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Show 296 WESTERN WILDS. a groove in the rock, I found the trail leading along back into the hol-low ; then out another ridge and back into the second hollow; then back again around all the windings of the two hollows, and I found myself on the sharp end of the first ridge again, but in a groove five hundred feet below the one where I had left it. Around this peak I followed to the south- west, then back and forward till I was dizzy, and more times than I could count. I came out at length upon a gentle slope, which brought me down to the plain at a point where the river was running nearly straight north. It was 3 P. M./ and when I looked back upon the brow of the mountain, which Mr e left at sun-rise, it seemed but a mile or two away. But it was at least 5,000 feet above us, We shouted and fired guns, but in vain. We saw the house on the opposite side, and people moving about, but they failed to take notice of us. John's father and two other Navajoes soon arrived, having killed a young antelope on the way. The meat at this season was very tough and hard, but if we were to stay here long, it must serve as our substitute for bread. We were nearly out of provisions ; the sand flat contained nothing for our horses, and we must cross soon. So early next morning we commenced hunting for drift- timber, the boys climbing over the sharp ridge which rose a hundred feet higk, just be-low us. A shout of surprise brought me to that side, and I saw the boys had discovered a boat cached against a rock and covered with brush, leaving only the bow visible. They rigged an arrangement to let me down with lariats, where they had climbed, and we all went to work on the boat. In three hours we had it out of the sand and brush and into the river; then the Navajoes were clamorous for me to make an immediate trial of crossing. But we found no oars. The boat was eighteen feet long, with places for four rowers; it had two compartments, and on the stern was the name " Emma Dean." I concluded, correctly, as it proved, that it was one of Major Powell's. But all our search brought to light no oars. They were cached so effectually that even Navajoes could not find them. I explained to the boys that only a mile or two below there was a cataract, and, to attempt the passage, we must haul the boat up stream at least a mile. I judged they would never get the boat around the first point, as the rocky headland overhung the river at a height of sixty feet or more, under which the bend threw the full force of the current in danger-ous whirls. But they fell to work at once, and, by a most ingenious arrange-ment of lariats, brought the boat around. Meanwhile the two old |
