28o 



Sierra Club Bulletin 



side the cascades to see if there was a perpendicular fall above 

 descending from the mountain summit, and found one perhaps 

 a hundred feet in height. I then descended to the rest of the 

 party and we slowly returned down the canon to the place 

 where we had entered it. It was then about four o'clock. Mr. 

 J. and Mr. S. concluded that there was a practicable passage 

 down the canon, and therefore we went down some distance 

 until we were met by a smooth face of rock running all across 

 the canon where the waters flowed over, making a beautiful 

 fall of a hundred feet in height. [Note 4.] Below it was re- 

 peated, forming a second fall. Here we were forced to betake 

 ourselves to the left-hand side of the canon, the right-hand side 

 being precipitous and smooth surfaced rock. We had to work 

 our way through the branches of oak with great care down- 

 ward until we came to a spot where from a tree the rock was 

 smooth for about fifteen feet, until we reached a crevice below. 

 Down this place Mr. S. slid on his back and reached the crevice 

 in the rock, with Mr. J. and myself after him. On reaching 

 this place below we made the rather startling discovery that be- 

 low us the mountain showed a smooth, precipitous face of rock 

 for perhaps a hundred feet. An old trunk of a tree lay before 

 us and it was proposed to lower it and work our way down to 

 a ledge below on it, but even then we could not be certain that 

 we would not meet a more extensive and formidable precipice 

 below that point, so that design was abandoned. 



"Night came creeping on and it behooved us to adopt some 

 plan. We were standing in a crevice of rock about a foot in 

 width and ten or twelve feet long, a precipice above and one 

 below and the canon beside us, with the swiftly rushing waters 

 gliding over the glassy surface of the rock, falling in impalpa- 

 ble mist a hundred feet below. Our position was truly peril- 

 ous, and it was with great delight that we discovered that Mr. 

 J. had had the forethought to bring a rope with him in the 

 morning. He had worn it around him and now he produced 

 it. Mr. S. and I first pushed him up the rock that we had slid 

 down until he was able to reach the ends of the limbs over- 

 hanging the rock, when he drew himself up and, tying the rope 

 to the limb, threw it to Mr. S., who, with my aid in pushing his 



[Note 4. — This was probably at the upper entrance to the box canon.] 



