312 
The Colorado River 
penetrated as far as this, and in one place en route we passed 
the spot where one of their number who had been killed by 
the Utes had been buried. The grave had been dug out by the 
wolves, and a few whitened bones lay scattered around. It 
was a place where there was no water and we could not stop 
to reinter them. Several days after this we reached a point 
where progress seemed to be impossible in that direction, and 
Thompson and Dodds climbed up on high ground to recon¬ 
noitre. When they came back they said we were not on the 
headwaters of the Dirty Devil at all, and would be obliged to 
change our course completely. The Dirty Devil entered the 
Colorado on the other side of the Unknown Range and the 
stream we were on joined it on this side, the west, therefore it 
was plain that we had made a mistake. Accordingly, our 
steps were retraced to a point where we managed to ascend to 
the slopes of what is now called the Aquarius Plateau. Three 
men were sent back to Kanab after more rations, while Thomp¬ 
son with the other six pushed on around the slopes, trying 
to find a way to cross the labyrinth of canyons to the Un¬ 
known Mountains. On the 9th of June we were at an altitude 
of ten thousand feet above sea-level, with all the wilderness 
of canyons, cliffs, and buttes between us and the Colorado 
spreading below like a map, or rather like some kaleidoscopic 
phantasm. The slopes we were crossing were full of leaping 
torrents and clear lakes. They were so covered with these 
that the plateau afterwards was given the name Aquarius. 
Beaman, who had been photographer on our river trip, had left 
us, and we now had a new man from Salt Lake, named Fenne- 
more. He was a frail man and the trip was almost too much 
for him. Down below we saw the smokes of native fires in 
several places, but we could not tell by what tribe they were 
made. At last we came to a point where the plateau broke 
back to the north, and we paused to search for a way to con¬ 
tinue. I was sent out in one direction with one man, and 
Thompson went in another. I had not gone half a mile be¬ 
fore I found an old trail which had very recently been travelled 
by natives, and when I had followed it far enough to get its 
trend, and as far as I dared, for I feared running on the camp at 
