Toward the south, about Harney
Peak, the surface is peculiarly rugged and difficult to traverse. Toward
the north, also, about Terry and Custer peaks, a smaller rugged surface
appears; but in the central area between and extending west of the
Harney range is a region which is characterized by open and level parks
much lower than the surrounding peaks and ridges."
The Archaean rocks which form the core of the Hills mark the center of
the various uplifts which have attended their formation and controlled
their history. The coarse granite of Harney Peak indicating that, as the
central point of the earliest upheaval, and the three porphyries known
as rhyolite, trachyte, and phonolite, showing the uplifts of later
periods to have had their centers a little more to the north, but the
entire area is said to be only about sixty miles long and twenty-five
miles in width. It is exceptionally rough and mountainous, and
consequently has great charms for the lover of fine scenery. Erosion has
only partially denuded the peaks of the sedimentary rocks through which
they were thrust up, or by which they were overlaid during the earlier
part of several subsequent periods of submersion. The Hills, in these
remote times, led but a doubtful and precarious existence, being now an
isolated island rising out of a shallow sea, and then, owing to a
general subsidence, submerged in the ocean to so great a depth that even
Harney Peak is supposed to have almost, if not entirely, disappeared.
Pages:
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109