and often polished.

We pass a place where two bends of the river come together, an
intervening rock having been worn away and a new channel formed across.
The old channel ran in a great circle around to the right, by what was
once a circular peninsula, then an island; then the water left the old
channel entirely and passed through the cut, and the old bed of the
river is dry. So the great circular rock stands by itself, with
precipitous walls all about it, and we find but one place where it can
be scaled. Looking from its summit, a long stretch of river is seen,
sweeping close to the overhanging cliffs on the right, but having a
little meadow between it and the wall on the left. The curve is very
gentle and regular. We name this Bonita Bend.

And just here we climb out once more, to take another bearing on The
Butte of the Cross. Reaching an eminence from which we can overlook the
landscape, we are surprised to find that our butte, with its wonderful
form, is indeed two buttes, one so standing in front of the other that
from our last point of view it gave the appearance of a cross.

A few miles below Bonita Bend we go out again a mile or two among the
rocks, toward the Orange Cliffs, passing over terraces paved with
jasper. The cliffs are not far away and we soon reach them, and wander
in some deep, painted alcoves which attracted our attention from the
river; then we return to our boats.

Late in the afternoon the water becomes swift and our boats make great
speed.. An hour of this rapid running brings us to the junction of the
Grand and Green, the foot of Stillwater Canyon, as we have named it.
These streams-unite in solemn depths, more than 1,200 feet below the
general surface of the country. The walls of the lower end of Stillwater
Canyon are very beautifully curved, as the river sweeps in its
meandering course. The lower end of the canyon through which the Grand
comes down is also regular, but much more direct, and we look up this
stream and out into the country beyond and obtain glimpses of snow-clad
peaks, the summits of a group of mountains known as the Sierra La Sal.
Down the Colorado the canyon walls are much broken.

We row around into the Grand and camp on its northwest bank; and here we
propose to stay several days, for the purpose of determining the
latitude and longitude and the altitude of the walls. Much of the night
is spent in making observations with the sextant.

The distance from the mouth o