Late in the afternoon we come to a little clearing in the valley and see other signs of civilization and by sundown arrive at the Mormon town
ENTRANCE TO PARU'NUWEAP.
of Schunesburg; and here we meet the train, and feast on melons and grapes.
September 12.--Our course for the last two days, through Paru'nuweap Canyon, was directly to the west. Another stream comes down from the north and unites just here at Schunesburg with the main branch of the Rio Virgen. We determine to spend a day in the exploration of this stream. The Indians call the canyon through which it runs, Mukun'tu-weap, or Straight, Canyon. Entering this, we have to wade upstream; often the water fills the entire channel and, although we travel many
CANYONS OF THE COLORADO.
miles, we find no flood-plain, talus, or broken piles of rock at the foot of the cliff. The walls have smooth, plain faces and are everywhere very regular and vertical for a thousand feet or more, where they seem to break back in shelving slopes to higher altitudes; and everywhere, as we go along, we find springs bursting out at the foot of the walls, and passing these the river above becomes steadily smaller. The great body of water which runs below bursts out from beneath this great bed of red sandstone; as we go up the canyon, it comes to be but a creek, and then a brook. On the western wall of the canyon stand some buttes,
