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Show UTAH AROENTIFERA. 175 would present an exact picture of this channel. Piles of minute shells, long winroAvs of wash- gravel, and plats of white sand, all indicate that the current was to the northward, and swift and strong. Having crossed it to near the western bank, a smaller channel with minor in-dications presents itself, all going to show that after a stream the size of the Ohio had flowed on for uncounted thousands of years, there was a shrinkage in volume, after which a stream more like the Little Miami continued for thousands of years more. Here and there along the three hundred miles of this extinct river, sharp mountain spurs put out from main ranges and cut it off, and more frequently there are up- heavals ; but the stream impartially continues on its course, up hill and down, and over them all. Our local scientists say that wet and dry cycles follow each other around the world ; that Utah once had the rainiest climate on earth, followed by a dry cycle; that the latter has slowly run its course, and that we are once more entering on an era of abundant rain. Very pleasant to hope, " But all may think which way their judgments lean ' em." Beyond River Bed I struck the trail, and twelve miles across a hard bed of gravel and alkali brought me to the foot of the mountains, and into the richest bunch- grass pastures I have seen in Utah. I entered the canon, hunted two hours, and found no water; then skirted along the foot of the mountains northward for five miles, but saw no camps and no sign of road or trail. Night came on suddenly, as it always does on these deserts, and the situation looked blue. Expecting to eat supper with the miners, I had taken no provision. My horse had plenty of grass, and I had water enough to last me thirty- six hours. Could we stand it thus another day? I thought we could, concluded to camp till daylight, and hunt again for the road to the mines. Tying the lariat to a sage brush, that my horse might graze its length, I lay down in a gully with only the saddle- blankets and my overcoat for a bed. In twenty minutes the sky was overcast, and in twenty more there came a cold, almost sleety rain, chilling me to the bones. No sleep for that night. I must walk to keep from freezing, and might as well walk toward comfort and safety. Here was a situa-tion ! Forty miles from the nearest food and shelter, thirty miles from drinking water, on the mountain side, 10 o'clock at night, and a storm of sleet coming on. Sadly I rigged up again and set out afoot on my return. At intervals the clouds broke away, and by the fitful glimpses of the moon I selected a mountain peak which I had marked by day as due east, and made that my landmark. Hour after hour I toiled on across the desert, warm enough now with exercise and |
