unction of the Little Colorado with the main canon and the Granite
Gorge, there is about eight hundred miles of a very different section.
Evidences of volcanic action abound. Rocks and boulders seem to have
been blown out of position and mixed up all in a heap. The rocks are
largely charged with mineral, and, as a result, almost every known color
is represented, in the most remarkable purity. The river runs through a
wide valley, with the top walls several miles apart.

The Granite Gorge itself is entirely different. Here the great walls of
granite start from the water's edge. The first few feet are usually
vertical. Then, for a thousand feet or more, the rise is at an angle of
about 45 degrees, while occasionally masses of rock stand out
prominently and overhang the river. Above the granite comes a mass of
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 canon in the entire world.

Although the canon 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 tha