It was the
finest kind of water for fast travelling, and we made the most of it.
The only previous run we had made that could in any way compare with
it was in Whirlpool and Split Mountain canyons, when the high water
was on. As we travelled, occasional glimpses were had of familiar
places on Greenland Point--that thirty-mile peninsula of the Kaibab
Plateau extending between Marble Canyon and the Grand Canyon--where we
had gone deer-hunting, or on photographic expeditions with Rust.
Another valley from the right was passed, then a peak rose before us
close to the river, with its flat top rising to a height equal to the
south wall. This was Chuar Butte. Once more we were in a narrow
canyon, narrowing by this peak, but a canyon just the same. Soon we
were below a wall we once had photographed from the mouth of the
Little Colorado; then the stream itself came into view and we were
soon anchored beside it. This was the beginning of the Grand Canyon.
CHAPTER XIX
SIGNALLING OUR CANYON HOME
How long we had waited for this view! How many memories it
recalled--and how different it seemed to our previous visit there!
Then, the high water was on, and the turquoise-tinted mineral water of
the Colorado Chiquito was backed up by the turbid flood waters of the
Rio Colorado, forty feet or more above the present level. Now it was a
rapid stream, throwing itself with wild abandon over the rocks and
into the Colorado.
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