t this ribbon of the heavens,
the stars in the clear sky came slowly out like some wonderful
transformation scene, and just on the edge of the opposite wall,
resembling an exquisite and brilliant jewel, appeared the constellation
of the Harp. Immediately the name "Cliff of the Harp" suggested itself
and from that moment it was so called. Here and there we discovered
evidences of the former journey, but nothing to indicate that human
beings had ever before, that been below Disaster Falls. There we saw the
same indications of an early disaster which Powell had noticed on the
first trip, a rusty bake-oven, some knives and forks and tin plates, in
the sand at the foot of the second fall. The day after the Cliff of the
Harp camp we began by making a line-portage around a very ugly place,
which took the whole morning. In the afternoon there was another similar
task, so that by night we had made only three or four miles, and camped
at the beginning of a decidedly forbidding stretch. Just below us were
three sharp rapids which received the name of Triplet Tails. A great
deal of work was required to pass these, and then we ran three or four
in good style, which brought us, in the late afternoon, to where the
whole river spread out amongst innumerable rocks and for more than half
a mile the water was a solid sheet of milky foam, sending up the usual
wild roar, which echoed and echoed again and again amongst the cliffs
around and above us. Some one proposed the name of "Hell's Half-Mile"
for this terrible place and the idea was at once adopted, so appropriate
did it seem. The turmoil of the dashing waters was almost deafening,
and, even when separated by only a few feet, we could only communicate
with each other by shouting at the top of our lungs. It was a difficult
task to get our little ships safely below this half-mile, but it was
finally accomplished, and on we went in search of the next dragon's
claw. At our camp the fire in some way got into a pine grove and soon
was crackling enough to rival the noise of the rapid. The lower region
seemed now to be sending its flames up through the bottom of the gorge
and the black smoke rolled into the sky far above the top of the walls.
Many and varied were our experiences in this magnificent canyon, which
for picturesqueness and beauty rivals even the Grand Canyon, though not
on such a giant scale. Its passage would probably be far easier at low
water. At last, one evening, as the soft tw