264 
The Colorado River 
and we were instantly sailing in a deep, narrow canyon, the 
beds at length arching over, down stream, high above our 
heads. It was an extraordinary sight. While we were looking 
at the section of the great fold, we discovered some mountain 
sheep far up the rocks. Though we fired at them the circum¬ 
stances were against our hitting, and they scampered scornfully 
away from crag to crag, out of our sight. Then the canyon 
widened at the top, and at the same time rapids appeared. 
They came by dozens, but there were none that we could not 
master with certainty by hard work. Wet from head to foot 
Men of the 1871 Expedition at an Abandoned Cabin Opposite the Mouth of the Uinta River. 
Photograph by E. O. Beaman U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. 
we continued this labour for three days, and then the rocks, 
the “Ribbon Beds,” turned over and disappeared beneath the 
water just as they had come out of it above. The low stage 
of the river made this canyon difficult, so far as exertion was 
concerned, and the rapids would perhaps be far easier during 
the spring flood. 
We were now in Wonsits Valley, the longest expansion of 
the walls above Black Canyon. Near our camp, which was on 
a soft, grassy bank beside smooth-flowing waters, some picture 
writings were found, the first indications, since the wreckage 
