DRAINAGE SYSTEM OF THE KAIBAB. 
135 
DE MOTTE PARK. 
Its length is about ten miles, its average width about two miles. It is 
a depressed area in the heart of the plateau and is on every side girt about 
by more elevated ground rising by strong slopes 300 or 400 feet above its 
floor. The borders and heights above are densely forest-clad, but not a 
tree stands within the park itself Descending into its basin and proceeding 
southward about two and a half miles, we reach a little spring where we 
make camp. The distance from the Big Spring to Stewart’s Canon is about 
26 miles by trail. 
De Motte Park is eminently adapted to be the “base of operations” in 
a campaign of geological investigation upon the southern part of the Kaibab. 
It is a central locality from which we may radiate in any direction to the 
bounds of the plateau. Here the great bulk of the supplies may be depos- 
ited, and from the supply camp we make journeys with light packs for one, 
two, or three days, as it may suit the convenience, and to it we may return 
to fit out for another short trip. The circumstances which make the park 
so advantageous in this respect are worth reciting’. 
Notwithstanding the open character of the forest there are two diffi- 
culties in the way of travel on the Kaibab. The first has already been 
mentioned, scarcity of water. We know of about a dozen small s|)rings, 
some of them conveniently located for the purposes of the explorer, others 
not. There is, however, another source of water supply which will be de- 
scribed presently. The second difficulty is the danger of getting lost and 
bewildered in the forest. This may seem to be a singular source of danger 
for an explorer, who of all men is bound to know his exact whereabouts at 
every step. But if he were to visit the Kaibab with that easy confidence 
and without a guide he would probably learn a severe lesson in less than 
a fortnight. The young Mormon herders who range over this region, and 
who follow a trail with the keen instincts of Indians, and with more than 
an Indian’s intelligence, dread the mazes of the foi’est until they come to 
know them. Even the Indians who live and hunt there during' the summer 
and autumn have sad tales about comrades lost when the snows came early 
and buried the trails so that they could not be followed. The bewildering 
