however, we found the place was deserted, but with furniture, books,
and pictures piled on the floor in the utmost confusion, as if the
occupants had left in a great hurry. This surmise afterward proved to
be correct; for we learned that the rancher had been murdered for his
money, his body having been found in a boat farther down the river.
Suspicion pointed to an old employee who had been seen lurking near
the place. He was traced to the railroad, over a hundred miles to the
north; but made his escape and was never caught.

We found Brown's Park, once known as Brown's Hole, to be a beautiful
valley several miles in width, and thirty-five or forty miles in
length. The upper end of the valley was rugged in places, with rocky
hills two or three hundred feet high. To the south, a few miles away,
were the mountains, a continuation of those we had come through. We
saw many cattle scattered over some of these rocky hills, grazing on
the bunch-grass. At one place our course led us through a little
canyon about two miles long, and scarcely more than two hundred feet
deep. This was Swallow Canyon--a name suggested by the many birds of
that species which had covered the canyon's walls with their little
clay nests. The openings of some of these nests were so small that it
scarcely seemed possible for a bird to enter.

The water was deep and quiet in this short canyon, and a hard wind
blowing up the stream made it difficult for us to gain any headway. In
this case, too, the forms of the boat were against us. With the keel
removed and with their high sides catching the wind, they were carried
back and forth like small balloons. Well, we could put up with it for
a while, for those very features would prove most valuable in the
rough-water canyons which were to follow!