dark colored sandstone, with a vertical front. In many places it is
perfectly black, the color being intensified by the brightness of the
red below. If an artist were to paint a cliff deep red, with a jet black
border along the top, Old World critics would be apt to declare him
insane. Yet this is really the coloring of this section of the most
wonderful cañon in the entire world.

Although the cañon at this point varies in width at the top from six to
twelve miles, the river really runs through a narrow gorge, and partakes
very much of the nature of a long rapid or cataract. For ten miles the
fall averages twenty-one feet per mile, sufficient to make the current
very dangerous even at low water, and something terrible after heavy
rains or much snow melting. In one place the fall is eighty feet in
about five hundred yards, and here, of course, navigation is practically
out of the question. The explorers, to whom we have referred, were
compelled to proceed with great deliberation at this point. Occasionally
they ran the rapids, but very often they were compelled to lower their
boats by means of lines, and even to lift them over exceptionally
dangerous rocks.

At the worst point of all, one of the boats, while being lowered by
lines, was struck by an eddy and run tightly in between two rocks. It
became necessary for men to go into the water to liberate the boat. With
lines tied securely to their bodies, some of the boldest of the
explorers ventured into the water and tried to loosen the boat, or at
least to secure the invaluable provisions and blankets on board. It was
January, and the water was so intensely cold that no man could endure it
more than a few minutes at a time, so that the process was a long and
tedious one. Finally the boat was got out, but it took five days to
repair it, and even then it was a very poor means of navigation. A few