rly
morning of that May day of 1869. During the first few days they had no
serious mishap: they lost an oar, broke a barometer-tube and
occasionally struck a bar. All around them abounded examples of that
natural architecture which is seen from the passing train at the
"City"--weird statuary, caverns, pinnacles and cliffs, dyed gray and
buff, red and brown, blue and black--all drawn in horizontal strata like
the lines of a painter's brush. Mooring the boats and ascending the
cliffs after making camp, they saw the sun go down over a vast landscape
of glittering rock. The shadows fell in the valleys and gulches, and at
this hour the lights became higher and the depths deeper. The Uintah
Mountains stretched out in the south, thrusting their peaks into the sky
and shining as if ensheathed with silver. The distant pine forests had
the bluish impenetrability of a clear night-sky, and pink clouds floated
in motionless suspense until, with a final burst of splendor, the light
expired.

At the end of sixty-two miles they reached the mouth of Flaming Gorge,
near which some hunters and Indians are settled. Flaming Gorge is a
canon bounded by perpendicular bluffs, banded with red and yellow to a
height of fifteen hundred feet, and the water flowing through it is a
positive malachite in color, crossed and edged with bars of glistening
white sand. It leads into Red Canon, and in 1869 it was the gateway to a
region which was almost wholly unknown. An old Indian endeavored to
deter Major Powell from his purpose. He held his hands above his head,
with his arms vertical, and, looking between them to the sky, said,
"Rocks h-e-a-p, h-e-a-p high; the water go h-oo-woogh; water-pony (boat)
heap buck. Water catch 'em, no see 'em squaw any more, no see 'em Injin
any more, no see 'em pappoose any more." The prophecy was not
encouraging, and with some anxiety the explorers left the last vestige
of civilization behind them. Below the gorge they ran through Horseshoe
Canon, which describes an elongated letter U in the mountains, and
several portages became necessary. The cliffs increased a thousand feet
in height, and in many places the water completely filled the channel
between them; but occasionally the canon opened into a little park, from
the grassy carpet of which sprang crimson flowers on the stems of
pear-shaped cactus-plants, patches of blue and yellow blossoms, and a
fragrant _Spiraea_.

As often as a rapid was approached Major Powell