Darwin Plateau. The main plateau before us is named Darwin Plateau, after
the learned evolutionist. Take this plateau as a rude and misshapen hand,
imagine the thumb and little finger gone, and it will be seen that the
other three fingers radiate from Darwin Plateau in the shape of three
irregularly contoured, but fairly level plateaus, Huethawali resting like a
great wart upon the base of the middle one of the three. To these plateaus
have been given the following names: the one to the right is Grand Scenic
Divide, the middle one is named Huxley Terrace, and the one to the left
(the west) is Spencer Terrace.
For a few moments let us look at each of these plateaus, and grasp such
features as the eyes may observe.
Grand Scenic Divide and Dick Pillar. Grand Scenic Divide was so named
because it is the point where the granite of the Inner Gorge disappears
from the Grand Canyon, and this disappearance makes as vast and wonderful a
difference in the Canyon scenery as it is possible to find in its whole two
hundred and seventeen miles of length. To the right of the Divide,
looking eastward, where the granite is still in evidence, one can see the
temples, buttes and towers that make the view from El Tovar and Grand View
Points so interesting. Looking westward, the whole aspect changes, so
markedly, indeed, that one scarcely can believe it to be the same Canyon.
Hence the appropriateness of the name. At the extreme end of this plateau,
a detached rocky pillar stands peering down into the deepest recesses of
the Inner Gorge. This bears the name Dick Pillar, from Robert Dick, the
baker-geologist of Thurso, Scotland, who gave such material assistance to
Hugh Miller in his studies of the Old Red Sandstone.
Huxley Terrace. Huxley Terrace is the center plateau. At its end is an
eroded mass of red sandstone, to which the name of the noted naturalist and
evolutionist, Wallace, has been attached. Still nearer the end, and
belonging to the marble wall, is a pagoda named Tyndall Dome.
Spencer Terrace. Spencer Terrace is the most western of the plateaus, and
is where the Mystic Spring used to be, which for many years gave its name
to Bass's Trail - the Mystic Spring Trail.
These three plateaus vary in width from a quarter of a mile to over a mile
wide; they are dotted with what seem to be patches of grass, but which in
reality are juniper and pinion trees from ten to forty feet in height.
Terraces of the Explorers. About a quarter of a mile to the west of Bass
Camp is the amphitheatre in which my earlier book, "In and Around the Grand
Canyon," and a large part of the present book were written.
