OCR Text |
Show J. 36 EXPLORATION 01•' TilE OANONS OF TllE OOLOHADO. narrower canon, often as deop as the first, will be found. One such that wo followed is ten miles long, from fifty to three hundred feet deep, and frequently not more than ten feet wide at the top. As peculiar as the canons, are the mesas, sometimes miles in length, and only a few hundred yards in width, presenting in the distance the appearance of huge knife blades. 'rhese mesas are usually covered by a loose, sandy soil, though occasionally wide surfaces of bare roek are seen. Occasionally the canons widen into little, alcoveHko valleys, a few acres in extent, rock walled, and covered by dense g-rowths of grass, canes, or willows. Travel through this country was exceedingly slow and difficult. Ot~r progress was often barred by a canon, along whoso brink we were compelled to follow, till some broken down slope afforded a way to descend, then up or down the canou, till another broken slope permitted us to ascend, then across a mesa to another canon, repeating tho same maneuver a dozen times in half that number of miles. After a labori~us day's work wo made fifteen miles, and camped on the right bank of the Paria Rivet·, 800 foot below Camp No. 4, and at an altitude of about five thousand seven hundred feet above the level of the sea. From Camp No 5 we followed up tho Paria River to its junction with 1,able Cliff Creek; then up the latter to its source. Here we climbed a thousand feet up a steep, clay ridge, having an average slope of ~0°, and often not more thau five feet in thickness at the top, to the head of a narrow valley called Potato Valley. Down tlus wo traveled three miles, an·d made Camp No.6 at a cool spring, in the m:ddle df a beautiful meadow, 1,500 feet above our camp on the Paria River, and about seven thousand two hundred feet above the sea. To the.north, and three miles distant, Table Cliff Plateau rose 3,000 feet above us, its face a succession of inaccessible precipices, and steep, broken, tree-clad slopes. From the base of tho cliffs, long ridges run out to the edge of the valley. To the cast, low, rounded hills b"''u.duall y rise higher and higher, till, at an elevation of 1 800 foot above camlJ tho)r ' , . roll off into a long, narrow plateau, bounded on tho west by a woll marked lino of cliffs, beginning 'near tho foot of Tablo Cliff Plateau, and coutinuing southeast sixty miles, to a point on tho Colorado River opposite tho Navajo Mountain. At tho •veste1·n te · n' · tl · 1· · • 11 lllUS lit:; lllC 1:-; somewhat broken, but |