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Show [ 174 ] 72 · lf l of the cttstom of erlrly travellers and explorer. in our country, nnmmo 11 , f l Cl · · r · I en•Yraved 011 this rock of the Far West a symbol o t 1e ./ lrt~tmn 1a~th. AmgnO' the thickly it 1:-cribed u:unes, I ma~c on the hard gra~llte the 1!1_1- . b of a 1aro-e cro;; whiclt I covered w1th a black preparatiOn of Indta prurebsbsieOr,n well c'a lculated 't o re ist tile imlueuce ~ f' wm. cl anc1 ra1.. n. It sta nd s ·d t tile uames of mauy who have long mce found tlletr way to the am1 . · t arave and for whom the huge roc\ 1s a gmnt graves one. 0 On~ George \Vcymouth was cnt o~t to l\1aine. by the ~~rl.~f Sot~thampton, Lord Arnmlcl, and others; and m.the narr~tlve of thea dt:s~ovenes, he says: "The next uay, we asccnlled 111 ~ur pl~Hmcc that part of ~he river which lies more to the west ward, carry1~1g wtth ns a cross-a .tlnng never omitted by any CJ:ri rian. traveller-wlucb we e!·ectetl ~ t the n~ttmate end of our route." Th1s was 111 the ye~r 1605.; ~ll. 111 184 ..... I obe) ed the feeling of early travellers, and left the 1mpre~swn of the cross d~ep.ly. en.graved on the vast rock ~ne thousat~d n11les beyot~d ~he ~'hsst s1pp1, to which di coverers have gtven the natwnul nam.e of Rock I1:depen~ence. In obedience to my instructions to stHV?Y the nver Platte~ 1f posstble I had determined to m::lke au attempt at tl11s place. TI:e Indw-rubbcr boat was filled with air. placed in the water, and loacled \VJth what was necessary for our operat-ions; and I embarked with .l\1r. Preuss and a party of men. ~' hen we had dragged onr boat for a md~ or two over tl!e sands, I abandoned the impossible unuerraking, anu ~vatted for tl!e ar~·Jval of the party, when we packed up our ?oat anll. cqmpagc,. and at 9 o clock were aaai11 movitJO' alono- on our hnd JOUrney. We contllmed along the valley • 0~1 the riaht bank~(' the Sweet Water, where the formation, as alt:eady described consists of a arayi h micaceous sandstone, aud fine-grame~ conglomer~ te, and marl. \Vc passed .o~er a ridge which bor~ers o~ c?nstttutes the river hill of the Platte, conststmg of huge block , stxty or ctghty feet cube of decomposina O'ranite. The cement which united them was probably df ca. ier decomp0o~tion, aud has disappeared and left thcfr!- isolate, and separated by small spaces. Numcrou horns of the mountam goat were lying among tho rock~; aud iu the raviues were cedars, who c trnnks we~·e of extraordinary size. From this ridge we llesGettdell. to a su!all open p~alll at the mouth of the Sweet Water, wltich rushell. with a raptd current mto the Platte, here flowing along itt a broad, tranquil, anll. apparen~l¥ deep stream. which seemed, from its turbid appearance, to be coustderably swollet,l. I obtained here some a trouomical obse rvations, and the after· noon was spcut in getting our boat ready for navigation the next day. .!l'ugust 24.-\Ve , tarted before sunrise, iutcudi.ng to breakfast at Goat island. I had Jir~_!cted the land party, in charge of Bcmicr, to proceed. to this place, where they were to remain, should they find no note to npp:tze them of our having pas ed. In the event of receiving this .iuformatwn, they were to continue their route, passing by certain places whtch had been designated. l\1r. Preuss accom}')allied me, aud with us were .fi.v~ of my be t men, viz: C. Lambert, Basil Lnjeunesse, Honore Ayot, Bcno1 t, anJ. Descoteaux. Here appeared no scarcity of water, and we took on board, with various instrumeuts anll. baggage, provisions for ten or t wei ve days. We paddled down the river rapidly, for our little craft was light as a duck on the water; and the sun had been some time ri en, when we heard before us a. hollow roar, which we supposed to be that of u fall, of which we had heard a vague rumor, i nt whose exact locality no one had beeu able to describe tc us. \iVe