Arizona republican., 1899-02-25

rocks, twenty feet aDOVe the preSen
 water mark. The story they told wa! . plain enough. They were the remind
 CTS of an unrecorded tragedy that was
 enacted at that spot years ago; dur
 ing the early summer, when swoller
 by melting snow in the mountains ol Colorado, the river SurgeS 20 to 4C feet above it's present level. Some lparty of adventurous explorers haC here met their fate in a huge whirlpoo that overturned their boat and threw
 these implements that were too heaYJ
 to float, among the jagged crevices o1
 those pitiless granite boulders They
 themselves, sank with no eye to wit
 ness their fate, sank with bubblina
 groan' beneath the raging torrent, and
 were torn to pieces among the re-
 morseless rocks that fill the channel.
 MT. Hull is man of fine imagina-
 tion and is apt to grow poetical when
 talking of the Great canyon, he knows
 so well. He was referring to some old
 and rotting tools that they found
 strewn among the sharp bouldel S
 within a few feet Of each other, s5me 20 feet above the water line. They
 were brought to town by the party
 and lay for exhibition on desk iii the hotel office, where we were talking at
 the time. They consisted of an old,
 rusty hand-aXe with rotting handle.
 a small pick and a rusty bullet mould
 and reloading implement On the lat
 ter the date of it's manufacture could
 ha made out as 1869.
 "The next day" continued Mr. Hull,
 i've had an exciting trip in the boat,
 shooting some twenty miles down the
 river. over every kind of rapid and
 whirlpool. We did not stop to make
 a landing, and in fact we could not i have done so had We wished. When | that river gets hold Of a boat it comes pretty near having it's own way. | Though it is an agreeable experience | to look back upon, now that it is ever
 the navigation of that river is almost | too trying on ones nerves. A hundred times during that wild ride we thought l it was all up with us; and the fact is, that after once putting off from the shore, you are literally-as the old lady said-Fat the mercy of Provi- dence.' It takes all your time Keeping the boat straight-with the current and you have not much chance to enjoy the scenery.
 During that ride I believe we dis covered the most wonderful gold mine that the world has ever heard of; and though we could not stop to ex- anime it, we intend to make the effort to see it again very shortly. When we do go, we will be properly equipped. and we shall take care not to run short Of grub, and have to go hur gry for two days, as we did on this trip. We shall be prepared for every emer- gency.
 "Oh, about that gold mine? Well, 1T was this way. While darting down that uncomfortable ristr--now On the crest Of huge breaker-now in the hollow of some fcrocions whirlpool with nerves strained to the utmost to. keep her straight and to sheer off when necessary, from some sharp pin nacle of rock, protruding like an up- lifted dagger, in mid-stream-while we were trying to do all this, we grad ually became aware of a hoarse roar ing far ahead, but rapidly Incoming more distinct and threatening. We knew it meant a more furious rapid than we had yet encGlntered-perha even a perpendicular fall; and we si lently nerved ourselves for LEe com ing struggle. All at once-as we swept round a sudden bend of the dark gorge, a black, cavernous opening loomed omniously, straight before us, into which the whole of the pent up water seemed to throw itself with a confusion and roaring that would have drowned any peal of thunder. It was a corner where the stern, pitilesS walls of granite had compelled the mad flood to turn in spite of itself, and in it's obstinate fury it had been hurl- 1 ing it's concentrated force for ages against the opposing barrier until it had eaten it's way twenty or thirty feet 1 into the solid rock, so that more than | half the river seemed to pour through | a low, dark archway, to emerge a | hundred feet or more below.
 .J-x our strength to point the boat into the | outside current, and succeeded in shooting past just outside the over hanging roof of the dangerous cavern. | If we had been sucked into that dark | and awful entrance we would have | been ground to pieces in a moment. | But as we shot by, breathless with i the expectation of coming death, we caught a glimpse of a wonderful sight | "a sight so wonderful that it seems | like a dream to me, even now. In the somber, half light of those overhaag ing rock masses gleamed bread belt | of brilliant white quartz ten or twelve feet wide it seemed to be-and it whole surface was spariling and i with great seams and cor ruscations of yellow gold. 1t was only 3 momentary glimpse, for we swept by with the speed of a railroal train; but in that short moment 1 believe we saw more gold than anyone has ever look ed at in the same space of time.
 'fWhen we recovered command of the | boat and ourselves-some 5C0 yards below we tried to make a landing, but did not succeed. The cliffs there drop sheer into the water, and there is not a spot where one could get a foot hold. That gold ledge will have to be reached by a shaft from above, and at best it will be task re- quiring ingenuity and money. But where there is gold, capital will always find a way to reach it''
 ''We also saw another great deposit of copper, during that swift ride. do not exaggerate in calling it swift; for we covered over 20 miles in about an hour and a quarter. We passad huge boulder of quartz, colored green