For five hundred miles of this distance, the river has worn deep cuts or gorges through the soft rock, called cañons.
View in the Grand Cañon
The rocky sides of these cañons form lofty vertical walls, which, in some places, rise to a height of more than a mile above the surface of the water.
The largest and most noted of these vast gorges is the Grand Cañon, which extends a distance of more than two hundred miles. The height of the walls of this cañon varies from four thousand to seven thousand feet.
The river, as it runs through it, is from fifty to three hundred feet wide. So swift is the current, that it is almost impossible to float a boat down the stream without having it dashed to pieces against the rocky walls on either side.
The first descent through these cañons was made in 1867, from a point on Grand River, about thirty miles above its junction with Green River.
Three men were prospecting for gold, and being attacked by Indians and one of their number killed, the other two decided to attempt the descent of the river, rather than retrace their steps through a country where Indians were numerous.
They constructed a raft of a few pieces of drift-wood, and having secured their arms and provisions, commenced their journey down the stream.
A few days afterward, while the raft was descending a cataract, one of the men was drowned and all the provisions were washed overboard.