Doubling around a point to the left and then as suddenly to the right, the swift water or "Suck" slackens up in the quieter reach of Flaming Gorge.

In their journeys after beaver the Ashley party had been able to go into this gorge and the two following ones, Horseshoe and Kingfisher, and had doubtless trapped in them.

Here were many beaver, and Ashley drew the inference that as many existed below in the deeper canyon.

Though he had discovered the dangerous character of the river he decided to build boats and set forth on the current in order to trap the canyon, the length of which he did not know and underestimated.

A purpose of reaching St.Louis by this route has been attributed to Ashley, but as Hunt and others some years before understood this to be a stream on whose lower waters Spaniards lived, Ashley doubtless had the same information, and from that he would have known that it was no practicable route to St.Louis.