GUNNISON'S CROSSING. 51 
smooth water. At noon we emerge from Gray Canon, as we have named 
it, and camp, for dinner, under a cotton wood tree, standing on the left bank. 
Extensive sand plains extend back from the immediate river valley, as 
far as we can see, on either side. These naked, drifting sands gleam bril 
liantly in the midday sun of July. The reflected heat from the glaring 
surface, produces a curious motion of the atmosphere; little currents are 
generated, and the whole seems to be trembling and moving about in many 
directions, or, failing to see that the movement is in the atmosphere, it gives 
the impression of an unstable land. Plains, and liills, and cliffs, and distant 
mountains seem vaguely to be floating about in a trembling, wave rocked 
sea, and patches of landscape will seem to float away, and be lost, and then 
re-appear. 
Just opposite, there are buttes, that are outliers of cliffs to the left. 
Below, they are composed of shales and ma,rls of light blue and slate colors ; 
and above, the rocks are buff and gray, and then brown. The buttes are 
buttressed below, where the azure rocks are seen, and terraced above through 
the gray and brown beds. A long line of cliffs or rock escarpments separate 
the table lands, through which Gray Canon is cut, from the lower plain. 
The eye can trace these azure beds and cliffs, on either side of the river, in 
a long line, extending across its course, until they fade away in the per 
spective. These cliffs are many miles in length, and hundreds of feet high ; 
and all these buttes great mountain-masses of rock are dancing and fading 
away, and re-appearing, softly moving about, or so they seem to the eye, as 
seen through the shifting atmosphere. 
This afternoon, our way is through a valley, with cottonwood groves 
on either side. The river is deep, broad, and quiet. 
About two hours from noon camp, we discover an Indian crossing, 
where a number of rafts, rudely constructed of logs and bound together by 
withes, are floating against the bank. On landing, we see evidences that a 
party of Indians have crossed within a very few days. This is the place 
where the lamented Gunnison crossed, in the year 1853, when making an 
exploration for a railroad route to the Pacific coast 
An hour later, we run a long rapid, and stop at its foot to examine some 
