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Show 28 EXPLORATION OF TH.E OANONS OF THE COLORADO. narrow channel, against the right-hand cliff, and falls fifteen feet in ten yards; at tho secon<l, we have a broad sheet of water, tumbling down twenty feet over a group of rocks that thrust their dark heads through the foaming waters. The third is a broken fall, or short, abrupt rapid, whore the water makes a descent of more than twenty feet among huge, fallen fragments of the cliff. We name the group Triplet Falls. We make a portage around the first; past the second and third we let down with lines. During the afternoon, Dunn and IIowland, having returned from their climb, we run down, three-quarters of a mile, on quiet water, and. land at the head of another fall. On examination, we find. that there is an abrupt plunge of a few feet, and then the river tumbles, for half a mile, with a descent of a hundred feet, in a channel beset with great numbers of huge bowlders. Tlus stretch of the river is named Hell's Half-Milo. rrhe remaining portion of the day is occupied in making a trail among the rocks to the foot of the rapid. June 16.-0ur first work tbis morning is to carry our cargoes to the foot of the falls. Then we commence letting down tho boats. We take two of them down in safety, but not without great difficulty; for, where such a vast body of water, rolling down an inclined. plane, is broken into eddies and cross currents by rocks projecting from tho cliffs and piles of boul<lera in the channel, it requires excessive labor and much care to prevent their being dashed against the rocks or breaking away. Sometimes we are compelled to hold the boat against a rock, above a chute, until a second line, attached to the stem, is carried to some point below, and, when all is ready the first line is detached, and the boat given to the current, when she shoot~ down, and the men below swing her into some eddy. At such a place, we are lotting down the last boat, and, as she is sot free, a wave turns her broadside down the stream, with the stem, to which the line is attacho<l, from shore, and a little up. 1:'hoy haul on the line to brinoo the boat in, but the powe,r of the current, striking obliquely against he;, shoots her out into the middle of the river. The men have their hands burned with the friction of the passing line; the boat breaks away, and spee<ls, with great velocity, <lown tho stream. UIPPLlNG BROOK. 29 The "Maid of the Cafion" is lost, so it seems; but she drifts some distance, and swings into an eddy, in which she spins about, until we arrive with tho sli..lall boat, and rescue her. Soon we aro on our way again, and stop at the mouth of a little brook, on tho right, for a lato dinner. This brook comes down from tho distant mountains, in a deep sido canon. W o sot out to oxpl~ro it, but are soon cut off from farther progress up tho gorge by a high rock, over which the brook glides in a smooth sheet. The rock is not quito vertical, and tho water docs not plunge over in a fall. Then we climb up to tho left for an hour, and are a thousand foet above the river, and six hundred above tho brook. Just before us, the canon divides, a little stream coming down on tho right, and. another on tho left, and we can look away up either of these canon , through an ascending vista, to cliffs and. crags an<l tower , a milo back, and two thou and. foot overhead.. To the right, a dozen ·gleamin~ cascades are soon. Pinos and firs stand on the rocks, and aspens overhang the brooks. Tho rocks below aro rod and brown, set in deflp shadows, but above, they aro bu.IT and vermilion, and stand in the sunshine. 'rho light above, made moro brilliant by the brighttinted rocks, and the shadows below moro gloomy by tho som her huos of tho brown walls, increase the apparent <lopths of the canons, and. it seems a long way up to tho world of sunshine and opon sky, and. a long way down to tho bottom of the canon glooms. Never boforo have I received such an impression of tho vast heights of these canon walls; not even at tho Cliff of tho Harp, whore tho very heavens seemed to rest on their summits. We sit on some overhanging rocks, and enjoy the scene for a time, listening to the music of falling waters away up the canons. We name this Hippling Brook. Lato in tho afternoon we mako a short run to the mouth of another little creek, coming down from the left into an alcove filled with luxuriant vegetation. H01·o camp is mad.o with a group of cedars on one side and a dense mass of box-o1dors and dead wiUows on tho other. I go up to oxploro tho alcove. While away a whirlwind comes, scattering the firo among tho dead willows and. cedar-spray, and soon there is a conflagration. Tho men rush for the boats, leaving all they cannot readily |
