_June 23.--_We remain in camp to-day to repair our boats, which have had
hard knocks and are leaking. Two of the men go out with the barometer to
climb the cliff at the foot of Whirlpool Canyon and measure the walls;
another goes on the mountain to hunt; and Bradley and I spend the day
among the rocks, studying an interesting geologic fold and collecting
fossils. Late in the afternoon the hunter returns and brings with him a
fine, fat deer; so we give his name to the mountain--Mount Hawkins. Just
before night we move camp to the lower end of the park, floating down
the river about four miles.

_June 24.--_Bradley and I start early to climb the mountain ridge to the
east, and find its summit to be nearly 3,000 feet above camp. It has
required some labor to scale it; but on its top, what a view! There is a
long spur running out from the Uinta Mountains toward the south, and the
river runs lengthwise through it. Coming down Lodore and Whirlpool
canyons, we cut through the southern slope of the Uinta Mountains; and
the lower end of this latter canyon runs into the spur, but, instead of
splitting it the whole length, the river wheels to the right at the foot
of Whirlpool Canyon in a great curve to the northwest through Island
Park. At the lower end of the park, the river turns again to the
southeast and cuts into the mountain to its center and then makes a
detour to the southwest, splitting the mountain ridge for a distance of
six miles nearly to its foot, and then turns out of it to the left. All
this we can see where we stand on the summit of Mount Hawkins, and so we
name the gorge below, Split Mountain Canyon.

We are standing 3,000 feet above the waters, which are troubled with
billows and are white with foam. The walls are set with crags and peaks
and buttressed towers and overhanging domes. Turning to the right, the