Now We Have To Grope Blindly For A
While, As The Wise Ones Do Not Have Facts Enough Upon Which To Speak With
Definite Certainty.
But it is assumed that a great warping of the earth's
crust took place, and that in this revolution
Some of the plateau
sank, - supposedly the northern part, though it certainly extended across
the Canyon nearly as far south as Williams and Ash Fork, and other
parts - the edges - arose, and thus formed a basin which became another vast
inland sea.
Eocene Lake. We know this was an inland sea, and had no connection with
the ocean, for all the fossils and sediments deposited in it reveal that
they are fresh-water organisms. In this sea, as in the earlier oceans, vast
deposits of sediment were made in the early Eocene period, and another
period of subsidence occurred. Then the great lake was drained, and the
uplift began, slow and sure; then, and not before, were the conditions
existent that have made the Canyon country as we see it to-day. Peaks and
islets received the rainfall, tiny rivers were formed that grew larger and
cut their way in deeper, as the uplift continued. The principal stream,
which was then born, was the Colorado. It is supposed, from various
evidences, that the rainfall was very much more abundant then than now, and
consequently the rivers had greater flow, and more eroding and carrying
capacity. The uplift continued, and the geologists tell us it did not cease
until about fifteen thousand feet, deposited since Cretaceous times, were
thrust up into the air.
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