E to sleep in the house, choosing for our resting-place

Xt day was Sunday and as Beaman felt sick and we were not in a hurry,
no advance was made but instead Prof. accompanied by Steward, Cap.,
and Jones climbed out for notes and observations. They easily

reached the top by means of a small gulch. They got back early,
reporting an increasing desolation in the country on both sides as
far as they could see. They also saw two graves of great
age, covered by stones.

In the afternoon Prof. entertained us by reading aloud from Scott and
so the day passed and night fell. Then the beavers became more active
and worked
and splashed around camp incessantly. They kept it up all through the
dark hours as is their habit, but only Steward was disturbed by it.
This would have been an excellent opportunity to
learn something about their ways, but for my part I did not then even
think of it. By 7.30 in the morning of August 7th we were again on
our way towards the depths ahead, between walls of rapidly increasing
altitude showing that we were cutting into some great rock structure.
Here and there we came to shoals that compelled us to get overboard
and wade alongside lifting the boats at times. As these shoals had
the peculiarity of beginning gradually and ending very abruptly we
got some
unexpected plunge baths during this kind of progression. But the air
was hot, the thermometer being about 90 deg. F., and being soaked
through was not uncomfortable. At one place Prof. succeeded in
shooting a beaver which was near the bank and it was secured before
it could get to its hole, being badly wounded. Steward caught it
around
the middle from behind and threw it into the boat--he had jumped into
the water--and there it was finished
with an oar. It measured three feet from tip to tip.
We had heard a good deal about beaver as food and would now have a
chance to try it. About eleven o'clock, we stopped for examinations
and for dinner on the right
but, of course, could not yet cook the beaver. Prof., Steward, and
Cap. climbed to the top of a butte 1050 feet above

the river upon which they found a small monument left there by the
Major on the former trip. Though this butte was so high the average
of the walls was only about five hundred feet. We made seventeen
miles this day. That night our camp (No.
35) was again on an island. There Cap. skinned and dressed the beaver
and turned over the edible portions to Andy who cooked some steak for
breakfast the next morning. It tasted something like beef, but we
were not enthusiastic for I fear this beaver belonged to the same
geological epoch as th