COLORADO PLATEAU, NEAR BIG CANON—DIZZY PATHWAY. 105 
A march of twenty miles having been made, and no sign of water appearing, we had to put 
up with adry camp. The grass was miserable, and altogether the mules fared badly. 
the night the herders were negligent, and at daybreak nearly 
During 
a hundred of the animals were 
missing. They had taken the back trail for the lagoons, but having started late and travelled 
leisurely were overtaken not many miles from camp. The trip did not render them better 
fitted for the day’s journey, which had to be delayed until they were brought back. 
The sun was oppressively warm, and every place whose appearance gave promise of water 
was carefully searched, but without success. Ten miles conducted to the head of a ravine, 
down which was a well-beaten Indian trail. There was every prospect therefore that we were 
approaching a settlement similar to “that of the Hualpais, on Diamond river. The descent 
Ph ale SAN “ins i 
Fig. 33 —San Francisco Mountain from Colorado Plateau. 
was more rapid than the former had been, and in the course of a few miles we had gone down 
into the platean one or two thousand feet, and the bluffs on either side had assumed stupendous 
Proportions. Still no signs of habitations were visible. The worn-out and thirsty beasts had 
egun to flag, when we were brought to a stand still by a fall a hundred feet deep in the bot- 
tom of the cafion. At the brink of the precipice was an overhanging ledge of rocks, from 
Which we could look down as into a well upon the continuation of the gorge far below. The 
break reached completely across the ravine, and the side walls were nearly perpendicular. 
There was no egress in that direction, and it seemed a marvel that a trail should be found 
leading to a place where there was nothing to do but to return. A closer inspection showed 
that the trail still continued along the cafion, traversing horizontally the face of the right hand 
bluff. A short distance off it seemed as though a mountain goat could scarcely keep its footing 
upon the slight indentation that appeared like a thread attached to the rocky wall, but a trial 
Proved that the path, though narrow and dizzy, had been cut with some care into the surface 
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