The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-29

How plant food is visibly and on a
gigantic scale made from rocks in
every western canyon. is a sight worth
seeing. The finished product of these
great soil factories may be termed
stone flour The work is always in
progress but is most noticeable in
winter and early spring. At certain
times in these seasons the soil is liter
ally made while you wait" You
don't have TO take on faith any of the
statements that will be made here. Go
straight to any of our canyons, if you
doubt or fail to understand, and see
and know for yourself and be not
faithless, but believing" For in this
chapter not much is asked of your i'm
agination. This process of soil manu-
facture, unlike those previously de-
sCribed, is evident to the senses.
Our Advantage.
A manifest educational advantage of
the western intermOuntain region is
that it is one vast nature laboratory,
in which the processes are less hidden,
the results more conspicuous, the Sc
Crets more frankly disclosed than in the
east. There the student must largely
believe that soils are formed from the
solid rock. Here he can behold the for
lldIlOD- mere ne CtIl IGdQ u TIE Sld-
ciers. Here he can see them. There he
Is told of the lava, the strata, the veins,
the faults, the mountain making, the
erosion, the waterfall, the rock work
of the frost, of the avalanche, of the
hot spring, of the geyseT. Here he
can visit them and see them at work
Clarence King has told US that he
learned more geology in six months of
observation here than in his previous
=
ture, then, be studied in western
schools? 1t is inevitable, unless, in
deed. the teacher is deaf, dumb, blind.
to the appeals which western nature
Is daily making to his senses. his in
ference, his reason, his emotions, his
pocketbook.
When You Enter the Canyon.
Last winter, for example, the writer
made a trip through ogden canyon,
and that fine and easily accessible
place shall serve as a type of what
may be seen at this season in any of
our canyons that have a stream of
water, and in a less degree in most of
our drier gulches
We entered the canyon from Hunts
vile. The morning sun brilliantly il
Illuminated the vast snow field of the
higher valleys. This white mantle in
I'm the canyons and upon the higher
lands long after it has disappeared
from the lower areas of the state, and
this phenomenon will be the more
striking at such times. because the
spectacle is unusual.
Trees and Ice Fields.
Rising from the snow-clad slopes of
the Wasatch range are the evergreen
he n mir
in bright green or bottle green hues,
making a beautiful contrast upon the
pure white of the snow sheets and with
the brown, blue purplish and grayish
hues of the rock masses The trees
somewhat resemble, from a distance,
silent, motiOnless Indian sentinels
standing there. Not many of the trees
are left now, but the few that have
not yet been hacked down or destroyed
by fire are the more noticeable because
they are so few and so precious. VIII
Ogden be able to save the few that re-
main? Certainly not, if we are to
Judge by the history of all former
groves of trees near any human habi-
tatiOns in the western Wilds of Amer
lea. Yet the effort to save those scat
tered pines and balsams is well worth
making.
Artistic Features.
We shall not dwell on colors. on rock
masses, on sculptured forms, rock pin
nacles and weird castles at this time;
the inspirations which the canyon al
ways gives to the artistic observer and
to poetic and romantic minds will be
left for those who can with better sue
cess comment upon them. 1t is what
the canyon does, rather than what it
locks like and suggests, that concerns
us now. As scientists, it is the dynamic
or energetic aspect of the canyon-its
work and worth, its economic and in
dustrial relationships, its commercial
significance in educatiOn-these are the
things that claim our immediate at
tentiOn-
Work of the River.
Below. in the bed of the canyon,
fOamed the restless river, still grum-
bling, and roaring somewhat, as a re-
minder of its recent irresistible fury
when it hurled along boulders weigh
ing many tons and swept away
bridge after bridge in its plunging tor
rent. AS the river rushes on, still
swollen, the sound of cOlliding stones is
occasionally heard, and the stream
seems TO be talking in noisy and inn
pressive monotone. These are the
sounds of its action; the river is at
work: and most important to us, and
vast beyond our belief. is the amount
of the work that ii is now doing in
our behalf. 1t is making, shifting, and
transporting the elements of a rich
and fertile soil that it will presently
deposit in its bed. on its banks, or
in the swamps at its mouth. With
every slight increase in its velocity, it
picks up hundreds Of tons from its
bed: with every decrease in its rate
and volume. it deposits similar guam
titles. The law of its carrying power
is that if the velocity be doubled, the
4rar,sr,crfirn mower will be increased