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The Discovery of Yellowstone Park by Nathaniel Pitt Langford
page 64 of 154 (41%)
feet; while the perpendicular wall down which I suspended the weight was
five hundred and ten feet.

[Illustration: LOWER FALL OF THE YELLOWSTONE.]

Looking down from this lofty eminence through the cañon below the falls,
the scene is full of grandeur. The descent of the river for more than a
mile is marked by continuous cascades varying in height from five to
twenty feet, and huge rapids breaking over the rocks, and lashing with
foam the precipitous sides of the gorge. A similar descent through the
entire cañon (thirty miles), is probable, as in no other way except by
distinct cataracts of enormous height can the difference in altitude
between this point and its outlet be explained. The colors of the rock,
which is shaly in character, are variegated with yellow, gray and brown,
and the action of the water in its rapid passage down the sides of the
cañon has worn the fragments of shale into countless capricious forms.
Jets of steam issue from the sides of the cañon at frequent intervals,
marking the presence of thermal springs and active volcanic forces. The
evidence of a recession of the river through the cañon is designated by
the ridges apparent on its sides, and it is not improbable that at no
distant day the lower fall will become blended by this process with the
upper, forming a single cataract nearly five hundred feet in height.

There are but few places where the sides of the Grand cañon can be
descended with safety. Hauser and Stickney made the descent at a point
where the river was 1,050 feet below the edge of the cañon, as
determined by triangulation by Mr. Hauser. Lieutenant Doane, accompanied
by his orderly, went down the river several miles, and following down
the bed of a lateral stream reached its junction with the Yellowstone at
a point where the cañon was about 1,500 feet in depth--the surface of
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