124 
THE GRAND CANON DISTRICT. 
and its western escarpment facing towards us. The light of the declining 
sun* is upon it, and the larger details stand forth in clear relief, displaying 
the openings of grand ravines and the massive faces of the intervening 
pediments. 
In the course of an hour we pass through the Permian gap, and the 
boundless desert is before us with the Kaibab upon our left. Our route is 
not directly towards the plateau front, but obliquely towards a point in it 
far to the southeast In the portion of the plateau nearest to us there is no 
water, either upon the summit or in the great ravines, and without water 
the journey would be indeed arduous. Moreover, it is the southern portion 
which commands our greatest interest, and the northern part possesses no 
features which are not still more advantageously pi’esented in the southern. 
The southern prospect is very extended. The desert before us is really no 
more uneven than the rolling prairie of Iowa, but the range of vision is 
vastly greater. The reason is soon explained. In the prairie the curvature 
of the earth soon carries the surface out of sight. In the Kanab Desert we 
are constantly looking across a very wide but shallow depression of the 
surface, of which the center is located where Kanab Canon begins to cut into 
the Carboniferous platform. In a word, the earth’s surface is here slightly 
concave instead of convex, and the radius vector of the concavity has a 
length varying from 1.5 to 30 miles. Anywhere within the depression, 
therefore, the prospect is a very wide one. The general impression con- 
veyed is that of a gently undulating plain of immense extent. 
As the sun nears the horizon the desert scenery becomes exquisitely 
beautiful, The deep rich hues of the Permian, the intense red of the Ver- 
milion Cliffs, the lustrous white of the distant Jurassic headlands are greatly 
heightened in tone and seem self-luminous. But more than all, the flood 
of purple and blue which is in the very air, bathing not only the naked 
rock faces, but even the obscurely tinted fronts of the Kaibab and the 
* In midsummer it is best to begin this journey late in the afternoon. The distance between 
watering places is about 40 miles, and when the sun is high the heat upon the open desert is intense. 
The packs must be heavy, and if the attempt is made to accomplish the entire distance between sunrise 
and sunset, the animals are liable to be overtaxed, and what may be gained by a long march in a single 
day will be lost subsequently. It is better to start late in the afternoon, march until near midnight, 
and complete the distance to water the next morning. Night traveling is usually to be avoided, but 
here it is the better choice of two evils. 
