52 YEARBOOK, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. III. 



At this point there has been deposited an enormous amount of the 

 mineral, travertine, a form of calcite. This deposit is about fifty feet 

 in width, nearly one hundred in height and extends up the creek bed 

 for about a quarter of a mile. In some places the stream has eaten 

 entirely through this mass and uncovered the sandstone beneath it. 

 The travertine contains many molds of leaves, grasses and other vege- 

 table matter which were washed into the growing mass by the stream. 

 It is from this circumstance that the canyon was named. The edges 

 of the deposit, are, in most cases, gray in color and have already 

 started to weather away, showing that the material is now no longer 

 accumulating. 



The work at Hermit Camp finished, the party left early one morn- 

 ing on the Tonto trail, which rvuis lengthwise along the canyon at an 

 average elevation of about three thousand feet below the rim and 

 affords remarkable views of the temples at close range, as shown in 

 figure 25. It had taken some time to repack all the equipment, and 

 noon found us in Monument canyon only five miles distant from Her- 

 mit Camp, where it was decided to make the first camp. This canyon 

 is similar in all respects to Hermit and Fossil canyons, and the other 

 numerous side canyons w^hich have been cut into the Tonto plateau. 

 It, however, has a special feature of interest in the Monument,^ which 

 is a pillar of sandstone left standing in the middle of the gorge where 

 a tributary ravine joins the main canyon. The stream flowing through 

 this canyon is very small, and at this time was almost dry. In order 

 to obtain sufficient water, it was necessary to dig a hole in the bed of 

 the stream and while so engaged a peculiar pulsating rise and fall in 

 the flow of the water was noticed. For a few minutes the stream would 

 practically disappear and a little later would be flowing in considerable 

 abundance. What could cause this strange ebb and flow remains 

 entirely a myster5^ 



This camp was of the simplest kind possible, as it did not pay to 

 spend any time on improvements when the place was to be abandoned 

 early the next morning. Each man slept where he saw fit, doing little 

 more than to take out the largest stones from beneath his bed roll. 

 The mules were hobbled and turned loose to wander around during 

 the night and secure what little food the limited pasturage would 

 afford. 



Just before dusk a deep undercutting was discovered, in the walls 

 of the canyon where the stream had eaten back into the sandstone 

 wall for perhaps fifty feet, along a distance of several hundred yards. 



sYearbook, 1922, p. 100, Fig. 56. 



