CHAPTER V.
A Remarkable Echo--Up the Canyon of the Yampa--Steward and Clem Try a Moonlight Swim--Whirlpool Canyon and Mountain Sheep--A Grand Fourth-of-July Dinner--A Rainbow-Coloured Valley--The Major Proceeds in Advance--A Split Mountain with Rapids a Plenty--Enter a Big Valley at Last.
The little opening between canyons we named Echo Park, first because after the close quarters of Lodore it seemed very park-like, and second because from the smooth bare cliff directly opposite our landing a distinct echo of ten words was returned to the speaker.

I had never before, and have never since, heard so clear and perfect an echo with so many words repeated.

We were camped on the right bank of the Yampa as the left was a bottom land covered with cedars and we preferred higher ground.

This bottom was an alluvial deposit triangular in shape about a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide with the Yampa and Green on two sides and a vertical sandstone wall on the third.

Behind our camp the rocks broke back in a rough, steep slope for perhaps a quarter of a mile, and this with the bottom-land and the lack of height in the walls near the river conveyed an impression of wide expanse when compared with the narrow limits in which we had for eight days been confined.