GO EXPLORATION OF THE CANONS OF THE COLORADO. 
hundred or a few thousand yards from the wall. But this gulch has its side 
gulches, and, as you come near to the summit, a group of radiating canons 
is found. The spaces drained by these little canons are terraced, and are, to 
a greater or less extent, of the form of amphitheaters, though some are 
oblong and some rather irregular. Usually, the spaces drained by any two 
of these little side canons are separated by a narrow wall, one, two, or three 
hundred feet high, and often but a few feet in thickness. Sometimes the wall 
is broken into a line of pyramids above, and still remains a wall below. 
Now, there are a number of these gulches which break the wall of the main 
canon of the Green, each one having its system of side canons and amphi 
theaters, inclosed by walls, or lines of pinnacles. The course of the Green, 
at this point, is approximately at right angles to that of the Colorado, and on 
the brink of the latter canon we find the same system of terraced and walled 
glens. The walls, and pinnacles, and towers are of sandstone, homogeneous 
in structure, but not in color, as they show broad bands of red, buff, and 
gray. This painting of the rocks, dividing them into sections, increases their 
apparent height. In some places, these terraced and walled glens, along the 
Colorado, have coalesced with those along the Green ; that is, the intervening 
walls are broken down. It is very rarely that a loose rock is seen. The 
sand is washed off so that the walls, terraces, and slopes of the glens are all 
of smooth sandstone. 
In the walls themselves, curious caves and channels have been carved. 
In some places, there are little stairways up the walls; in others, the walls 
present what are known as royal arches; and so we wander through glens, 
and among pinnacles, and climb the walls from early morn until late in the 
afternoon. 
July 21. We start this morning on the Colorado. The river is rough, 
and bad rapids, in close succession, are found. Two very hard portages are 
made during the forenoon. After dinner, in running a rapid, the "Emma 
Dean" is swamped, and we are thrown into the river, we cling to her, and 
in the first quiet water below she is righted and bailed out; but three oars are 
lost in this mishap. The larger boats land above the dangerous place, and we 
make a portage, that occupies all the afternoon. We camp at night, on the 
rocks on the left bank, and can scarcely find room to lie down. 
