124 EXPLORATION OP THE CANONS OF THE COLORADO. 
our way. It leads along the cliff, for half a mile, to a wider bench beyond, 
which, he says, is broken down on the other side in a great slide, and there 
we can get to the river. So we start out on the shelf; it is so steep we can 
hardly stand on it, and to fall, or slip, is to go don't look and see! 
It is soon manifest that we cannot get the ponies along the ledge. The 
storms have washed it down, since our guide was here last, years ago. One 
of the ponies has gone so far that we cannot turn him back until we find a 
wider place, but at last we get him off. With part of the men, I take the 
horses back to the place where there are a few bushes growing, and turn 
them loose; in the mean time the other men are looking for some way by 
which we can get down to the river. When I return, one, Captain Bishop, 
has found a way, and gone down. We pack bread, coffee, sugar, and two 
or three blankets among us, and set out. It is now nearly dark, and we 
cannot find the way by which the captain went, and an hour is spent in 
fruitless search. Two of the men go away around an amphitheater, more 
than a fourth of a mile, and start down a broken chasm that faces us, who 
are behind. These walls, that are vertical, or nearly so, are often cut by 
chasms, where the showers run down, and the top of these chasms will be 
back a distance from the face of the wall, and the bed of the chasm will 
slope down, with here and there a fall. At other places, huge rocks have 
fallen, and block the way. Down such a one the two men start. There is 
a curious plant growing out from the crevices of the rock. A dozen stems 
will start from one root, and grow to the length of eight or ten feet, and not 
throw out a branch or twig, but these stems are thickly covered with leaves. 
Now and then the two men come to a bunch of dead stems, and make 
a fire to mark for us their way and progress. 
In the mean time we find such a gulch, and start down, but soon come 
to the "jumping off place," where we can throw a stone, and hear it faintly 
striking, away below. We fear that we shall have to stay here, clinging to 
the rocks until daylight. Our little Indian gathers a few dry stems, ties them 
into a bundle, lights one end, and holds it up. The others do the same, and 
with these torches we find a way out of trouble. Helping each other, hold 
ing torches for each other, one clinging to another's hand until we can get 
footing, then supporting the other on his shoulders, so we make our passage 
