1890.] Geography and Travel. 465 
in the sun at their foot, for the rapids are much less frequent, and 
stretches of still water are growing longer and longer. 
rom the mouth of the Kanab Wash for about twenty miles down 
is perhaps the narrowest and deepest part of the great inner gorge. 
The lovely sandstone and limestone ledges have sunken under the river, 
and the marble and upper sandstones come close into the water.. At 
the bottom the gorge is from 150 to 200 feet wide, and the river runs 
between vertical walls—vertical, however, for only about 80 feet up— 
and fills the whole space from wall to wall. The walls of this portion 
of the canyon—(and it comes nearer being a true canyon than any 
other part of the river)—rise above the water 3,000 feet, and they are 
almost vertical ; the benches are narrower, and the vertical cliffs be- 
tween the benches higher than in any other section. And yet, strange 
to relate, from one end of this section to the other there is a bench 
about 50 feet above high water, running almost parallel with the grade 
of the river, of solid marble wide enough to build a four-track railroad 
upon and not interfere with the perpendicular walls above or the river 
low. 
IN FLOOD AND RAPID. 
*¢ The night before we reached Kanab the river rose four feet ; pit 
continued to rise for two days and two nights. How much the rise 
was I am not absolutely certain, but believe from good evidence it was 
fully ten feet. Just below Kanab Wash there is a rapid one and one- 
half miles long. On Tuesday morning we started down this rapid. 
We made this mile and a half in just four and one-half minutes. We 
then had for some time few rapids, but a rushing, singing current, 
forming eddies, whirlpools and back currents fearful to contemplate, 
much more to ride upon. 
‘About 2:30 p. m. we heard a deep, loud roar and saw the breakers 
ahead in white foam. With a great effort we stopped upon a pile of 
broken rocks that had rolled into the river. Much to our surprise 
when we went to look, the whole terrible rapid that we had expected 
to see had disappeared, and only a rushing current in its stead. While 
we stood wondering there rose right at our feet those same great waves, 
12 to 14 feet in height and roo to 150 feet long across the river, rolling 
down stream like great sea waves, and breaking in white foam with a 
terrible noise. We watched and wondered and at last concluded this | 
was the fore front of a great body of water rolling down this narrow 
trough from some great cloudburst above. Believing that discretion 
was the better part of valor, we camped right there on that pile of 
rocks, fearing that although our boats would ride these waves in safety, 
Am Nat.—May.—5. 
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