was neither difficult nor dangerous, as we were able to make landings at the few bad places and ran the rest of the rapids without damage of any kind.  Only one camp was made in this beautiful gorge, and there we slept, or tried to sleep, for two nights.  Myriads of ants swarmed over the spot and made every hour more or less of a torment.  They extended their investigations into every article brought out of the boats.  During the whole time their armies marched and countermarched over, around, and through ourselves and everything we possessed.  We saw a number of mountain sheep in this canyon, but owing to the quickness of the sheep, and the difficulty of pursuing them over the wild cliffs, which they seemed to know well, we were unable to bring any down.

Our second day’s run was uneventful through a superb gorge about twenty-four hundred feet deep, and at a late hour in the afternoon, just after we had run our worst rapid in fine style, we perceived the great walls breaking away, and they soon melted off into rounded hills, exquisitely coloured, as if painted by Nature in imitation of the rainbow.  The river spread out, between and around a large number of pretty islands bearing thick cottonwood groves.  The shallowness of the water caused our keels to touch occasionally, but the current was comparatively slow and we were not disturbed over it.  Powell hesitated as to calling this place Rainbow or Island Park, the choice eventually falling to the latter.  The valley is only three or four miles long in a straight line.  Shortly before sunset we had the disappointment of reaching the end of it, and immediately below the place where we camped the rocks closed sharply together once more.  Here Powell determined that he would push ahead of the main party, in order to make his way, as soon as possible, to the Uinta Ute Agency, in order to communicate with the outer world and ascertain if his plans for supply-trains were moving on to success.  He took the Dean, but Bishop was put in my place because of his considerable experience in the Western country, for there was no telling what they might encounter.  On the morning of July 7th, at daybreak, therefore, they were off, and speedily disappeared from our sight within the rocks that arose below our camp.  A number of the remaining men climbed to the top of the left-hand side of the “gate,” an altitude of about three thousand feet above camp, and from there were able to see the Emma Dean for a long distance, working down through the rapids.  The view from that altitude over the surrounding country and into the canyon was something wonderful to behold.  A wild and ragged wilderness stretched out in all directions, while down in the canyon—­more of a narrow valley than a canyon after the entrance was passed—­the river swept along, marked, here and there, by bars of white we knew to be rapids.  Crags and pinnacles shot up from every hand, and from this circumstance it was at first uncertain whether