46 EXPLORATION OF THE CANONS OF THE COLORADO. 
The salient point of rock within the curve is usually broken down in a 
steep slope, and we stop occasionally to climb up, at such a place, where, on 
looking down, we can see the river sweeping the foot of the opposite cliff, 
in a great, easy curve, with a perpendicular or terraced wall rising from the 
water's edge many hundreds of feet. One of these we find very symmetrical, 
and name it Sumner's Amphitheater. The cliffs are rarely broken by the 
entrance of side canons, and we sweep around curve after curve, with almost 
continuous walls, for several miles. 
Late in the afternoon, we find the river much rougher, and come upon 
rapids, not dangerous, but still demanding close attention. 
We camp at night on the right bank, having made to day twenty six 
miles. 
July 8. This morning, Bradley and I go out to climb, and gain an 
altitude of more than two thousand feet above the river, but still do not 
reach the summit of the wall. 
After dinner, we pass through a region of the wildest desolation. The 
canon is very tortuous, the river very rapid, and many lateral canons enter 
on either side. These usually have their branches, so that the region is cut 
into a wilderness of gray and brown cliffs. In several places, these lateral 
canons are only separated from each other by narrow walls, often hundreds 
of feet high, but so narrow in places that where softer rocks are found below, 
they have crumbled away, and left holes in the wall, forming passages from 
one canon into another. These we often call natural bridges ; but they 
were never intended to span streams. They had better, perhaps, be called 
side doors between canon chambers. 
Piles of broken rock lie against these walls ; crags and tower shaped 
peaks are seen everywhere ; and away above them, long lines of broken 
cliffs, and above and beyond the cliffs are pine forests, of which we obtain 
occasional glimpses, as we look up through a vista of rocks. 
The walls are almost without vegetation ; a few dwarf bushes are seen 
here and there, clinging to the rocks, and cedars grow from the crevices 
not like the cedars of a land refreshed with rains, great cones bedecked with 
spray, but ugly clumps, like war clubs, beset with spines. We are minded 
to call this the Canon of Desolation. 
