our own
experiences. Our digestions were in excellent condition just at that
time, and we were nerved up by the thought that we were going "to the
plate for a home run" if possible, yet the granite gorge had a
decidedly sinister look. The walls, while not sheer, were nearly so;
they might be climbed in many places to the top of the granite; but
the tonto sandstone wall nearly always overhangs this, breaks sheer,
and seldom affords an outlet to the plateaus above, except where
lateral canyons cut through. The rocks are very dark, with dikes of
quartz, and with twisting seams of red and black granite, the great
body of rock being made up of decomposed micaceous schists and gneiss,
a treacherous material to climb. The entrance to this gorge is made on
a quiet pool with no shore on either side after once well in.

But several parties had been through since Major Powell made his
initial trip, so we did not hesitate, but pushed on with the current.
Now we could truly say that we were going home. The Hance Rapid was
behind us; Bright Angel Creek was about twelve miles away. Soon we
were in the deepest part of the gorge. Great dikes and uplifts of
jagged rocks towered above us; and up, up, up, lifted the other walls
above that. Bissell Point, on the very top, could plainly be seen from
our quiet pool.

Then came a series of rapids quite different from the Hance Rapid, and
many others found above. Those others were usually caused in part by
the detritus or deposit from side canyons, which dammed the stream,
and what might be a swift stream, with a continuous drop, was
transformed to a succession of mill-ponds and cataracts, or rapids. In
nearly every case, in low water such as we were travelling on, the
deposit made a shore on which we could land and inspect the rapid from
below. The swift water invariably makes a narrow channel if it has no
obstruction in its way; it is the quiet stream that makes a wide
channel. But the rapids we found this day were nearly all different.
They were seldom caused by great deposits of rock, but appeared to be
formed by a dike or ledge of hard rock rising from the softer
rock--the same intrusion being sometimes found on both sides of the
stream--forming a dam the full width of the channel, over which the
water made a swift descent, with a long line of interference waves
below. But for a cold wind which swept up the stream, this style of
rapid was more to our fancy. These were "good rapids," the