OCR Text |
Show 338 OR THE HUALAPAI TRAIL. muchos); I recognized none of them, but of a single one I doubted whether it were not of the mission of San Ignacio. I asked these Indians, as I had done party of the men became so giddy that they were obliged to creep upon their hands and knees, being unable to stand or walk. In some places there was barely room to walk, and a - slight deviation in a step would have precipitated one into the frightful abyss. I was a good deal alarmed lest some obstacle should be encountered that would make it impossible to go ahead, for it was certainly impracticable to return. After an interval of uncomfortable suspense the face of the rock made an angle, and just beyond the turn was a projection from the main wall with a surface fifteen or twenty feet square that would afford a foothold. The continuation of the wall was perfectly vertical, so that the trail could no longer follow it, and we found that the path descended the steep face of the cliff to the bottom of the canon. It was a desperate road to traverse, but located with a good deal of skill- zigzaging down the precipice, and taking advantage of every crevice and fissure that could afford a foothold. It did not take long to discover that no mule could accomplish this descent, and nothing remained but to turn back." This is the road which Garces calls " another and a worse one," where he had to leave his mule for the Indians to take back and bring around into Cataract canon by a different trail. But we have not yet come to the ladder part of the story. Ives afterward made up a party to explore the canon further; and we resume his narrative at the critical point: " At the end of thirteen miles from the precipice an obstacle presented itself that there seemed to be no possibility of overcoming. A stone slab, reaching from one side of the canon to the other, terminated the plain which we were descending. Looking over the • edge, it appeared that the next level was forty feet below. This |