Nobody did anything the next day, for it was Sunday, so when Monday morning came we were eager to be off for the mouth of the Paria, which we had seen from the top of Echo Peaks. Two or three miles down we reached it; a small river coming through a great canyon on the right. The cliffs of Glen Canyon broke back south-westerly and south-easterly in a V form with the point at the foot of Glen Canyon, leaving a wide platform of different rock rising gently from under them and mounting steadily toward the south. Into the middle of this the river immediately slashed a narrow gorge very much as a staircase might be cut through a floor, beginning the next canyon of the series, called Marble, through which we would not descend till the following year. We went into camp on the left bank of the Paria and the right of the Colorado, Camp 86, in the tall willows. A rough scow lay there, which the Major had built the year before when on his way from Kanab to the Moki Towns, for there is no ford.
We were to wait here for our pack-train which the Major, on arriving at Kanab, was to start back with rations and some extra horses. Our altitude was 3170 feet, showing a total descent for the season of 2905 feet, 913 feet from Gunnison Crossing. Our work on the water for the present was now over; we would pursue it with mule and pack instead of with boats. As the 23d of October had arrived we were glad to avoid daily saturation.
FOOTNOTES:
[19] These blisters were later called laccolites by G. K. Gilbert after his careful study of the locality. See his Geology of the Henry Mountains, published by the government.
[20] The illustration on page 43 of The Romance of the Colorado well shows the character of the Glen Canyon country, and that on page 63 the nature of the pot-holes.
[21] We learned later that while we were working through Cataract Canyon, Lieutenant George M. Wheeler, U. S. Engineers, was coming up from Fort Mohave. After great labour he reached the mouth of Diamond Creek, See The Romance of the Colorado, Chapter XII.
[22] For further description of the Navajo costume, see The North Americans of Yesterday, by F. S. Dellenbaugh, pp. 148, 150.
[23] Like all the tribes of the region of that time, the Navajos considered the Mormons a different people from the Americans. They had been at war with the Mormons, from whom they stole horses and cattle, and there had been some bloodshed. Old Jacob had induced them to make peace, and this party now on its way to trade was the first to try the experiment. Vanquished by our troops, a few years before, the Navajos were very poor and anxious to acquire live stock and firearms, for which they had blankets and other articles of their own make to trade.