CHAPTER XIV

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A Railway Proposed through the Canyons—The Brown Party, 1889, Undertakes the Survey—Frail Boats and Disasters—The Dragon Claims Three—Collapse of the Expedition—Stanton Tries the Feat Again, 1889-90—A Fall and a Broken Leg—Success of Stanton—The Dragon Still Untrammelled.

The topographic, geologic, and geodetic work of the survey did not cease with our departure from the river, but was continued in the remarkable country shown in the relief map opposite page 41, till the relationships and distances of the various features were established and reduced to black and white. That autumn, while we were engaged in these labours, Wheeler, with an elaborate outfit, entered the region, pursuing his desultory operations; and, drifting along the north side of the Grand Canyon for a little distance, he proceeded to the neighbourhood of St. George. The following year, for some unknown purpose, he crossed the Colorado at the Paria, though he knew that Powell’s parties had previously mapped this area. When the winter of 1872-73 had fairly set in we established a permanent camp at Kanab, where, under Thompson’s always efficient direction, our triangulations and topographic notes were plotted on paper, making the first preliminary map of that country. When this was ready, Hillers and I took it, and crossing the southern end of the High Plateaus, then deep with snow, we rode by way of the Sevier Valley to Salt Lake, where the map was sent on by express to Washington, whither Powell had already gone.

Camp at Oak Spring, Uinkaret Mountains. Camp at Oak Spring, Uinkaret Mountains. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Seventeen years passed away before any one again tried to navigate the Colorado. The settling of the country, the knowledge of it Powell had published, the completion of the Southern Pacific Railway to Yuma in 1877, and of the Atlantic and Pacific from Isleta to The Needles, in 1880-83, and of the Rio Grande Western across the Green at Gunnison Valley, simplified travel in the Basin of the Colorado. A new railway was then proposed from Grand Junction, Colorado, down the Colorado River, through the Canyons to the Gulf of California, a distance of twelve hundred miles. At that time coal was a difficult article to procure on the Pacific Coast, and it was thought that this “water-level” road, crossing no mountains, would be profitable in bringing the coal of Colorado to the Golden Gate. At present coal in abundance is to be had in the Puget Sound region, and this reason for constructing a Grand Canyon railway is done away with. There is nothing to support a railway through the three hundred miles of the great gorge (or through the other two hundred miles of canyon to the Junction), except tourist travel and the possible development of mines. These are manifestly insufficient at the present time to warrant even a less costly railway, which, averaging about four thousand feet below the surface of the surrounding country, would be of little service to those living away from its immediate line, and there is small chance to live along the line. In addition the floods in the Grand Canyon are enormous and capricious. Sometimes heavy torrents from cloudbursts plunge down the sides of the canyon and these would require to be considered as well as those of the river itself. To be absolutely safe from the latter the line would probably require, in the Grand Canyon, to be built at least one hundred and twenty feet above low water, so that for the whole distance through the Marble-Grand Canyon there would seldom be room beside the tracks for even a station. But Frank M. Brown had faith, and a company for the construction of the Denver, Colorado Canyon, and Pacific Railway was organised. Brown was the president, and in 1889 he formed an expedition to Survey the line.

Mukoontuweap Canyon, North Fork of the Virgen. Mukoontuweap Canyon, North Fork of the Virgen. Ten miles long, 3500 feet deep. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.

Looking down the Canyon de Chelly, a Tributary of the San Juan and Containing many Cliff Houses. Looking down the Canyon de Chelly, a Tributary of the San Juan and Containing many Cliff Houses. Photograph by BEN WITTICK.

On March 25th the preliminary party, consisting of F. M. Brown, F. C. Kendrick, chief engineer, and T. P. Rigney, assistant engineer, left Denver for Grand Junction, a station on the Rio Grande Western (near the C of Colorado, State name on map, p. 51), and the next morning set the first stake for the new railway which was to cost the president so dear. Then they bought a boat from the ferryman, and after repairing it laid in a supply of rations, engaged some men, and ran a half-mile down Grand River. Brown then left to go East in order to perfect his arrangements for this attempt to survey a railway route through the dangerous canyons. The boat party continued down Grand River to the head of the canyon, twenty-four miles, and then more slowly descended over rougher water, averaging five or six miles a day. At a distance of forty-three miles from the start the rapids grew very bad, and at one place they were forced to make a portage for twelve miles. At the end of one hundred miles they came to the little Mormon settlement of Moab. From here to the Junction of the Grand and Green was a distance of sixty miles, and the water was the same as it is just above the Junction, in the canyons of the Green, Stillwater, and Labyrinth, that is, comparatively smooth and offering no obstacles except a rather swift current. Nowhere had the cliffs risen above one thousand feet, and the river had an average fall of five feet to the mile. This was the first party on record to navigate, for any considerable distance, the canyons of Grand River. From the Junction they proceeded up the Green, towing the boat, desiring to reach the Rio Grande Western Railway crossing, one hundred and twenty miles away. By this time their rations were much diminished and they allowed themselves each day only one-half the ordinary amount, at the same time going on up the river as fast as possible, yet at the end of about eight days, when still thirty miles from their destination, they were reduced to their last meal. Fortunately they then arrived at the cabin of some cattlemen, Wheeler Brothers, who, discovering their plight, put their own ample larder, with true Western hospitality, at the surveyors’ disposal. Thus opportunely fortified and refreshed, the men reached the railway crossing the following night.

