The Colorado River 
318 
a separate name, and gave it the title it now bears, Marble 
Canyon. There is no separation between Marble Canyon and 
the following one, the Grand Canyon, except the narrow gorge 
of the Little Colorado, so that topographically the chasm which 
begins at the Paria, ends at the Grand Wash, a distance of 283 
miles, as the river runs, the longest, deepest, and altogether 
most magnificent example of the canyon formation to be found 
on the globe. With an average depth of about four thousand 
feet, it reaches for long stretches 
between five thousand and six 
thousand. At the Paria (Lee’s 
Ferry) the altitude above the 
sea is 3170 feet, while at the 
end of the canyon, the Grand 
Wash, the elevation is only 
840 feet. The declivity is thus 
very great (see the diagram on 
page 57, which gives from the 
Little Colorado down), the 
total fall being 2330 feet. 
Further comment on the charac¬ 
ter of the river within this 
wonderful gorge is unnecessary. 
Powell had been through it on 
his first expedition, and was 
now to make the passage again, 
to examine its geological and 
geographical features more in 
detail. Meanwhile, as recorded in the last chapter. Lieu¬ 
tenant Wheeler had made an effort, apparently to forestall this 
examination, and had precariously succeeded in reaching Dia¬ 
mond Creek, which is just at the south end of the Shewits 
Plateau, lower left-hand corner of the map facing page 41. 
Powell and Thompson arrived at our camp at the mouth of 
the Paria on the 13th of August (1872) accompanied by Mrs. 
Thompson, who had been at Kanab all the previous winter, 
and had pluckily made several trips with Thompson into the 
mountains, and Professor De Motte. They had come in by 
Navaj os in Characteristic Dress. 
Photograph by F. S. Dellenbaugh. 