were appr0:1cbing a r!dge, throngh which the river passes 73 [ 174 J by n. pl~cc called '~calion," (pronounced kanyon,) a Spa.ni ·h word, ignifying n. ptcce of artillery, the barrel of a gun, or any kind of tube· and which, in this cot~ntry. has been adopted t.o describe the pas ·age of tt' river between perpendicular rocks of great hctght, which frequently approach each other so clo ely overhead a to form a kind of tunnel over the ·tream. which foams along below half choked up by fallen fragme ut~. Bet \\'ecn the mouth of the "weet ':'7a ~cr aud Goat. island there is probably a fall of 300 feet, and that was pnnctpa!Jy made m the canons hcforc us; as, without t~tem, the water was comparatively smooth. As we neared tho ridge. the nver made a sudden turn, and swept squarely down an·aiu ·tone of the walls of the canon with a great velocity, and so steep a clcs~ent that it had to the eye, the appearance of an inclined plane. \\Then we 1~/unched iut~ this, t.he men jumped o~erbonrd, to check the velocity of the boat, but were soon m water up to thou· necks, and our boat ran on; but we succeeded in bringing her to a small point of rocks on the rinltt at the month of the calion. Here was a kind of elevated sand beach."not many yards square, backed by the rocks, ~nd aro~md . the po~nt tile river swept at a right angle. Trunks of trees depostted on JUtltng pomt 20 or 30 feet above, and other mark~, showed that the water here frequently rose to a. considerable height. The ndge was of the same decomposing granite already mentioned and tl.1e water had worked the surface, in many places, into a wavy surfa~e of ndges and hole~. We ascended the rocks to reconnoitre the gronnd, and from the summit tlt? passage appeared to be a continued cataract foaming over many obstructiOn , and. bruken by a number of small fall . \Ve saw nowhere a fall an ~ wcring to that which had been described to us as lwvinO' 20 or 25 fuet; bnt still concluded this to be the place in que tion, as, in th~ season .of floods, the rush of the river again. t the wall would prodnce a great ns~, and the waters, refle~ted quarely off, would descend through the passage 111 a sheet of foam, ha vmg every appearance of a larrYC fall. Eio-hteen years.. . ,rrevio~s to this time, as I have sub.5cq ne11tl y leam~d from himself, .Mr. F ltzpatnck, somewhere above ou this river, had cml.mrked with a ~aluaulc cargo of beaver. Uuacquainted with the stream, which he belte. ved ~vonld conduct him safely to the. Missouri, he came unexpectedly into thts canon, where lte was wrecked, wtth the total loss of his fur . It would ].l·a:e IJecn a \VOl'~{ ~f great time and l~bor to pack Otlf . haggagc across the ll~_,e, and I det01 mmed to nm the c:uwn. We all agam embarked, and at fi~.st attempted t? check the way of the boat; but the wat r swept through \\> H.h so much vwlen~e that we narrowly escaped be inn swamped, and were obhged to let her go m tlw full force of the curreut, and trust to the kill of the boatme11. The drmgerons place in this crli1on were whne huge rocks h.ad fallen from above, and hetumed in the alrendy narrow pass of the rtvcr to an open space of t !tree or four and five feet. These obstructions ~aiscd the water considerably abovr, which was som "times precipitated over 111 a fall; and at other places, where this dam was too high, rushed throngh the co11tracted opcmng with tremenclou violence. Had our boat beetZ. made of .w_ood, in pas ing the narrows she would have br.en staved; bnt her cia t1c1ty presen·ed her unhurt from every shock, and. ho seemed fairly to leap over the fa lis. In this way we pas ed three cataracts in succe sion, where perhap. 100 fee~ of smoot.h wate~ intervcnesl; and, final I y, with a shom of plea ure at OU! SL~ccess, 1ss.ued from onr tunuel inlo the open day beyond. 'Ve were so delighted w1th the performance of our boat, and so roufident in her |
