Milton and Enoch started at once up the edge of the brook,
hoping that the ascent might be made more easily thus. But the
crevice, out of which the little stream found its way to the Colorado,
narrowed rapidly to the point where it became impossible for the two
men to work their way into it. They were obliged, after a half hour's
struggle, to return to the camp and start again.
A very steep slope of bright orange sand led from the shore to a
scarcely less oblique terrace of sharp broken rock. There were several
hundred feet of the sand and, as it was dry and loose, it caused a
constant slipping and falling that consumed both time and strength.
The rocky terrace was far easier to manage, and they covered that
rapidly, although Enoch had a nasty fall, cutting his knee. They were
brought to pause, however, when the broken rock gave way to a sheer
hard wall, which offered neither crack nor projection for hand or foot
hold.
Milton led the way carefully along its foot for a quarter of a mile
until they reached a fissure wide enough for them to enter. The walls
of this were crossed by transverse cracks. By utilizing these, now
pulling, now boosting each other, they finally emerged on a flat,
smooth tableland, of which fissures had made a complete island.
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