In reviewing all the early travels through this inhospitable region, one is struck by the frequent neglect of the question of food-supplies. In such a barren land, this is the item of first importance, and yet many of the leaders treated it apparently as of slight consequence. Great discomfort and suffering and death often followed a failure to provide proper supplies, or, when provided, to take sufficient care to preserve them.

On the 25th of May, 1889, Brown’s party was ready and started from the point where the Rio Grande Western crosses Green River. There were sixteen men and six boats. Five of the boats were new; the sixth was the one Kendrick and Rigney had used on the Grand River trip. The chief engineer of the proposed railway was Robert Brewster Stanton, and that he was not in the very beginning given the entire management was most unfortunate, for Brown himself seems not to have had a realisation of the enormous difficulties of the task before him. But the arrangements were completed before Stanton was engaged. All the men were surprised, disappointed, dismayed, at the character of the boats Brown had provided for this dangerous enterprise, and Stanton said his heart sank at the first sight of them. They were entirely inadequate, built of cedar instead of oak, only fifteen feet long and three feet wide, and weighed but one hundred and fifty pounds each. They would have been beautiful for an ordinary river, but for the raging, plunging, tumultuous Colorado their name was suicide. Then not a life-preserver had been brought. This neglect was another shock to the members of the party and their friends. Stanton was urged to take one for himself, but he declined to provide this advantage over the other men. Since then he has been disposed to blame Powell for not telling Brown that life-preservers are a necessity on the Colorado. It was also said that Powell declared to Brown that they were not imperative and consequently he is censured for the subsequent disasters. There was certainly a misunderstanding in this, for Powell, knowing the situation from such abundant experience, never could have said life-preservers were not necessary, though on his first trip there was but one. In this connection Thompson writes me: “The Major sent for me at once when Mr. Brown called at the office. I think we talked—we three, I mean—for half an hour, then the Major said, ‘Professor Thompson knows just as much about the river as I do, and more about what is necessary for such a trip; you talk with him.’ I took Mr. Brown to my room and we had a long talk. I think the next day Mr. Brown came again. I had two interviews with him alone. I told him distinctly that life-preservers were necessary. I probably told him we did not wear them all the time, but I told him we put them on at every dangerous rapid, and I showed him the picture in the Major’s Report where we were wearing them. I clearly remember telling him to have one arm above and one below the preserver. I am positive about this, for after we received word of the loss of Brown we talked it over and I recalled the conversation. He impressed me as thinking we exaggerated the dangers of the river. He made a memorandum of things I said. I think he also talked with Hillers, and I have no doubt the latter told him to take life-preservers. But he had the Report, and there is no excuse for his neglecting so indispensable an article of the outfit. He was warned over and over again to neglect no precaution. I distinctly remember that the Major told him in so many words, ‘not to underestimate the dangers of the river, and to never be caught off guard.’” On a previous page I have remarked that proper boats and a knowledge of how to handle them are more important than life-preservers, but that does not mean that a party should leave the life-preservers behind. In descending the Colorado every possible precaution must be taken. The first of these is the right kind of boats, second, proper arrangement as to food-supplies, and, third, life-preservers, etc. The New York _Tribune_, after the collapse of this Brown expedition, quotes Powell in an interview as saying that he would not have ventured in the boats Brown selected and that he thought Brown “failed to comprehend the significant fact that nothing can get through the Colorado Canyon that cannot float. Boats are repeatedly upset and inferior boats are mashed like egg-shells.” Brown, undoubtedly, was rather inclined to look upon the descent somewhat lightly. Being a brave, energetic man it was hard for him to believe that this river demanded so much extra prudence and caution, when Powell had successfully descended it twice without, so far as the water was concerned, losing a man. However, the ill-fated expedition went on its way.

