Far to the westward is to be seen the last palisade, lifting its imposing front behind an army of towers and domes to an altitude of more than 3,000 feet. Beyond it the view changes quickly, for it passes at once into the Great Basin, which to this region is another world.
The passage of the Grand Cañon of the Colorado, that most fearful, colossal and extraordinary chasm in all the world’s surface, was completed on August 29th, the perils which beset the explorers being constant and the hardest work unremitting. Nor was it accomplished without great sacrifice. The dangers so increased that three of the men deserted, whose fate, however, was most tragic, for they were shortly afterwards murdered by Indians. Starvation threatened the party, for repeated capsizing of the boats resulted in the loss of nearly all their provisions, while exposure brought on illness, so that the men were in a desperate situation when they finally emerged from the jaws of the cañon and found succor among some hospitable Indians.
FALLS OF THE PARUNUWEAP.—The Parunuweap is a wady, or dry bed, during a great part of the year, but which carries in season much of the rainfall of southwest Colorado into the San Juan River, and thence into Colorado River. Throughout a great part of its length the bed of Parunuweap is a cañon of enormous depth and precipitous sides, into which, at frequent intervals, streams that are suddenly swollen by heavy rains pour their overflow. The illustration above shows one of these temporary falls, flowing in large volume over a precipice of the cañon that is nearly perpendicular and quite 200 feet high.
CHAPTER IV.
MARVELS OF THE GREAT DESERT.
TWIN LAKES, COTTONWOOD CAÑON, UTAH.
