The passage of the Grand Cañon of the Colorado, that most fearful, colossal and extraordinary chasm in all the world’s surface, was completed on August 29th, the perils which beset the explorers being constant and the hardest work unremitting. Nor was it accomplished without great sacrifice. The dangers so increased that three of the men deserted, whose fate, however, was most tragic, for they were shortly afterwards murdered by Indians. Starvation threatened the party, for repeated capsizing of the boats resulted in the loss of nearly all their provisions, while exposure brought on illness, so that the men were in a desperate situation when they finally emerged from the jaws of the cañon and found succor among some hospitable Indians. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: FALLS OF THE PARUNUWEAP.—The Parunuweap is a wady, or dry bed, during a great part of the year, but which carries in season much of the rainfall of southwest Colorado into the San Juan River, and thence into Colorado River. Throughout a great part of its length the bed of Parunuweap is a cañon of enormous depth and precipitous sides, into which, at frequent intervals, streams that are suddenly swollen by heavy rains pour their overflow. The illustration above shows one of these temporary falls, flowing in large volume over a precipice of the cañon that is nearly perpendicular and quite 200 feet high. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER IV. MARVELS OF THE GREAT DESERT. [Illustration: TWIN LAKES, COTTONWOOD CAÑON, UTAH.] Grand River valley is followed by the railroad from a point about forty miles north of Leadville for a distance of nearly two hundred miles, and until State Line is reached, when the road cuts across the plains of Utah, which are relieved by little diversity of landscape until Mount Nebo, of the Wasatch range, breaks into view. The scenery along Grand River is, however, extremely beautiful, being very rugged and at times mountainous. The road leads through several cañons that have very high vertical walls, around ledges, over bridges, and takes an occasional plunge into the midnight of tunnels bored through solid granite. The landscape which meets the traveler’s vision when he reaches Utah is very different from that which characterizes Colorado, the difference being apparent almost when the border is reached. After passing the plateau the route is by Provo Lake, where the region becomes broken, and near-by are lofty ledges, over one of which rushes a pellucid stream that is formed by melting snows from the adjacent mountains. Provo Falls is a beautiful sheet of water, dashing down a height of forty feet and then spreading away until lost in Provo Lake.