Rock-Cut Surfaces in the Desert Ranges

Abstract

In an article entitled Geographical Cycle in an Arid Climate 2 William M. Davis has presented a physiographic analysis of the ultimate results of erosion in an arid region. His conclusions are based partly on the work of Passarge and others and partly upon his own deductions. The system erected is in its larger features so complete those who follow in interpreting particular physiographic products need only assign such features to their proper place in the larger system already established. That the following conclusions, therefore, were reached independently and seem to fit perfectly with the system outlined by Davis is an additional corroboration of the soundness of his deductions, and the excuse for their publication must rest upon the wish expressed by Davis that the scheme of the arid cycle may lead to the detection of many facts concerning the evolution of land forms in desert regions have thus far escaped notice. G. K. Gilbert3 stated in describing the Basin Range system of the West: Between them [the ranges] are valleys floored by the detritus from the mountains which conceals their depth and leaves to the imagination to picture the full proportions of ranges of which the crests alone are visible, while the bases are buried beneath the debris from the summits. It is with the processes by which gravel sheets engulf mountain masses and with certain erosional features associated with such accumulations the