92 EXPLORATION OF THE CANONS OF THE COLORADO. 
look bad. Yet, we make ten miles this afternoon; twenty miles, in all, to 
day. 
August 22. We come to rapids again, this morning, and are occupied 
several hours in passing them, letting the boats down, from rock to rock, 
with lines, for nearly half a mile, and then have to make a long portage. 
While the men are engaged in this, I climb the wall on the northeast, to a 
height of about two thousand five hundred feet, where I can obtain a good 
view of a long stretch of cation below. Its course is to the southwest. The 
walls seem to rise very abruptly, for two thousand five hundred or three 
thousand feet, and then there is a gently sloping terrace, on each side, for 
two or three miles, and again we find cliffs, one thousand five hundred or 
two thousand feet high. From the brink of these the plateau stretches back 
to the north and south, for a long distance. Away down the canon, on the 
right wall, I can see a group of mountains, some of which appear to stand 
on the brink of the canon. The effect of the terrace is to give the appear 
ance of a narrow winding valley, with high walls on either side, and a deep, 
dark, meandering gorge down its middle. It is impossible, from this point 
of view, to determine whether we have granite at the bottom, or not; but, 
from geological considerations, I conclude that we shall have marble walls 
below. 
After my return to the boats, we run another mile, and camp for the 
night. 
We have made but little over seven miles to day, and a part of our flour 
has been soaked in the river again. 
August 23. Our way to day is again through marble walls. Now and 
then we pass, for a short distance, through patches of granite, like hills 
thrust up into the limestone. At one of these places we have to make 
another portage, and, taking advantage of the delay, I go up a little stream, 
to the north, wading it all the way, sometimes having to plunge in to my 
neck; in other places being compelled to swim across little basins that have 
been excavated at the foot of the falls. Along its course are many cascades 
and springs gushing out from the rocks on either side. Sometimes a cotton- 
wood tree grows over the water. I come to one beautiful fall, of more than 
a hundred and fifty feet, and climb around it to the right, on the broken 
