DESCENDING THE OASTON WALL. 
159 
the complicated features of the Kaibab division and the simpler character- 
istics of the Kanab division. 
Upon the northern side of this amphitheater there is a trail by which 
it is practicable to descend from the upper crest to the brink of the river. 
It is a long- and devious route, requiring- a whole day’s journey to get down 
and nearly two days to ascend. In the year 1876 a rumor was circulated 
that gold had been found in the sands of the river, and it gained credence 
enough to attract a number of the restless people who tramp the deserts of 
the far west in pursuit of — they know not what. With considerable labor 
and danger this trail was built and used long enough to satisfy those who 
went there that they had been deceived. In 1880 it was again used by the 
parties of this survey to reach the river and make a series of barometric 
observations. As an instance of what the explorer must expect who 
attempts the feat of scaling these mighty walls the features of this route 
are worthy of description It may be added that there is no other known 
place promising any better facilities for constructing a pathway down the 
clilfs, and probably also none so good. 
From the crest of the wall we descend at once a notch in the cherty 
limestone so steep that it seems at first impracticable. The gradient is only 
a little less than the angle of repose, but the roughness of the rock pro- 
duced by the weathering out of the cherty nodules gives good holding 
ground, and with care the way is not dangerous. By zigzag courses we at 
length descend about 700 feet and reach the summit of the cross-bedded 
sandstone. There are two formations in the Grand Canon series which op- 
pose the chief obstacles to the ascent or descent of the escarpments. The 
worst is the Red Wall and the other is the cross-bedded sandstone. Both 
present cliffs which are rarely broken down into slopes. Their edges may 
be followed for scores of miles without finding a practicable passage. The 
Red Wall is particularly inexorable. In all the Kaibab division of the 
chasm only three or four places are now known which offer any hope of a 
passage of this formation. The cross-bedded sandstone is more frequently 
beveled down, but even in this mass the breaks are few and far between. 
The only locality at present known where both formations present breaks 
within a day’s journey of each other is the one we are describing. 
