The Western United States | Page 2

to have reached a mighty
cañon, into which it was impossible to descend. The cañon was so deep
that rocks standing in the bottom, which were in reality higher than the
Seville cathedral, appeared no taller than a man.
Another party discovered the mouth of the river and called it, because
of their safe arrival, The River of Our Lady of Safe Conduct. They
went as far up the river as its shallow waters would permit, but failed to
find the seven cities of which they were in search, and turned about and

went back to Mexico. For years afterward the river remained
undisturbed, so far as white men were concerned. A great part of the
stream was unknown even to the Indians, for the barren plateaus upon
either side offered no inducements to approach.
Trappers and explorers in the Rocky Mountains reached the head
waters of the river nearly one hundred years ago, and followed the
converging branches down as far as they dared toward the dark and
forbidding cañons. It was believed that no boat could pass through the
cañons, and that once launched upon those turbid waters, the
adventurer would never be able to return.
The Colorado remained a river of mystery for nearly three centuries
after its discovery. When California and New Mexico had become a
part of the Union, about the middle of the last century, the cañon of the
Colorado was approached at various points by government exploring
parties, which brought back more definite reports concerning the
rugged gorge through which the river flows.
In 1869 Major Powell, at the head of a small party, undertook the
dangerous trip through the cañon by boat. After enduring great
hardships for a number of weeks, the party succeeded in reaching the
lower end of the cañon. Major Powell's exploit has been repeated by
only one other company, and some members of this party perished
before the dangerous feat was accomplished.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--THE GRAND CAÑON OF THE COLORADO
The work of a river]
The Colorado is a wonderful stream. It is fed by the perpetual snows of
the Rocky Mountains. For some distance the tributary streams flow
through fertile valleys, many of them now richly and widely cultivated.
But soon the branches unite in one mighty river which, seeming to shun
life and sunlight, buries itself so deeply in the great plateau that the
traveller through this region may perish in sight of its waters without
being able to descend far enough to reach them. After passing through
one hundred miles of cañon, the river emerges upon a desert region,

where the rainfall is so slight that curious and unusual forms of plants
and animals have been developed, forms which are adapted to
withstand the almost perpetual sunshine and scorching heat of summer.
Below the Grand Cañon the river traverses an open valley, where the
bottom lands support a few Indians who raise corn, squashes, and other
vegetables. At the Needles the river is hidden for a short time within
cañon walls, but beyond Yuma the valley widens, and the stream enters
upon vast plains over which it flows to its mouth in the Gulf of
California.
No portion of the river is well adapted to navigation. Below the cañon
the channels are shallow and ever changing. At the mouth, enormous
tides sweep with swift currents over the shallows and produce
foam-decked waves known as the "bore."
Visit the Colorado River whenever you will, at flood time in early
summer, or in the fall and winter when the waters are lowest, you will
always find it deeply discolored. The name "Colorado" signifies red,
and was given to the river by the Spaniards. Watch the current and note
how it boils and seethes. It seems to be thick with mud. The bars are
almost of the same color as the water and are continually changing.
Here a low alluvial bank is being washed away, there a broad flat is
forming. With the exception of the Rio Grande in New Mexico, and the
Gila, which joins the Colorado at Yuma, no other river is known to be
so laden with silt. No other river is so rapidly removing the highlands
through which it flows.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--LOOKING DOWN THE COLORADO RIVER
FROM ABOVE THE NEEDLES]
Over a large portion of the watershed of the Colorado the rainfall is
light. This fact might lead one to think that upon its slopes the work of
erosion would go on more slowly than where the rainfall is heavy. This
would, however, be a wrong conclusion, for in places where there is a
great deal of rain the ground becomes covered with a thick growth of
vegetation which holds the soil and broken rock fragments and keeps
them from being carried away.

The surface of