ngly difficult, and it was often
necessary to hold the boats from ledges in the cliffs as the falls were
passed. The river was very deep and the canon very narrow. The waters
boiled and rushed in treacherous currents, which sometimes whirled the
boats into the stream or hurried them against the walls. The oars were
useless, and each crew labored for its own preservation as its frail
vessel was spun round like a top or borne with the speed of a locomotive
this way and that.

[Illustration: MARY'S VEIL, A SIDE CANON.]

While they were thus uncontrollable the boats entered a rapid, and one
of them was driven in shore, but as there was no foothold for a portage
the men pushed into the stream again. The next minute a reflex wave
filled the open compartment and water-logged her: breaker after breaker
rolled over her, and one capsized her. The men were thrown out, but they
managed to cling to her, and as they were swept down the other boats
rescued them.

Heavy clouds rolled in the canon, filling it with gloom. Sometimes they
hung above from wall to wall and formed a roof: then a gust of wind from
a side-canon made a rift in them and the blue heavens were revealed, or
they dispersed in patches which settled on the crags, while puffs of
vapor issued out of the smaller gulches, and occasionally formed bars
across the canon, one above another, each opening a different vista.
When they discharged their rains little rills first trickled down the
cliff, and these soon became brooks: the brooks grew into creeks and
tumbled down through innumerable cascades, which added their music to
the roar of the river. As soon as the rain ceased rills, brooks, creeks
and cascades disappeared, their birth and death being equally sudden.

[Illustration: LIGHTHOUSE ROCK IN THE CANON OF DESOLATION.]

Desolate and inaccessible as the canon is, many ruins of buildings are
found perched upon ledges in the stupendous cliffs. In some instances
the mouths of caves have been walled in, and the evidences all point to
a race for ever dreading and fortifying itself against an invader. Why
did these people chose their embattlements so far away from all
tillable land and sources of subsistence? Major Powell suggests this
solution of the problem: For a century or two after the settlement of
Mexico many expeditions were sent into the country now comprised in
Arizona and New Mexico for the purpose of bringing the town-building
people under the dominion of the