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Show HIS DESCENT THEREINTO. 343 inveterate enemies the Jamajabs, the Yumas, the Jal-chedunes, Cocomaricopas, and Pimas Gileiios; and also did I propose to them to cultivate pleasant relations not halfway to the rancheria of which we were in quest, and the last water hence to Cataract canon. Blank tank was a nasty hole in the rocks, containing perhaps 5,000 gallons of dead water and filth, in which lurked an enormous number of the repulsive " fishes with legs," or axolotls, also called guaholotes - a species of Atnblystoma. Here we rested on the 8th, and next day made a straight break due north, along a dim Indian trail, over good ground, partly wooded, to a dry camp. On the 10th a march of 10 miles in the same direction brought us abruptly to the brink of the precipice- a sharp- edged jump- off of perhaps a thousand feet. There was no side cafion here for gradual descent- the firm level ground gave no hint of the break before us till we were actually upon the verge, and when the soldiers lined up to look down an in* voluntary murmur of astonishment ran through the ranks. Dismounting and going in single file, each man leading his horse, we took the dizzy trail- a narrow footpath, in many parts of which a misstep would have been destruction to man or beast The way zigzagged at first for some distance, on the " switchback" principle by which railroads sometimes make grades otherwise impracticable; the face of the precipice was so steep that, as we filed along, those of us at the head of the procession looked up to see the other sections of the train almost overhead- certainly a fall of any man there would have been right on top of us. Then the trail took a long lurch to the left with little descent, hugging the face of the cliff, and we looked like a row of ants on a wall. This brought us at length to the head of a great talus, down which the trail zigzagged- the incline was too steep for straight descent, probably at an angle of 450. This fetched us into the bed of Cataract cafion. |