OCR Text |
Show ·30 EXPLORATION OP THE O.AN'ONS OF TllE OOLORADO. seize at the moment, and even then they have their ·clothing burned and hair singed, and Bradley has his ears scorched. The cook fills his arms with the mess-kit, and, jumping into a boat, stumbles and falls, and away go our cooking utensils into tho river. Our plates are gone; our spoons are gone; our knives and forks .are gone. "Water catch 'em; h-e-a-p catch 'em." When on the boats, the men are compelled to cut loose, as the flames, running out on the overhanging willows, are scorching them. Loose on the stream, they must go down, for the water is too swift to make headway against it. Just below is a rapid, filled with rocks. On they shoot, no channel explored, no signal to guide them. Just at this juncture I chance to see them, but have not yet discovered the fire, and the strange movements of the men fill me with astonishment. Down the rocks I clamber, and run to the bank. When I arrive, they have landed. Then we all go back to the late camp to see if anything left behind can be saved. Some of the clothing and bedding taken out of the boats is found, also a few tin cups, basins, and a camp kettle, and this is all the mess kit we now have. Yet we do just as well as ever. June 17.-We run down to the mouth of Yampa River. This has been a chapter of disasters and toils, notwithstanding which the canon of Lodoro was not devoid of scenic interest, even beyond the power of pen to tell. . 'I'he roar of its waters was heard unceasingly from the hour we entered it until we landed here. No quiet in all ·that time. But its walls and cliffs, its peaks and crags, its amphitheaters and alcoves, tell a story of beauty and grandeur that I hear yet-and shall hear. The canon of Lodore is twenty and three-quartor miles in length. It starts abruptly at what we have called the Gate of Lodore, with walls nearly two thousand feet high, and they are never lower than tbis until we reach Alcove Brook, about three miles above the foot. They are very irregular, standing in vertical or overhanging cliffs in places, terraced in others, or receding in steep slopes, and are broken by many side gulches and canons. I • • DISTANOES AND llEfGll'£8. 31 The highest point on the wall is at Dunn's Cliff, near Triplet Falls, where the rocks reach an altitude 'Of 2, 700 feet, but the peaks a littlo way back rise nearly a 'thousand feet higher. Yellow pines, nut pines, firs, and cedars stand in extensive forests on the Uinta Mountains, and, clinging to the rocks and growing in the crevices, come down the walls to the wate1Js edge from Flaming Gorge to Echo Park. The red standstoncs are lichened over; delicate mosses grow in the moist places, and ferns festoon the walls. • ' • |