Monographs of the United States Geological Survey, Volume 2U.S. Government Printing Office, 1882 - Geology Some nos. accompanied by atlases. |
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Common terms and phrases
altitude amount amphitheaters Aubrey basalt base Basin beds beneath brink buttes Cañon platform Carboniferous chasm climate color Colorado cones corrasion course crater Cretaceous cross-bedded denudation depth descend desert displacement distance East Kaibab eastern Echo Cliffs edges Eocene epoch erosion eruptions escarpment facts feet high flexure formation geological Grand Cañon district Grand Wash grandeur High Plateaus horizontal Hurricane fault inference inner gorge Jurassic Kaibab division Kanab Kanab Plateau lava lava-cap ledges length limestone Logan lower Marble Cañon Markágunt mass Mesozoic miles Miocene monocline Motte Park nearly northward Paria Plateau Permian Plateau Country Plateau Province Pliocene Point Sublime portion present profiles promontory ravine reach Red Wall region remnants river rocks sandstone scenery seen Sheavwits shore-line side slopes southern southward Spring strata streams summit surface terraces Tertiary thickness Toroweap Trias Triassic tributaries Uinkaret unconformity upper valley Vermilion Cliffs vertical Virgen Vulcan's Throne western width
Popular passages
Page viii - Powell's party, had to apologize for such a "point of departure": "I have perhaps in many places departed from the severe ascetic style which has become conventional in scientific monographs. Perhaps no apology is called for. Under ordinary circumstances the ascetic discipline is necessary. Give the imagination an inch and it is apt to take an ell, and the fundamental requirement of the scientific method — accuracy of statement — is imperiled.
Page 137 - It is so not alone by virtue of its magnitudes, but by virtue of the whole — its ensemble. The common notion of a canon is that of a deep, narrow gash in the earth, with nearly vertical walls, like a great and neatly cut trench. There are hundreds of chasms in the Plateau Country which answer very well to this notion. Many of them are sunk to frightful depths and are fifty to a hundred miles in length. Some are exceedingly narrow, as the canons of the forks of the Virgen, where the overhanging...
Page 72 - All regions are tending to base-levels of erosion, and if the time be long enough each region will, in its turn, approach nearer and nearer, and at last sensibly reach it.
Page 222 - As will be explained in another place, it may wear the walls of its channel, but its wear of one wall will be accompanied by an addition to the opposite wall. The work of transportation may thus monopolize a stream to the exclusion of corrasion, or the two works may be carried forward at the same time.
Page 148 - Throughout the long summer forenoon the charm which binds it grows in potency. At midday the clouds begin to gather, first in fleecy flecks, then in cumuli, and throw their shadows into the gulf. At once the scene changes. The slumber of the chasm is disturbed. The temples and cloisters seem to raise themselves half awake to greet the passing shadow. Their wilted, drooping, flattened faces expand into relief. The long promontories reach out from the distant wall as if to catch a moment's refreshment...
Page 55 - This ornamentation is suggestive rather than precise, but it is nonetheless effective. It is repetitive, not symmetrical. But though exact symmetry is wanting, nature has here brought home to us the truth that symmetry is only one of an infinite range of devices by which beauty can be materialized.
Page 236 - ... that its direct and indirect tendencies are in opposite directions. In arid regions of which the declivities are sufficient to give thorough drainage, the absence of vegetation is accompanied by absence of soil. When a shower falls, nearly all the water runs off from the bare rock, and the little that is absorbed is rapidly reduced by evaporation. Solution becomes a slow process for lack of a continuous supply of water, and frost accomplishes its work only when it closely follows the infrequent...
Page 138 - ... baser conception. At places the distance across the chasm to the nearest point on the summit of the opposite wall is about seven miles. A more correct statement of the general width would be from eleven to twelve miles. It is hence somewhat unfortunate that there is a prevalent idea, in some way, that an essential part of the grandeur of the Grand Canon is the narrowness of its defile. As Major Powell expresses it, there are rather a series of canons, than one huge one. Wherever the river has...
Page 55 - The towers which surround it are of inferior mass and altitude, but each of them is a study of fine form and architectural effect. They are white above, and change to a strong, rich red below. Dome and towers are planted upon a substructure no less admirable. Its plan is indefinite, but its profiles are perfectly systematic. A curtain wall 1400 feet high descends vertically from the eaves of the temples and is succeeded by a steep slope of everwidening base courses leading down to the esplanade below.
Page 148 - The long promontories reach out from the distant wall as if to catch a moment's refreshment from the shade. The colors begin to glow; the haze loses its opaque density and becomes more tenuous. The shadows pass, and the chasm relapses into its dull sleep again. Thus through the midday hours it lies in fitful slumber, overcome by the blinding glare and withering heat, yet responsive to every fluctuation of light and shadow like a delicate organism. As the sun moves far into the west the scene again...