand. The pla-
teau district is lofty table-land, mostly
from one to two miles above the sea;
the barrenest of desert, at levels under
1000 feet intensely hot and dry, but
cool, moist, forest-clad, and grassy on
the higher planes. But itScharacteris-
tic features are the Titanic architect
ural forms into which the elements have
chiseled the face of the land, and the
clearness with which it tells the story
of its own growth and diSintegration.
From whatever direction approached
the scene is one of startling novelty.
Instead of the gently sloping valleys, or
the mountain ridges and conical peaks,
with which all are familiar, the eye be-
holds succession of horizontal terraces
and platforms, each ending abruptly in
inaccessible cliffs and dropping sheer
upon other platforms ''many hundreds
or even two thousand feet below The
walls of these cliffs are not chaotic i'll
shape and neutral in color, as commonly
with us, but symmetrically carved and
sculptured, and gorgeous with the rich
est hues of stone and earth. Nor do
they present unbrOken fronts like the
mountain fOrtreSseS we know: the inf
mite rills of rain or melting snow and
the sand and gravel they bear along
have channeled them into deep pro-
montorieS, and interlacing, have cut off
grand ''butteS" or hIllocks of stone,
sometimes a mile or more fronf the
main body of the cliffs. Immense as
are some of these buttes, they sink into
insigniticance when viewed from dist
ance, and seem but holdings or finals
on the colossal mass behind. The ge-
neral appearance of the country is thus
described by Capt. Dutton: They
stretch their tOrtuouS courses across
the land in all directions, yet not with
out system. Each cliff marks the
boundary ola geographical terrace, and
marks also the termination of some geo
logical series of strata, the edges of
which are exposed like courses OF ma
sonry in the scarpwallS of the palisades.
In the distance may be seen the spec
tacle Of cliff rising above and beyond
cliff, like a colossal stairway leading
from the torrid plains below to the do
main of the clouds above. Very Won
Gerful at times is the sculpture of these
majestic walls. The reSemblances to
are not fanciful or meta
phorIcal, but are real and vivid; 50
much 50 that even the experienced eX-
plOrer is sometimes brought toa sudden |
malt and hlled with amazement by the |
OF forms as definite and elo-
quent as those of art. Each geological !
formation exhibits III its Gifts dis
tinct style of architecture which is not |
among the cliffs of other |
and these several styles
dltfer as much as those which are culti-
waited by different races of men. Tue |
character which appeals most strongly |
to the eye Is the coloring. Subdu d
colors axe wholly wanting here, and in
their place we behold brilliant belts, |
which are intensified rather than allie
waited by alternating belts of gray
Like the architecture, the colors are
OF the geological fOrma-
tions. They culminate Ill intensity in
the Permian and Lower TriaS, wnere
dark, brownish reds alterate with bands
Of chocolate, purple, and lavender, SO
deep, rich, and Respondent that pain
ter would need to be bold man to
to portray them as they are" "
1t Is not, however, the sculpture or
the coloring of these mighty ledges that
are most valuable to us: we can see
grand works of nature otherwhere, and
nueS as brilliant as these. 1t is because
ner work here is SO rigidly and even
regular, not because 1t is
bizarre, tnaI We prize il. Look at
those horizontal bands that stretch
across the butteS i'll the cut. Every
one of these is a stratum which origi-
nally lay unbroken over a vast eXpanse:
the same strata can be traced for hun
dreds of miles, from the rows of buttes
10 the masses from which they were
separated, and from terrace to terrace.
Where platform thousand feet above
another breaks the continuity, the strata
are found Ill the same order at pro-
pOrtionate height above: showing in
fallibly, by their sharp demarcdtlon
from the strata above and below, that
they have been broken III two by a slow
upheaval OF the surface since they were
deposited, and that there has been no
sudden cataclysm, NJ grand cOnvulsion
Of nature to hasten the slow action OF
elemental forces. They are never
mixed chaOtically with other strata,
never shot in veins through them, as
though d fierce volcanic upthrow had
the work of countless CEN
turtles into day or an hour. Nor Is
this all, the records of organic life
which they hold imbedded tell the same
story. The fossils found In any gIvea
band in one extremity OF this district
ire found in the same proportions In
ike bands at the other extremity,
hundreds of miles away,-neyer mixed
with the organic remains belonging
20 other strata, neyerf alilnS to present
themselves i'll company With thelreha-
racteristlc rocks.
Gloves.