458 THE WYOMING FOSSIL FIELDS EXPEDITION 



must have kindled their fires within the sound of its warring waters. 

 Fremont was the only man to mention it in any of the early explora- 

 tion reports, and there are reasons for believing that he never saw 

 the canon proper. It was this canon that Fremont, with five men, 

 tried to pass in a boat. Recently in a conversation with Mr Thomas 

 Sun, a ])ioneer of Wyoming, the following fact was learned : Desco- 

 teaux, who was ^Er Sun's ado]>ted father, was one of the men selected 

 by Fremont to accompany him on the supposed perilous boat trip 

 through the Grand Canon of the Platte. Mr Sun states that Desco- 

 teaux often told him about Fremont attempting to run the canon ii\ 

 a boat, and l)eing swamped in the Sweetwater, long before the canon 

 j)roper was reached. To one familiar with tiie country this story has 

 much greater weight than the one told by Fremont, in which he 

 claims tliat he abandoned his boat in the main canon. The canon 

 is now impassable by boat, except perhaps in very high water, and 

 up to the ])resent time there is no authentic record of anj^ one having 

 passed through it. It is about eight miles in lengtli, and extends 

 from the mouth of the Sweetwater River north and eiust nearly to 

 Hot Springs Canon. 



The country about varies from rolling ujilands to hills, and the 

 canon sinks so suddenly in the rocks that a mile away one would not 

 anticipate such a gorge but for the sound of its roaring waters. At 

 the place where the Sweetwater enters the main canon the country is 

 granite, and it remains so for several miles below. One of the very 

 interesting spots in the granite area is about three miles below the 

 mouth of the Sweetwater. Here the walls of the cafion rise almost 

 perpendicularly to a height of 500 feet. The channel below is less 

 than 50 feet in width, and above it is so narrow that even a person 

 unaccustomed to the use of his left hand could easily throw a stone 

 left-handed across the chasm. This is truly a dark caiion, for in 

 many places the sun never reaches the bottom. The river rushes 

 through these walls of granite on edge, with a deafening roar. From 

 the water's edge to a height of about 100 feet the walls of the canon 

 are water-carved into great pits and projections, and in the highest of 

 these we found remains of flood-wood, proving that the depth at high 

 water must have been at least 100 feet. Below, in the river's path, 

 are natural dams, made by huge masses of granite that the frost has 

 wedged off from the walls. These dams produce rapids and falls 

 through which no boat could pass. From the very narrow gorge the 

 canon widens, onl}'' to narrow again and then to widen out still more 



