er sweeping in great and
beautiful curves, the canyon walls steadily increasing in altitude. The
escarpments formed by the cut edges of the rock are often vertical,
sometimes terraced, and in some places the treads of the terraces
are sloping. In these quiet curves vast amphitheaters are formed, now in
vertical rocks, now in steps.

The salient point of rock within the curve is usually broken down in a
steep slope, and we stop occasionally to climb up at such a place, where
on looking down we can see the river sweeping the foot of the opposite
cliff in a great, easy curve, with a perpendicular or terraced wall
rising from the water's edge many hundreds of feet. One of these we find
very symmetrical and name it Sumner's Amphitheater. The cliffs are
rarely broken by the entrance of side canyons, and we sweep around curve
after curve with almost continuous walls for several miles.

Late in the afternoon we find the river very much rougher and come upon
rapids, not dangerous, but still demanding close attention. We camp at
night on the right bank, having made 26 miles. _July 8.--_This morning
Bradley and I go out to climb, and gain an altitude of more than 2,000
feet above the river, but still do not reach the summit of the wall.

After dinner we pass through a region of the wildest desolation. The
canyon is very tortuous, the river very rapid, and many lateral canyons
enter on either side. These usually have their branches, so that the
region is cut into a wilderness of gray and brown cliffs. In several
places these lateral canyons are separated from one another only by
narrow walls, often hundreds of feet high,--so narrow in places that
where softer rocks are found below they have crumbled away and left
holes in the wall, forming passages from one canyon into another. These
we often call natural bridges; but they were never intended to span
streams. They would better, perhaps, be called side doors between canyon
chambers. Piles of broken rock lie against these walls; crags and
tower-shaped peaks are seen everywhere, and away above them, long lines
of broken cliffs; and above and beyond the cliffs are pine forests, of
which we obtain occasional glimpses as we look up through a vista of
rocks. The walls are almost without vegetation; a few dwarf bushes are
seen here and there clinging to the rocks, and cedars grow from the
crevices--not like the cedars of a land refreshed with rains, great
cones bedecked with spray, but u