There are but few places where the sides of the Grand canon can be descended with safety.  Hauser and Stickney made the descent at a point where the river was 1,050 feet below the edge of the canon, as determined by triangulation by Mr. Hauser.  Lieutenant Doane, accompanied by his orderly, went down the river several miles, and following down the bed of a lateral stream reached its junction with the Yellowstone at a point where the canon was about 1,500 feet in depth—­the surface of the ground rising the farther he went down the river.

Mr. Hedges and I sat on the table-rock to which I have referred, opposite the upper fall, as long as our limited time would permit; and as we reluctantly left it and climbed to the top, I expressed my regret at leaving so fascinating a spot, quoting the familiar line: 

  “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.”

Mr. Hedges asked me who was the author of the line, but I could not tell.  I will look it up on my return.[I]

Yes!  This stupendous display of nature’s handiwork will be to me “a joy forever.”  It lingers in my memory like the faintly defined outlines of a dream.  I can scarcely realize that in the unbroken solitude of this majestic range of rocks, away from civilization and almost inaccessible to human approach, the Almighty has placed so many of the most wonderful and magnificent objects of His creation, and that I am to be one of the few first to bring them to the notice of the world.  Truly has it been said, that we live to learn how little may be known, and of what we see, how much surpasses comprehension.

Thursday, September 1.—­We did not break camp till nearly ten o’clock this morning, the pack-train crossing Cascade creek at its head, and coming into the river trail about two miles above the upper fall.  The more direct trail—­shorter by one and a half miles—­runs along the bank of the river.

If we had not decided, last night, that we would move on to-day, I think that every member of the party would have been glad to stay another day at the canon and falls.  I will, however, except out of the number our comrade Jake Smith.  The afternoon of our arrival at the canon (day before yesterday), after half an hour of inspection of the falls and canon, he said:  “Well, boys, I have seen all there is, and I am ready to move on.”

However, the perceptible decline in our larder, and the uncertainty of the time to be occupied in further explorations, forbid more than these two days’ stay at the falls and canon.  The sun this morning shone brightly, and its rays were reflected upon the sides of the dismal canon—­so dark, and gray, and still—­enlivening and brightening it.  To-day has been warm, and nature this morning seemed determined that our last look should be the brightest, for the beauties of the entire landscape invited us to make a longer stay, and we lingered till the last moment, that the final impression might not be lost.