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Show 92 EXP.LORATION OF TilE OAN'ONS OF THE COLORADO. look bad. Yet, we make ten miles this afternoon; twenty miles, in all, to day. August 22.-Wo come to rapids again, this morning, and are occupied several h<:>urs in passing them, letting the boats down, from rock to rock, with lines, for nearly half a milo, anu thon have to make a long portage. While the men are engaged in this, I climb the wall on the northeast, to a height of about two thousand five hundred feet, where I can obtain a good view of a long stretch of canon below. Its course is to the southwest. The walls seem to rise very abrupt.ly, for two thousand five hundred or three thousand feet, and then there is a gently sloping terrace, on each side, for two or three miles, and again we find cliffs, one thousand five hundred or two thousand feet high. From t1te brink of these tho plateau stretches back to the north and south, for a long <li tanco. Away down tho canon, on the right wall, I can see a group of mountains, some of which appear to stand on tho brink of the canon. The effect of the telTace 'is to give the appearance of a narrow winding valley, with high walls on either side, and a deep, dark, meandering gorge down its middle. It is impossible, from this point of view, to determine whether we have granite at tho bottom, or not; but, from geological considerations, I conclude that we shall have marble walls below. After my return to the boats, we run another mile, and camp for the night. We have made but little over seven miles to day, and a part of our flour has been soaked in the river again. August 23.-0ur way to day is again through marble walls. Now and then we pass, for a short distance, through patches of granite, like hills thrust up into tho limestone. At one of these places we have oo make another portage, and, taking advantage of the delay, I go up a little stream, to the north, wading it all the way, sometimes having to plunge in to my neck; in other places being compelled to swim across little basins that have bqen excavated at tho foot of the falls. Along its course are many cascadus and springs gushing out from the rocks on either side. Sometimes a cottonwood tree grows OYer the water. I como to one beautiful fall, of more than a hundred and fifty foot, and climb around it to the right, on the broken Fignru 3t.-Stnn11ing Rock11 e~n t.hu h ri nk nf Mn'-nv Cnf\on. |