m the _Edith_ we noticed a peculiar odour,
and thought for a while that it might be the body of the man who was
drowned at the ferry, but later we found it came from a green
cottonwood log that had become water-soaked, and was embedded in the
sand, close to our landing. It was Emery's turn to do the greater part
of the camp work that night, while I was content to hug the fire,
wrapped in blankets, waiting for the coffee to boil.

CHAPTER XVIII

MARBLE HALLS AND MARBLE WALLS

There was little of the spectacular in our work the next day as we
slowly and laboriously dragged an empty boat upstream against the
swift-running current, taking advantage of many little eddies, but
finding much of the shore swept clean. I had ample opportunity to
ponder on the wisdom of my attempt to save time by running the Soap
Creek Rapid instead of making a portage, while we carried our loads
over the immense boulders that banked the stream, down to a swift
piece of water, past which we could not well bring the boats or while
we developed the wet plates from the ruined plate-holders. It was with
no little surprise that we found all the plates, except a few which
were not uniformly wet and developed unevenly, could be saved. It took
a day and a half to complete all this work.

Marble Canyon was now beginning to narrow up with a steep,
boulder-covered slope on either side, three or four hundred feet high;
with a sheer wall of dark red limestone of equal height directly above
that. There was also a plateau of red sandstone and distant walls
topped with light-coloured rock, the same formations with which we
were familiar in the Grand Canyon. The inner gorge had narrowed from a
thousand feet or more down to four hundred feet, the slope at the
river was growing steeper and gradually disappearing, and each mile of
travel had added a hundred feet or more to the height of the walls.
Soon after resuming our journey that afternoon, the slope disappeared
altogether, and the sheer walls came down close to the water. There
were few places where one could climb out, had we desired to do so.
This hard limestone wall, which Major Powell had named the marble
wall, had a disconcerting way of weathering very smooth and sheer,
with a few ledges and fewer breaks.

We made a short run that day, going over a few rapids, stopping an
hour to make some pictures where an immense rock had fallen from the
cliff above into the middle of the river bed, leavin