Yet it
seems to, and one almost doubts the evidence of his own senses.
Experience on the River. Engineer Stanton tells of an experience as his
party went through the river: "About 2:30 P. M. we heard a deep, loud
roar, and saw the breakers ahead in white foam. With a great effort we
stopped upon a pile of broken rock that had rolled into the river. When we
went ahead to look, much to our surprise, the whole terrible rapid that we
had expected to see had disappeared, and there was only a rushing current
in its stead. While we stood wondering, there rose right at our feet those
same great waves, twelve to fifteen feet in height and from one hundred to
one hundred and fifty feet long across the river, rolling down stream like
great sea waves, and breaking in white foam with terrible noise. We watched
and wondered and at last concluded that this was the forefront of a vast
body of water rolling down this narrow trough from some great cloud-burst
above. (We learned afterwards that there had been such a cloud-burst on the
head-waters of the Little Colorado.) Believing that discretion was the
better part of valor, we camped right there on that pile of rocks, fearing
that, although our boats would ride the waves in safety, we might be caught
in one of these rolls just at the head of a rapid, and, unable to stop, be
carried over the rapid with the additional force of the rushing breakers."
High and Low Water. The piles of driftwood found on the rocks in the Canyon
reveal a difference of upwards of two hundred feet between high and low
water. This, however, does not refer to the general condition of high
water, but to exceptional cases. As, for instance, I myself once saw a mass
of rock, the whole face of the cliff, containing doubtless millions of
tons, fall into the trough of the stream. The whole course was at once
dammed up, and the river rose sixty feet in one hour before the principal
mass of rock was made topheavy by the power of the flood. Then it rolled
over with the force of the millions of tons of water behind it, and
crumbled as it rolled. The mighty wave dashed on, carrying everything
before it. In less than another hour the rock mass had disappeared, and the
water had resumed its normal level. A rise of fifty to seventy feet is not
so very unusual in the heart of the gorge, where it is narrow and the
waters would necessarily pile up. To see such a rise, without any evidence
of a rain above, is a wonderful experience that one occasionally enjoys.
Snow on the Rim. Another remarkable contrast is observed by winter
tourists. On the rim at El Tovar, Grand View, or Bass Camp snow may fall
during December, January and February, and sometimes in March, though it
quickly disappears.
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