[9] In my Romance of the Colorado River these figures were changed to 275 because of barometrical data supplied me which was supposed to be accurate. I have concluded that it was not.
CHAPTER V
A Remarkable Echo—Up the Canyon of the Yampa—Steward and Clem Try a Moonlight Swim—Whirlpool Canyon and Mountain Sheep—A Grand Fourth-of-July Dinner—A Rainbow-Coloured Valley—The Major Proceeds in Advance—A Split Mountain with Rapids a Plenty—Enter a Big Valley at Last.
The little opening between canyons we named Echo Park, first because after the close quarters of Lodore it seemed very park-like, and second because from the smooth bare cliff directly opposite our landing a distinct echo of ten words was returned to the speaker. I had never before, and have never since, heard so clear and perfect an echo with so many words repeated. We were camped on the right bank of the Yampa as the left was a bottom land covered with cedars and we preferred higher ground. This bottom was an alluvial deposit triangular in shape about a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide with the Yampa and Green on two sides and a vertical sandstone wall on the third. Behind our camp the rocks broke back in a rough, steep slope for perhaps a quarter of a mile, and this with the bottom-land and the lack of height in the walls near the river conveyed an impression of wide expanse when compared with the narrow limits in which we had for eight days been confined. The Green was here about 400 feet wide and was held in on the western side of the park by the Echo Cliff which was a vertical wall some 600 feet high composed of homogeneous sandstone, and consequently almost without a crack from top to bottom where its smooth expanse dropped below the surface of the water. It extended down river about three-fourths of a mile, the river doubling around its southern end.
The next day after arriving here most of us did not feel like doing any climbing and remained around camp, mending clothes and other articles, adjusting things that had become deranged by our rough work in the last canyon, recording notes, and making entries in diaries. Prof. took observations for latitude and longitude to establish the position of the Yampa so that it could be properly placed on the map. The Major during an exploring trip from the eastward in 1868 had reached the Yampa Canyon, but he could not cross it. He now decided to go up with a boat as far as possible in three days to supplement his former observations as well as to study the canyon in general. He had estimated its length at thirty miles, and this has proved to be correct. The Dean was unloaded, and with three days' rations the Major started with her in the morning manned by Jack, Beaman, Jones, and Andy. Of course they were all still tired from the strain of Lodore, and they were not enthusiastic about seeing the Yampa. In such work as was common through Lodore, it is as much the tension on the nerves, even though this is not realised at the time, as it is the strain on the muscles in transporting the cargoes and the boats, which makes one tired. I was entirely satisfied not to go with the Yampa party and I believe all the others left behind felt much the same.