588 



Ex. Doc. No. 4t. 



JL* 



4 J 



canon, the grass was very 



from the camp to the upper end of the 



fine grama, and will furnish at any time fine camps for any narn- 



ber of anilTjals- flip rrrooa olrvnrr +ka aAr^r^ r,f ^V,^ .„„*„_ „_ tU- riVPr 



a thicket 



ber of animals; the grass along the edge of the water on 

 grows in a thin stripe very luxuriantly; there is usually 

 of willows, about 10 yards deep, along the borders of the stream;- 

 then in the bottom, which is subject to overflow, cotton-woods 

 grow of two and three feet in diameter; this strip is usually 200 or 



yards wide. W 



300 



at 



- a quarter to 11 our passage 

 of the hills on the north side of the canon. Our ascent was rapid, 

 and by an Indian trail; the road verjr rough. After marching ten 

 miles, we found a spring high up the mountains, where we watered: 

 and goirig three-quarters of a mile further, we encamped. One ol 

 the howitzers got broken^n the road, and three mules gave out in 

 them. Lieutenant Davidson and party came in some time after 

 dark, and reported that he had been obliged to leave them four 

 miles behind him. A party of six men was sent out to guard them 

 until to-morrow, and measures taken to have them brought up." 

 The formations near the mouth of the San Francisco, and to the 

 upper end of the canon, are diluvion, fast turning to stone, over- 

 laying sandstone and limestone of late formation; below this, the 

 Dlagk basalt appears in seams and caps among the hills, also, to the 

 northwest, we came upon granite, (mostly feldspathic,) seamed with 

 basalt in dykes,^ and intermixed occasionally with other igneous 

 rocks, some indicating the presence of iron in large quantities; near 

 our camp an outcrop of dark-colored slate, capped with pudding 

 stone, which changed to a silicious state— the same substance 

 -which forms the cement of the pudding-stone; this pudding-stone 

 would probably make a fine millstone; the dip of the strata is very 

 deep to the west. The vegetation to-day was novel: the cactus 



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i 



