" WEATHERING OUT" THE NIGHT. 75 
attain 2,300 feet in height, we hurriedly build a platform of rocks, on which 
to place our instruments, and quietly wait for the eclipse; but clouds come 
on, and rain falls, and sun and moon are obscured. 
Much disappointed, we start on our return to camp, but it is late, and 
the clouds make the night very dart. Still we feel our way down among 
the rocks with great care, for two or three hours, though making slow prog 
ress indeed. At last we lose our way, and dare proceed no farther. The rain 
comes down in torrents, and we can find no shelter. We can neither climb 
up nor go down, and in the darkness dare not move about, but sit and 
"weather out" the night. 
August 8. Daylight comes, after- a long, oh! how long a night, and we 
soon reach camp. 
After breakfast we start again, and make two portages during the fore 
noon. 
The limestone of this canon is often polished, and makes a beautiful 
marble. Sometimes the rocks are of many colors white, gray, pink, and 
purple, with saffron tints. It is with very great labor that we make progress, 
meeting with many obstructions, running rapids, letting down our boats with 
lines, from rock to rock, and sometimes carrying boats and cargoes around 
bad places. We camp at night, just after a hard portage, under an over 
hanging wall, glad to find shelter from the rain. We have to search for 
some time to find a few sticks of driftwood, just sufficient to boil a cup of 
coffee. 
The water sweeps rapidly in this elbow of river, and has cut its way 
under the rock, excavating a vast half circular chamber, which, if utilized 
for a theater, would give sitting to fifty thousand people. Objections might 
be raised against it, from the fact that, at high water, the floor is covered 
with a raging flood. 
August 9. And now, the scenery is on a grand scale. The walls of 
the canon, 2,500 feet high, are of marble, of many beautiful colors, and 
often polished below by the waves, or far up the sides, where showers have 
washed the sands over the cliffs. 
At one place I have a walk, for more than a mile, on a marble pave 
ment, all polished and fretted with strange devices, and embossed in a thou- 
