From the fragmentary debris lying scattered over the surface of the ground, it would seem as if the various streams formerly were of much greater size and volume than they now are, and that long after the eocene lakes had been drained-rivers of considerable size ploughed up the lake bottoms, excavating an immense area. The formation known as "Mauvaises Terres" rises abruptly from the valleys, and extends in a series of plateaus, one above the other, on either side.
The high land shows the effect of violent erosion in two forms; first, the irregular and jagged cones that appear upon the sides of the high benches; and, second, the isolated butte structure, rising directly out of the plain.
The bad lands of Cottonwood Creek, Henry's Fork, Dry Creek, etc., are examples of the first, and Bridger Butte the best known example of the second.
Bridger Butte, six miles to the south-west of Fort Bridger, rises to a height of over a hundred feet, and is about two miles long; its sides slope steeply up, and its level top serves as a landmark that can be seen miles away.
The stratification throughout this whole formation is nearly horizontal, and across the valley can be distinctly noted, owing to the color and appearance of the various layers.
No satisfactory explanation has been given of the causes which occasioned the removal of the waters of these lakes, nor of the agencies necessary to accomplish the great excavations that now show the former bottoms of the basins. These and like points future investigation will undoubtedly solve.
It is certain that the level of the lakes varied at different times, and also that great stretches of marshy land surrounded their borders.
The first fact is proved by the characters of the different layers of strata; the second by the fossil remains entombed. A careful study of the formation of the beds of Cottonwood Creek, at a point about fourteen miles south of Fort Bridger, yielded the following result, which will serve as an example illustrative of the regular formation in this section.
Three distinct lines of bluffs are to be noticed, the first rising to a height of one hundred and fifty feet; from these extends a plain, gently sloping south-west to the foot of the second line of cliffs; these seem high, owing to the downward slope of the plain, but they really rise only fifty feet higher than the first.
On the top of the second, but less broad than the first, extends a level plain, with a slight dip to the south-east; at the end of this, the third line rises two hundred feet above the top of the second line of bluffs, making a total height, in the series, of four hundred feet above the level of Smith's Fork.