CASfON MYTH. 7 
underground passages for the great river, into which boats had passed never 
to be seen again. It was currently believed that the river was lost under 
the rocks for several hundred miles. There were other accounts of great 
falls, whose roaring music could be heard on the distant mountain-summits. 
There were many stories current .of parties wandering on the brink of the 
canon, vainly endeavoring to reach the waters below, and perishing with thirst 
at last in sight of the river which was roaring its mockery into dying ears. 
The Indians, too, have woven the mysteries of the caiions into the 
myths of their religion. Long ago, there was a great and wise chief, who 
mourned the death of his wife, and would not be comforted until Ta-vwoats, 
one of the Indian gods, came to him, and told him she was in a happier land, 
and offered to take him there, that he might see for himself, if, upon his 
return, he would cease to mourn. The great chief promised. Then 
Ta-vwoats made a trail through 'the mountains that intervene between that 
beautiful land, the balmy region in the great west, and this, the desert home 
of the poor Nu'-ma. 
This trail was the canon gorge of the Colorado. Through it he led 
him; and, when they had returned, the deity exacted from the chief a promise 
that he would tell no one of the joys of that land, lest, through discontent 
with the circumstances of this world, they should desire to go to heaven. 
Then he rolled a river into the gorge, a mad, raging stream, that should 
engulf any that might attempt to enter thereby. 
More than once have I been warned by the Indians not to enter this 
canon. They considered it disobedience to the gods and contempt for their 
authority, and believed that it would surely bring upon me their wrath. 
For two years previous to the exploration, I had been making some 
geological studies among the heads of the canons leading to the Colorado, 
and a desire to explore the Grand Canon itself grew upon me. Early in 
the spring of 1869, a small party was organized for this purpose. Boats 
were built in Chicago, and transported by rail to the point where the Union 
Pacific Railroad crosses the Green River. With these we were to descend 
the Green into the Colora-do, and the Colorado down to the foot of the Grand 
Canon. 
