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Show 86 EXPLORATION OF THE OAN"ONS OF TilE OOLORADO. cloud roof overhead, its walls of black granite, and its river bright with the sheen of broken waters. Then, a gust of wind sweeps down a side gulch, and, making a rift in the clouds, reveals the blue heavens, and a stream of sunlight pours in. Then, the clouds drift away into the distance, and hang around crags, and peaks, and pinnacles, and towers, and. walls, and cover them with a mantle, that lifts from time to time, and sets them all in sharp relief. Then, baby clouds creep out of side cafions, glide around points, and creep back again, into more distant gorges. Then, c·louds, set in strata, across the cafion, with intervening vista views, to cliffs and rocks beyond. The clouds are children of the heavens, and when they play among the rocks, they lift them to the region above. It rains I Rapidly little rills are formed above, and these soon grow into brooks, and the brooks grow into creeks, and tumble over the walls in innumerable cascades, adding their wild music to the roar of the river. When tlte rain ceases, the rills, broots, and creeks run dry. The waters that fall, during a rain, on these steep rocks, are gathered at once into the river; they could scarcely be poured in more suddenly, if some vast spout ran from the clouds to the stream itself. When a storm bursts over the canon, a side gulch is dangerous, for a sudden flood may come, and the in pouring waters will raise the river, so as to hide the rocks before your eyes. Early in the afternoon, we discover a stream, entering from the north, a clear, beautiful creek, coming down through a gorgeous red cafion. We land, and camp on a sand beach, above its mouth, under a great, overspreading tree, with willow shaped leaves. August 16.-W e must dry our rations again to day, and make oars. The Colorado is never a clear stream, but for the past three or four days it has been raining much of the time, and the floods, which are poured over the walls, have brought down great quantities of mud, making it exceedingly tw·bid now. The little affluent, which we have discovered here, is a clear, beautiful creek, or river, as it would be termed in this western country, where streams are not abundant. We have named one stream, away above, in honor of the great chief of the "Bad Angels," and, as this is in beautiful contrast to that, we conclude to name it ''Bright Angel.'' Early iu the morning, the whole party starts up to explore the Bright • Jo'iguro 29.-0mnito Walls. |
