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Show 112 EXPLORATION OF THE OARONS OF THE COLORADO. knew that the fire was not kindled by men, for no human being could scale the rocks. The Tu' -mu-ur-ru-gwait' -si-gaip, or Rock Rovers, had kindled a fire to deceive the people. In the Indian language this is called Tu'-mu-urru- gwait' -si-gaip Tu-weap', or Rock Rovers' Land. September 13.-We start very early this morning, for we have a long day's travel before us. Our way is across the Rio Virgen to the south. Coming to the bank of the stream here, we find a strange metamorp~osis. The streams we have seen above, running in narrow channels, leaping and plunging over the rocks, raging and roaring in their course, are here united, and spread in a thin sheet several hundred yards wide, and only a few inches deep, but 1unning over a bed of quicksand. Crossing the stream, our trail leads up a narrow canon, not very deep, and then among the hills of golden, red, and purple shales and marls. Climbing out of the valley of the Rio Virgen, we pass through a forest of dwarf cedars, and come out at the foot of the Vermilion Cliffs. All day we follow this Indian trail toward the east, and at night camp at a great spring, known to the Indians as Yellow Rock Spring, but to the Mormons as Pipe Spring; and near by there is a cabin in which some Mormon herders find shelter. Pipe Spring is a point just across the Utah line in Arizona, and we suppose it to be about sixty miles from the river. IIere the Mormons de.,ign to build a fort another year, as an outpost for protection against the Indians. IIere we discharge a number of the Indians, but take two with us for the purpose of showing us the springs, for they are very scarce, very small, and not easily found. Half a dozen are not known in a district of country large enough to make as many good sized counties in Illinois. There are no running streams, and these springs and water-pockets-that is, holes in the rocks, which hold water from shower to shower-are our only dependence for this element. Starting, we leave behind a long line of cliffs, many hundred feet high, composed of orange and vermilion sandstones. I have named them "Vermilion Cliffs." vVhen we are out a few miles, I look back, and see the morning sun shining in splendor on their painted faces; tho salient angles are .on fire,. ~nd the retreatiug angles are buried in shade, and I gaze on them until my VJSIOn dreams, and the cliffs appear a long bank of purple clouds, • Figure 40.- Temples Of Rock-Rovor's Lnncl. |
