tled by the insignificance of the craft on which our
lives depended. Beaman tried to take some photographs which should
give this height in full, but the place was far beyond the power of any
camera. In this locality there seemed to be no possibility of a man's
finding a way to the summit. I concluded that at high water this part of
Cataract Canyon would probably annihilate any human being venturing into
it, though it is possible high water would make it easier. Where
there was driftwood it was in tremendous piles, wedged together in
inextricable confusion; hundreds of tree-trunks, large and small,
battered and cut and limbless, with the ends pounded into a spongy lot
of splinters. The interstices between the large logs were filled with
smaller stuff, like boughs, railroad-ties, and pieces of dressed timber
which had been swept away from the region above the Union Pacific
Railway. Picture this narrow canyon twenty-seven hundred feet deep, at
high water, with a muddy booming torrent at its bottom, sweeping along
logs and all kinds of floating debris, and then think of being in there
with a boat!

We proceeded as best we could with all caution. Every move was planned
and carried out with the exactness of a battle; as if the falls were
actual enemies striving to discover our weakness. One practice was to
throw sticks in above them, and thus ascertain the trend of the chief
currents, which enabled us to approach intelligently. The river here
was not more than four hundred feet wide. As we continued, the canyon
finally widened, and at one place there was a broad, rocky beach on the
left. The opposite wall was nearly three thousand feet high. Beaman, by
setting his camera far back on the rocks, was able to get a view to the
top, with us in it by the river, while we were trying to work the boats
past a rapid. This photograph is reproduced on this page {285}, and the
figures, though very small, may be plainly seen. Not far below this the
walls closed in again. Powell and Thompson tried to climb out, but they
failed on the first trial and had no time to make a fresh start. They
came back to camp and as soon as an early supper was over we started
on--about five o'clock. The walls ran close together and at the water
were perfectly vertical for a hundred feet or so, then there was
a terrace. As we sailed down, the river was suddenly studded with
pinnacles of rock, huge boulders or masses fallen from the heights.
By steering careful