ng downstream we
found that the country sloped gently towards the mountains. The river
skirted the edge of these foot-hills as if looking for a possible
escape, then turned and entered the mountain at a sharp angle. The
walls sloped back considerably at first, and there was a little shore
on either side.
Somewhere near this point runs the dividing line of Wyoming and Utah.
We considered the gateway a subject worthy of a motion picture, if
taken from the deck of the boat; but doubted if it would be a success
owing to the condition of the light and the motion of the boat. Still
it was considered worthy of a trial, and the film was run through.
The colour of the rocks at the entrance was a light red, but not out
of the ordinary in brilliancy. The rock formation was stratified, but
displaced; standing at an angle and flexed over on top with a ragged
break here and there, showing plainly the great pressure to which the
rocks had been subjected. The upheaval was not violent, the scientists
tell us, but slow and even, allowing the river to maintain its old
channel, sawing its way through the sandstone. The broken canyon
walls, when well inside the gorge, were about 600 to 700 feet high.
The mountains beyond and on either side were much higher. The growth
on the mountain sides was principally evergreen; Douglas fir, the
bull-pine and yellow pine. There was a species of juniper, somewhat
different from the Utah juniper, with which we were familiar at the
Grand Canyon. Bushes and undergrowth were dense above the steep canyon
walls, which were bare. Willows, alder-thickets, and a few cottonwood
trees lined the shores.
Meanwhile the current had quickened, almost imperceptibly at first,
but enough to put us on our guard. While there were no rapids, use was
made of what swift water we found by practising on the method we would
use in making a passage through the bad rapids. As to this method,
unused as yet by either of us, we had received careful verbal
instruction from Mr. Stone, who had made the trip two years before our
own venture; and from other friends of Nathan Galloway, the trapper,
the man who first introduced the method on the Green and Colorado
rivers.
Our experience on water of any kind was rather limited. Emery could
row a boat, and row it well, before we left Green River, but had never
gone over any large rapids. While he was not nearly so large or heavy
as I,--weighing no more than 130 pounds, while I weighe
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