anic forces. The
evidence of a recession of the river through the canon is designated by
the ridges apparent on its sides, and it is not improbable that at no
distant day the lower fall will become blended by this process with the
upper, forming a single cataract nearly five hundred feet in height.

There are but few places where the sides of the Grand canon can be
descended with safety. Hauser and Stickney made the descent at a point
where the river was 1,050 feet below the edge of the canon, as
determined by triangulation by Mr. Hauser. Lieutenant Doane, accompanied
by his orderly, went down the river several miles, and following down
the bed of a lateral stream reached its junction with the Yellowstone at
a point where the canon was about 1,500 feet in depth--the surface of
the ground rising the farther he went down the river.

Mr. Hedges and I sat on the table-rock to which I have referred,
opposite the upper fall, as long as our limited time would permit; and
as we reluctantly left it and climbed to the top, I expressed my regret
at leaving so fascinating a spot, quoting the familiar line:

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever."

Mr. Hedges asked me who was the author of the line, but I could not
tell. I will look it up on my return.[I]

Yes! This stupendous display of nature's handiwork will be to me "a joy
forever." It lingers in my memory like the faintly defined outlines of a
dream. I can scarcely realize that in the unbroken solitude of this
majestic range of rocks, away from civilization and almost inaccessible
to human approach, the Almighty has placed so many of the most wonderful
and magnificent objects of His creation, and that I am to be one of the
few first to bring them to the notice of the world. Truly has it been
said, that we live to learn how little may be known, and of what we see,
how much surpasses comprehension.

Thursday, September 1.--We did not break camp till nearly ten o'clock
this morning, the pack-train crossing Cascade creek at its head, and
coming into the river trail about two miles above the upper fall. The
more direct trail--shorter by one and a half miles--runs along the bank
of the river.

If we had not decided, last night, that we would move on to-day, I think
that every member of the party would have been glad to stay another day
at the canon and falls. I will, however, except out of the number our
comrade Jake Smith. The afternoon of our arrival at the canon (day
bef