Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-06-09
UTAH
By ]. II, Paul.

To the Editor of the Deseret News:
Sir-In fuliillment of our understand
ing OF several months ago, l now pre-
sent q series of brief notes on the phys
ical features of Utah Several of these
little essays will probably smack of
the classroom, because the materials
have been compiled in that atmosphere
and were primarily intended for that
use. An investigation was begun over
twenty years ago, when for nine suc-
cessive years the writer taught Il daily
class in higher geography at the uni
versity, The course consisted, in part.
of local phenomena, and occupied the
place since given to general physical
geography Much OF this local ma.
terial, compressed into brief form, has
been adopted for use in the schools OF
Utah during the next Ave years. and
will be published in September. For
the present, certain fundamental as
poets of the geography OF our state,
selected with view TO interest the
average reader and to instruct the
stranger. may appear for the ensuing
SIX weeks. on Tuesdays. Thursdays ana
Saturdays In the columns of your
valuable paper. Should the articles
afford to your readers a fraction of tho
preparation has given to the writer
then. brief and unsatisfactory as they
must appear, they may have been worth
while.
Yours with respect. ]. II. PAUL
ERE HISTORY BEGAN.
For the sake, merely, of logical con-
slstency and completeness, q few obser-
variations will first be made on a some
what dry part of the subject---the pre-
historic past as explanatory of the
present physical conditions of the land
forms. rocks. minerals, and soils of this
intermountain area. Among tho un-
usual things noticed by the Investigator
In Utah are the hot springs and the
various natural waters containing sui
phur, iron, salt, and other minerals;
the mineral oils and the solidified hy-
drncarbons as well as COAL the lava
rocks, the granite beds, the volcanic
cones, the folding or faulting OF strata;
the enormous slip which left the Wa
satch mountains steep on the western
side when the Great Basin sank away
from them the still higher Uintahs.
broken on the north by a similar fault
all these phenomena point to q time
when the internal fires OF the earth,
much more active than they are today,
must have caused melted rock TO we'll
up from the interior, forcing it's way
through the everything strata OF sedl-
mentary or wnter-fOrmed rocks, and
sometimes enclosing the latter in large
pockets. Whether the whole globe
was once In a melted condition or not,
may he doubted but IL has always
boen hot within, and it's internal fires
have never ceased TO burn. Old vol
canoes In the Sewer valley, ana near
Fillmore. Dugway, Fish Springs and
In the far south; the hot pots" at
Midway. the largo sulphur deposits
and vast lava beds lsewhere,all tend 10
show that tho prtmoYal reign Of heat
which once. according to the earlier
theory. converted the earth's surface
into one vast lake OF fire, shcathins
the molten globe, to tho center Of which
the gold silver platinum, lead, and
other heavy metals would naturally
grayitate--that this fanciod reign of
fire continued TO reassert Itself long
after the earth'a crust had cooled,
long after the hot and boiling ocean
waters that may have covered II had
ceased to be the generators OF dense
steam clouds that once enveloped this
planet, and long after the outer crust
by the action Of water on the original
rock Of the earth's crust had been
formed Into layers upon layers. In
which epoch after epoch Of geological
history has been recorded In the wa
lHl~l bllliNu sNihAh hl Aun successive
earth periods.
These widespread and extensive APP
pealances u tho earth-heat OF former
times point with strong emphasis IN
Utah TO what may be termed tho later
reign OF fire. II thus Rltelnatad with
moro recent dominion OF water Stll
later occurred the present supremacy
OF the atmosphere, which We may call
tho reign OF air Thesa successive eras
have given 10 Utah. as 20 other lands,
ITS rocks and soils. It's minerals Goals.
and hydrocarbons, Only the distant
past can explain tho present aspect OF
the earth surface, the lava flows, tho
mountain sculpturo. etc. OF this inter-
esting land. OF the original reign Of
fire, we can infer but little, OF the
reign OF water, which formed the stIyl-
tilted rocks that first oycrlay the heat-
! ed earth, We have abundant evidence;
but the volcanic cruptions OF which
we speak here occurred subsequently To
, the formation % the stratltied rocks and
are only a dim on Indirect indication OF
tho assumed prlmeyal condition OF the
J earth as globe of fire.
THE GItANtrolD ROCKS.
Granite was formerly thought 10 be
the original basis OF our WRsatch
range but Drs. Talmase and Pack have
both shown that tho 6ranAtoid masseS