58 YEARBOOK, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. Ill, 



Here were several trees which had been cut down by beavers, and at 

 some distance were five small dams constructed by these animals in 

 a little side channel. The beaver were formerly more numerous in 

 this canyon but were unfortunately killed off by some hunters recently. 



By noon we were well up towards the base of the perpendicular 

 rocks which here form the upper half of the canyon wall, and while 

 stopping for the arrival of the pack train, located another band of 

 sandstone containing fossils. These proved to be different from those 

 which had been collected near Hermit camp, and it is regrettable that 

 the time for collecting was so short. Immediately above this, the 

 real climb commences and continues almost without a stop to the 

 level of the Kaibab plateau at the north edge of the canyon. The 

 trail zig-zags back and forth carrying the traveler ever higher and 

 higher and bringing him out onto jutting points of rock where he seems 

 almost suspended in space. Occasionally side canyons open up first 

 on one side and then on the other giving vistas into long indentations 

 in the north wall of the canyon. Near the mouth of one of these side 

 canyons a very remarkable spring issues at some distance above the 

 bottom of the gorge, and falls in a beautiful series of cascades for a 

 distance of about two hundred feet. The sound of the falling water is 

 quite clear, in that otherwise silent region, and it well deserves its 

 name of Roaring spring. 



As we climb higher on the canyon wall, we begin to leave behind the 

 desert plants which prevail in the other sections of the canyon, and 

 soon find ourselves surrounded by bushes and trees of species found 

 farther to the north. This change grows more and more noticeable 

 as we ascend and at the edge of the canyon where we emerge on the 

 relatively level surface of the Kaibab plateau, we are completely sur- 

 rounded by a dense forest of pine, poplar and birches such as are cus- 

 tomary in Wisconsin. Three miles of traveling through this forest 

 brings us to Neal Spring. The marshy ground surrounding this 

 spring is enclosed within a log fence, and as we approached, three or 

 four deer, which had been drinking, bounded over the fence and dis- 

 appeared in the surrounding woods. A few yards beyond was an 

 open meadow sheltered on all sides by forest-clad hills and forming an 

 ideal place for a camp. 



That evening our party was joined by another guide who was famil- 

 iar with the region of the north rim, and early the next morning he 

 led us out to the southward, down a long projecting peninsula, which 

 has been called the Valhalla Plateau. The total length of this pla- 

 teau is about fifteen miles, and its narrowest portion is at the north 



