k to one side for a talk. The three men who
left us in the canyon last year found their way up the lateral gorge, by
which they went into the Shi'wits Mountains, lying west of us, where
they met with the Indians and camped with them one or two nights and
were finally killed. I am anxious to learn the circumstances, and as the
people of the tribe who committed the deed live but a little way from
these people and are intimate with them, I ask Chuar'ruumpeak to make
inquiry for me. Then we go to bed.

_September 17.--_Early this morning the Indians come up to our camp.

They have concluded to send out a young man after the Shi'vwits. The
runner fixes his moccasins, puts some food in a sack and water in a
little wickerwork jug, straps them on his back, and starts at a good
round pace.

We have concluded to go down the canyon, hoping to meet the Shi'vwits on
our return. Soon we are ready to start, leaving the camp and pack
animals in charge of the two Indians who came with us. As we move out
our new guide comes up, a blear-eyed, weazen-faced, quiet old man, with
his bow and arrows in one hand and a small cane in the other. These
Indians all carry canes with a crooked handle, they say to kill
rattlesnakes and to pull rabbits from their holes. The valley is high up
in the mountain and we descend from it by a rocky, precipitous trail,
down, down, down for two long, weary hours, leading our ponies and
stumbling over the rocks. At last we are at the foot of the mountain,
standing on a little knoll, from which we can look into a canyon below.

Into this we descend, and then we follow it for miles, clambering down
and still down. Often we cross beds of lava, that have been poured into
the canyon by lateral channels, and these angular fragments of basalt
make the way very rough for the animals.

About two o'clock the guide halts us with his wand, and, springing over
the rocks, he is lost in a gulch. In a few minutes he returns, and tells
us there is a little water below in a pocket. It is vile and our ponies
refuse to drink it. We pass on, still descending. A mile or two from the
water basin we come to a precipice more than 1,000 feet to the bottom.
There is a canyon running at a greater depth and at right angles to
this, into which this enters by the precipice; and this second canyon is
a lateral one to the greater one, in the bottom of which we are to find
the river. Searching about, we find a way by which we can descend alon