Macomb and Newberry succeeded in forcing their way to within about six miles of the junction, there to be completely baffled and turned back.

Arriving finally at the brink of the canyon of Grand River, Newberry says: "On every side we were surrounded by columns, pinnacles, and castles of fantastic shapes, which limited our view, and by impassable canons, which restricted our movements.

South of us, about a mile distant, rose one of the castle-like buttes, which I have mentioned, and to which, though with difficulty, we made our way.

This butte was composed of alternate layers of chocolate-colored sandstone and shale about one thousand feet in height; its sides nearly perpendicular, but most curiously ornamented with columns and pilasters, porticos and colonnades, cornices and battlements, flanked here and there with tall outstanding towers, and crowned with spires so slender that it seemed as though a breath of air would suffice to topple them from their foundations.

To accomplish the object for which we had come so far, it seemed necessary that we should ascend this butte.