The basin of the Colorado, excepting that part below the mouth of the
Virgen and a portion among the "parks" of the western slope of the
Rocky Mountain range, is almost entirely a plateau region. Some of
the plateaus are very dry; others rise above the arid zone and are
well watered. The latter are called the "High Plateaus." They reach
an altitude of eleven thousand feet above the sea. They are east of
the Great Basin, and with the other plateaus form an area called by
Powell "The Plateau Province." Eastward still the plateaus merge into
the "parks." The High Plateaus, as a topographical feature, are a
southern continuation of the Wasatch Mountains. They terminate on the
south in the Markagunt, the Paunsagunt, and the Aquarius Plateaus.
The extreme southern extremities of the two former are composed of
mighty precipices of columnarly eroded limestone called the Pink
Cliffs. Here is the beginning of the Terrace Plateaus, likewise
bounded by vertical, barren cliffs. Between the High Plateaus and the
parks, the plateaus may be called, for convenience, Mesa Plateaus, as
they are generally outlined by vertical cliffs. This is the case also
south of the end of the High Plateaus where, stepping down the great
terraces, we arrive at the region immediately adjacent to the Grand
Canyon, composed of four plateaus, three of them of mesa character,
the Shewits, Uinkaret, Kanab, and Kaibab; and up at the head of
Marble Canyon a fifth, the Paria, while still farther to the
north-eastward is the Kaiparowitz. The edges of these Mesa Plateaus,
precipitous cliffs, stretch for many miles across the arid land like
mountain ranges split asunder. This region, lying between the High
Plateaus, the Grand Wash, the Henry Mountains, and the Colorado, is
perhaps the most fascinating of all the basin. The relief map at page
41 gives the larger part of it. In the basin there are also great
mountain masses, the fountainheads of the waters which have carved