mineral seams and deposits of copper and asbestos on
both sides of the river, some of which Bass had opened up and located,
waiting for the day when there would be better transportation
facilities than his burros afforded.

This was not our first visit to this section. On other occasions we
had descended by the Mystic Spring (or Bass) Trail, on the south side,
crossed on the tramway and were taken by Bass over some of his many
trails, on the north side. We had visited the asbestos claims, where
the edge of a blanket formation of the rock known as serpentine,
containing the asbestos, lay exposed to view, twisting around the head
of narrow canyons, and under beetling cliffs. We went halfway up the
north rim trail, through Shinumo and White canyons, our objective
point on these trips being a narrow box canyon which contained a large
boulder, rolled from the walls above, and wedged in the flume-like
gorge far above our heads. This trail continues up to the top, going
over the narrow neck which connects Powell's Plateau--a segregated
section of thickly wooded surface several miles in extent--with the
main extent of the Kaibab Plateau.

Ernest, though slightly affected with tonsillitis, was loath to leave
us here. It was zero weather on top, we were told, and it looked it.
The walls and peaks were white with snow. He would not have an easy
trip. The drifted snow was only broken by the one party that we found
at the river, and quite likely it would be very late when he arrived
at the ranch. John went up with him a few miles to get a horse for the
ride home the next day. Ernest took with him a few hurriedly written
letters and the exposed plates. The film we were going to save was
lost in the upset.

On inspecting the provisions which were packed in here we found the
grocers had shipped the order short, omitting, besides other
necessities, some canned baked beans, on which we depended a great
deal. This meant one of two things. We would have to make a quicker
run than we had planned on, or would have to get out of the canyon at
one of the two places where such an exit could easily be made.

The M. P. as our motion-picture camera was called--and which was
re-christened but not abbreviated by Bert, as "The Member of
Parliament"--had to be cleaned before we could proceed. It took all
this day, and much of the next, to get the moisture and sand out of
the delicate mechanism, and have it running smoothly again. After it
was on