o the canyon, as the sun
passed behind the cliffs. Now, doubtless, the sun has gone down, for we
can see no glint of light on the crags above. Darkness is coming on; but
the waves are rolling with crests of foam so white they seem almost to
give a light of their own. Near by, a chute of water strikes the foot of
a great block of limestone 50 feet high, and the waters pile up against
it and roll back. Where there are sunken rocks the water heaps up in
mounds, or even in cones. At a point where rocks come very near the
surface, the water forms a chute above, strikes, and is shot up 10 or 15
feet, and piles back in gentle curves, as in a fountain; and on the
river tumbles and rolls.

_July 25.--_Still more rapids and falls to-day. In one, the "Emma Dean"
is caught in a whirlpool and set spinning about, and it is with great
difficulty we are able to get out of it with only the loss of an oar. At
noon another is made; and on we go, running some of the rapids, letting
down with lines past others, and making two short portages. We camp on
the right bank, hungry and tired.

_July 26.--_We run a short distance this morning and go into camp to
make oars and repair boats and barometers. The walls of the canyon have
been steadily increasing in altitude to this point, and now they are
more than 2,000 feet high. In many places they are vertical from the
water's edge; in others there is a talus between the river and the foot
of the cliff; and they are often broken down by side canyons. It is
probable that the river is nearly as low now as it is ever found.
High-water mark can be observed 40, 50, 60, or 100 feet above its
present stage. Sometimes logs and driftwood are seen wedged into the
crevices over-head, where floods have carried them.

About ten o'clock, Powell, Bradley, Howland, Hall, and I start
up a side canyon to the east. We soon come to pools of water; then to a
brook, which is lost in the sands below; and passing up the brook, we
see that the canyon narrows, the walls close in and are often
overhanging, and at last we find ourselves in a vast amphitheater, with
a pool of deep, clear, cold water on the bottom. At first our way seems
cut off; but we soon discover a little shelf, along which we climb, and,
passing beyond the pool, walk a hundred yards or more, turn to the
right, and find ourselves in another dome-shaped amphitheater. There is
a winding cleft at the top, reaching out to the country above, nearly
2,000 feet