324 
The Colorado River 
reverberating turmoil of the ever-descending flood was like 
some extravagant musical accompaniment to the extraordin¬ 
ary panorama flitting past of rock sculpture and bounding 
cliffs. 
The 22d was a day to be particularly remembered, for the 
walls, though more broken at the water’s edge, were now some 
thirty-five hundred feet high and seemed to be increasing by 
leaps and bounds, for at one place, through a side gorge on 
the right, we could discern cliffs so far above our heads that 
tall pine trees look¬ 
ed no larger than 
lead pencils. It 
was the end of the 
Kaibab, whose sum¬ 
mit was more than 
five thousand feet 
higherthanthe river 
at this point. Cat¬ 
aract followed rapid 
and rapid followed 
cataract as we were 
hurled on down 
through the midst 
of the sublimity, 
which, parting at 
our advance, closed 
again behind like 
some wonderful 
phantasmagoria. 
At times in the headlong rush the boats could barely be held 
in control. Once, a wild mass of breakers appeared immedi¬ 
ately in the path of our boat, from which it was impossible to 
escape, even though we made a severe effort to do so. We 
thought we were surely to be crushed, and I shall not forget 
the seconds that passed as we waited for the collision which 
never came, for when the boat dashed into the midst of the 
spray, there was no shock whatever; we glided through as if 
on oil,—the rocks were too far beneath the surface to harm 
Marble Canyon near the Lower End. 
Walls about 3500 feet. 
Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. 
