138 GRAND CANON DISTRICT. 



DE MOTTK PARK. 



Its length is about ton 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 ,'500 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 2G 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 di- 

 rection to the bounds of the plateau. Here the great bulk of the supplies 

 may be deposited, and from the supply camp we make journeys with 

 light packs for one, two, or three days, as it may suit our convenience, 

 and to it we may return to fit out for another short trip. The circum- 

 stances 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 springs, 

 some of them conveniently located for the purposes of the explorer, 

 others not. There is, however, another source of water supply which will 

 be described 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 atrail with the keen instinctsof Indians, 

 and with more than an Indian's intelligence, dread the mazes of the for- 

 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 character arises from the monotony of t he 

 scenery. There are hundreds of hills and gulches, but they all look 

 alike. There are no landmarks except trees, which arc worse than none 

 at all. If you enter a ravine for the second time at a point other than 

 that at which you first entered it you would probably fail to recognize it. 

 As with the faces of the Chinese, no conscientious white man would be 

 willing to swear that he had ever seen any particular one before. Yet 

 the riddle of the Kaibab is soon solved, and, once read, all danger is over. 

 If the traveler is lost there is an infallible clew. He must go at once to 

 De Motte Park. But how shall he find the way ? If he has reason to 



