[78]The exact spot of this first view is not known—the point that today bears the name of Cárdenas being a random guess. [79]The first complete exploration of the river cañons was made in 1869, by an expedition in charge of Major J. W. Powell, the noted ethnologist and geologist. He had boats especially built for the trip. It was an undertaking of supreme danger, forming, as Mr. F. S. Dellenbaugh says in his interesting “Romance of the Colorado River,” “one of the distinguished feats of history;” for not one of the pioneering party could have any conception of what physical obstacles were before them when the boats set out at the Cañon’s head into the unknown. Powell was a Civil War veteran and had but one hand. He made a second and more leisurely trip in 1871-72. [80]Bright Angel is the name given by the first Powell expedition to a creek entering the river here from the north; its bright, clear waters being in striking contrast to a turbid little tributary discovered not long before, which the men had dubbed “Dirty Devil Creek.” [81]It is not a true salmon. Dr. David Starr Jordan identifies it as _Ptychocheilus lucius_, and it is really a huge chub or minnow. There is a record of one caught weighing 80 pounds; more usual are specimens of 10 and 12 pounds. [82]An interesting trip with the Grand Cañon as a base is to Cataract Cañon, a side gorge of the Grand Cañon about 40 miles west of El Tovar. The trip may be made by wagon to the head of the trail leading down into an arm of Cataract Cañon, but the final lap—about 15 miles—must be on horseback or afoot. At the bottom is the reservation of a small tribe of Indians—the Havasupais—occupying a fertile, narrow valley hedged in by high cliffs of red limestone. There are numerous springs and the water is used to irrigate the fields and peach orchards of the tribe. These Indians are much Americanized, and live under the paternal care of a local Government agency. A feature of the Cañon is the number of fine water falls. To one exquisite one, called Bridal Veil, it would be hard to find anywhere a mate. A camping trip eastward from Grand View along the rim to the Little Colorado Junction may also be made a pleasant experience, rendered particularly glorious by the desert views. [83]Jerome is reached by a little railway from Jerome Junction on the Ash Fork and Phoenix division of the Santa Fe; Clarkdale, by a branch from Cedar Glade on the same division. The Clarkdale branch threads for much of the way the picturesque cañon of the upper Verde River. [84]There is, however, no evidence of volcanic action in the vicinity; so the depression—deep as it is—is doubtless the result of solvent or erosive action of the waters of the Well. (J. W. Fewkes, 17th Ann. Rep. Bureau of American Ethnology.) [85]17th Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology.