34 EXPLORATION OF THE CANONS OF THE COLORADO. 
help me with the barometer case ; but I fear I cannot hold on to it. The 
moment is critical. Standing on my toes, my muscles begin to tremble. It 
is sixty or eighty feet to the foot of the precipice. If I lose my hold I 
shall fall to the bottom, and then perhaps roll over the bench, and tumble 
still farther down the cliff. At this instant it occurs to Bradley to take off 
his drawers, which he does, and swings them down to me. I hug close to 
the rock, let go with my hand, seize the dangling legs, and, with his assist 
ance, I am enabled to gain the top. 
Then we walk out on a peninsular rock, make the necessary obser 
vations for determining its altitude above camp, and return, finding an easy 
way down. 
June 19. To-day, Rowland, Bradley, and I take the "Emma Dean," 
and start up the Yampa River, The stream is much swollen, the current swift, 
and we are able to make but slow progress against it. The canon in this 
part of the course of the Yampa is cut through light gray sandstone. The 
river is very winding, and the swifter water is usually found on the outside 
of the curve, sweeping against vertical cliffs, often a thousand feet high. In 
the center of these curves, in many places, the rock above overhangs the 
river. On the opposite side, the walls are broken, craggy, and sloping, and 
occasionally side canons enter. When we have rowed until we are quite 
tired we stop, and take advantage of one of these broken places to climb 
out of the canon. When above, we can look up the Yampa for a distance 
of several miles. 
From the summit of the immediate walls of the canon the rocks rise 
gently back for a distance of a mile or two, having the appearance of a 
valley, with an irregular, rounded sandstone floor, and in the center of the 
valley a deep gorge, which is the canon. The rim of this valley on the 
north is from two thousand five hundred to three thousand feet above the 
river ; on the south, it is not so high. A number of peaks stand on this 
northern rim, the highest of which has received the name Mount Dawes. 
Late in the afternoon we descend to our boat, and return to camp in 
Echo Park, gliding down in twenty minutes on the rapid river a distance 
of four or five miles, which was only made up stream by several hours' hard 
rowing in the morning. 
