GYPSUM CASfON A SIDE GOKGE. 65 
occupy myself in collecting resin from the pinon pines, which are found in 
great abundance. One of the principal objects in making this climb was to 
get this resin, -for the purpose of smearing our boats; but I have with me 
no means of carrying it down. The day is very hot, and my coat was left 
in camp, so I have no linings to tear out. Then it occurs to me to cut off 
the sleeve of my shirt, tie it up at "one end, and in this little sack I collect 
about a gallon of pitch. After taking observations for altitude, I wander 
back on the rock, for an hour or two, when suddenly I notice that a storm 
is coming from the south. I seek a shelter in the rocks ; but when the 
storm bursts, it comes down as a flood from the heavens, not with gentle 
drops at first, slowly increasing in quantity, but as if suddenly poured out. 
I am thoroughly drenched, and almost washed away. It lasts not more than 
half an hour, when the clouds sweep by to the north, and I have sunshine 
again. 
In the mean tune, I have discovered a better way of getting down, and 
I start for camp, making the greatest haste possible. On reaching the bot 
tom of the side canon, I find a thousand streams rolling down the cliffs on 
every side, carrying with them red sand ; and these all unite in the canon 
below, in one great stream of red mud. 
Traveling as fast as I can run, I soon reach the foot of the stream, for 
the rain did not reach the lower end of the canon, and the water is running 
down a dry bed of sand; and, although it comes in waves, several feet high 
and fifteen or twenty feet in width, the sands soak it up, and it is lost. But 
wave follows wave, and rolls along, and is swallowed up ; and still the floods 
come on from above. I find that I can travel faster than the stream ; so I 
hasten to camp, and tell the men there is a river coming down the canon. 
We carry our camp equipage hastily from the bank, to where we think it 
will be above the water. Then we stand by, and see the river roll on to 
join the Colorado. Great quantities of gypsum are found at the bottom of 
the gorge ; so we name it Gypsum Canon. 
July 27. We have more rapids and falls until noon ; then we come to 
a narrow place in the canon, with vertical walls for several hundred feet, 
above which are steep steps and sloping rocks back to the summits. The 
river is very narrow, and we make our way with great care and much 
9 COL 
