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Show • 46 EXPLORATION OF THE OAN"ONS OF THE COLORADO . The salient point of rock within the curve is usually broken down in a steep slope, and we stop occasionally to climb up, at such a place, where, on looking down, we can see the river sweeping the foot of the opposite cliff, in a great, easy curve, with a perpendicular or terraced wall rising from the water's edge many hundreds of feet. One of these we find very symmetrical, and name it Sumner's Amphitheater. The cliffs are rarely broken by the entrance of side canons, and we sweep around curve after curve, with almost continuous walls, for several miles. Late in the afternoon, we find the river much rougher, and come upon rapids, not dangerous, but still demanding close attention. We camp at night on the right bank, having made to day twenty six miles. July 8.-This morning, Bradley and I go out to climb, and gain an altitude of more than two thousand feet above the river, but still do not reach 'the summit of the wall. After dinner, we pass through a region of the wildest desolation. The canon is very tortuous, the river very rapid, and. many lateral canons enter on either side. These usually have their branches, so that the region is cut into a wilderness of gray and brown cliffs. In several places, these lateral canons are only separated from each other by narrow walls, often hundreds of feet high, but so narrow in places that where softer rocks are found below, they have crumbled away, and left holes in the wall, forming passages from one canon into another. These we often call natural bridges; but they were never intended to span streams. They had better, perhaps, be called side doors between canon cham hers. Piles of broken rock lie against these walls ; crags and tower shaped peaks are seen everywhere; and away above them, long lines of broken cliffs, and above and beyond the cliffs are pine forests, of which we obtain occasional glimpses, as we look up through a vista of rocks. The walls are almost without vegetation ; a few dwarf bushes are seen here and there, clinging to the rocks, and cedars grow from tho cr~vicesnot like the cedars of a land refreshed with rains, great cones bedecked with spray, but ugly clumps, like war clubs, beset with spines. We are minded to call this the Canon of Desolation. Figuro 16.-Surunor's Ampithon.tro. l • |
