WITCH ROCKS, WEBER CAÑON.
Clarence King, U. S. Geologist, in a monograph on the Bad Lands, says: “It is not altogether easy to account for the peculiar character of this erosion, resulting as it does in such singular vertical faces and spire-like forms. A glance at the front of these Bad Lands shows at once that very much of the resultant forms must be the effect of rain and wind-storms. The small streams which cut down across the escarpment from the interior of the plateau, do the work of severing the front into detached blocks; but the final forms of these blocks themselves are probably in great measure given by the effect of rain and wind erosion. The material is so exceedingly fine, that under the influence of trickling waters it cuts down most easily in vertical lines. A semi-detached block, separated by two lateral ravines, becomes quickly carved into spires and domes, which soon crumble down to the level of the plain. It seems probable that some of the most interesting forms are brought out by a slightly harder stratum near the top of the cliffs (like the strange, and often uncouth, examples in Monument Park, Colorado), which acts in a measure as a protector of the softer materials, and prevents them from taking the mound-forms that occur when the beds are of equal hardness.”
As we follow down Green River, the same effects are observable in the vertical bluffs which extend along the shores, images to which fancy has given such names as the Devil’s Tea-pot, the Giant’s Club, Vermilion Cliffs, and many others, for the geologic structure is the same through nearly the whole of southeast Wyoming. But the so-called Bad Lands are not wholly confined to Wyoming, for they are met with in both North and South Dakota, west of the Missouri River; though for beauty and magnitude, those of Wyoming are incomparable.
MORMON TITHING HOUSE, SALT LAKE CITY.—This is one of the houses occupied by Brigham Young during his lifetime as a residence and for office purposes. We presume from the name that it was also the appointed place for the payment of tithes by his devoted followers, and if this is true we can safely estimate that many millions of dollars were carried through its gates and deposited in the coffers of the Church as a tribute from ignorance and superstition to the superiority of cunning and avarice. The Mormon leaders have all been shrewd money getters and have not overlooked themselves while taking care of the interests of the Lord.
