s;
if not, it would be fifty miles back to our home. The trail was much
more direct than the river. The great drawback to this course was the
fact that Ha Va Su Canyon, sheer-walled, deep, and narrow, contained a
number of waterfalls, one of them about 175 feet high. The precipice
over which it fell was nothing but a mineral deposit from the water,
building higher every year. Formerly this was impassable, until some
miners, after enlarging a sloping cave, had cut a winding stairway in
it, which allowed a descent to be made to the bottom of the fall. A
recent storm had remodelled all the falls in Cataract Creek Canyon,
cutting out the travertine in some places, piling it up in others. A
great mass of cottonwood trees were also mixed with the debris. The
village, too, had been washed away and was then being rebuilt. We had
been told that the tunnel was filled up, and as far as we knew no one
had been to the river since the flood.

The other outlet was Diamond Creek Canyon, much farther down the
river. We would decide when we got to Ha Va Su just what we would do.

Tapeets Creek, one mile below our camp,--a stream which has
masqueraded under the title of Thunder River, and about which there
has been considerable speculation,--proved to be a stream a little
smaller than Bright Angel Creek, flowing through a narrow slot in the
rocks, and did not fall sheer into the river, as has been reported.
Perhaps a small cascade known as Surprise Falls which we passed the
next day has been confused with Tapeets Creek. This stream corkscrews
down through a narrow crevice and falls about two hundred feet, close
to the river's edge. We are told that the upper end of Tapeets Creek
is similar to this, but on a much larger scale.

Just opposite this fall a big mountain-sheep jumped from under an
overhanging ledge close to the water, and stared curiously at us, as
though he wondered what strange things those were coming down with the
current. It is doubtful if he ever saw a human being before. This
sight sent us scrambling in our cases for cameras and firearms; and it
was not the game laws, but a rusted trigger on the six-shooter
instead, that saved the sheep. He finally took alarm and scampered
away over the rocks, and we had no mutton stew that night.

We had one night of heavy rain, and morning revealed a little snow
within three hundred feet of the river, while a heavy white blanket
covered the upper cliffs. It continued to snow on top