A Cave-Lake in a Sandstone Cliff near Kabab, S. Utah. A Cave-Lake in a Sandstone Cliff near Kabab, S. Utah. The depth from front to rear is about 125 feet. The outer opening is the whole front of the arch. It belongs to the class of natural arches, alcoves, bridges, “holes in the wall,” etc., common in this kind of sandstone throughout the Southwest. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The boats were named the Ward, the Mason, after Brown’s sons, the Mary after his wife, and the Denver and the Colorado. On arriving they were recalked. The bottoms were covered with copper. The party consisted of the following persons: Frank M. Brown, president; Robert Brewster Stanton, chief engineer; John Hislop, first assistant engineer; C. W. Potter, T. P. Rigney, E. A. Reynolds, J. H. Hughes, W.H. Bush, Edward Coe, Edward ——, Peter Hansborough, Henry Richards, G. W. Gibson, Charles Potter, F. A. Nims, photographer, and J. C. Terry. The baggage of each man was limited to twenty-five pounds. The cargoes were packed in tight, zinc-lined boxes three feet long, with one of which each boat was provided, but these were found to be cumbersome and heavy, the boats being down to within one inch of the gunwales in the water, so they were taken out and all lashed together, forming a sort of raft. This carried about one-third of all the supplies, and all the extra oars and rope, a most unwise arrangement from every point of view. The nondescript craft hampered their movements, could not be controlled, and if once it got loose everything was sure to be lost. It would have been better to throw these boxes away at once and take what the boats could carry and no more, but this was apparently not thought of. All things considered, it is a wonder this party ever got through Cataract Canyon alive. At some little rapid, after leaving the railway crossing, the first boat stove a hole in her side, but this was readily repaired and the party ran without further accident over the smooth stretches of river preceding the Junction, arriving at this latter point in four days. They were now on the threshold of Cataract Canyon. Stopping to adjust instruments and repair boats for a day, they proceeded to the battle with the cataracts on May 31st. For forty-one miles they would now have their courage, muscle, and nerve put to the full test. Stanton records seventy-five rapids and cataracts, fifty-seven of them within a space of nineteen miles, with falls in places of sixteen to twenty feet. This, then, was what they were approaching with these frail craft. Two miles down they heard the roar of falling water and the place was reconnoitred, with the result that a large rapid was found to bar the way. The raft of provisions, and the boat that had towed it, were on the opposite side of the river, which afforded no chance for a camp or a portage, and a signal was made for the party to come over. A half mile intervened between this boat and the head of the rapid, but with the encumbering raft it was drawn down so dangerously near the descent that, to save themselves, the rope holding the raft was cut. Thus freed the boat succeeded in landing just at the head of the fall, but the raft went over, and that was the end of it. The sections were found scattered all the way through the canyon. The next twenty-eight miles were filled with mishaps and losses. Twelve miles farther down, the boat in which Brown, Hughes, and Reynolds were running a rapid capsized. The men clung to her for a mile and a half and then succeeded in getting ashore. The rapids in this part are very close together, and to these men it seemed like one continuous cataract, which it very nearly is. On the same day another boat containing the cooking outfit struck a rock and went to pieces. The provisions she carried were, most of them, contributed to the maw of the dragon to follow those of the unfortunate raft. Sometimes the boats got away from the men altogether, running wild, finally lodging somewhere below to be found again with the contents missing. Soon they had so many large holes in them that one, No. 3, had to be broken up to obtain materials for repairing the others. Thus the party, by the time they had fairly arrived at the deepest and worst portion of this splendid chasm, were in a sad plight, but a plight mainly due to the original bad planning and mismanagement, and not necessary in navigating this gorge. They seldom attempted to cross the river, working down along one side and never entering the boats at all except where absolutely necessary.[1] Thus they were greatly hampered in their movements. With our boats we never gave the crossing of the river a thought, and were in them continually, except where a portage was demanded. We could therefore always choose our course with as much freedom as is possible. But it must not be forgotten that the Brown party were in Cataract Canyon about the time of high water, while we passed through at a lower stage. This would make a difference, low water being in all the canyons far safer, though the work is harder on the men and the boats. By the 15th of June all provisions had disappeared except a sack and a half of flour, presumably one hundred pounds to the sack, a little coffee, some sugar, and condensed milk. The flour was all baked and divided equally, each man receiving two and one half pounds of bread, one pound of sugar, and four ounces of coffee. At one point they fortunately found a barrel of cut loaf-sugar amongst the driftwood. This had been lost from some army-supplies crossing at Gunnison Valley up the Green, or up Grand River, and they also found, a little below this, pieces of a waggon with the skeleton of a man. These also had, of course, come from at least a hundred miles above the Junction on the Green, or sixty miles up the Grand, as no waggon could get to the river at any place nearer to Cataract Canyon. The waggon-box had probably acted as a raft, bearing its gruesome passenger all these long miles into the heart of the mighty gorge, where the dragon stored his prize, and for many a year treasured it among the deep shadows.

[1] Mr. Stanton has called my attention to the fact that as he was running a railway survey _down one side_, he wanted to keep to that side the left side.

In Marble Canyon, about Midway between Paria and Little Colorado. In Marble Canyon, about Midway between Paria and Little Colorado. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

They had still fifteen miles of Cataract Canyon and the ten miles of the more kindly Narrow before them, and Brown was now to hurry along and attempt to reach some placer mines at Dandy Crossing, near the mouth of Frémont River, where there were a few miners and where some food might be obtained. Ancient dwellings were seen all along the gorge in the side canyons, some completely ruined, others in a fair state of preservation, but the inhabitants had gone long ago, and no help could be hoped for in this direction. Most of the men now became thoroughly discouraged at the dismal prospect and wished to abandon immediately and entirely the enterprise, but Stanton was not of that mind. The difficulties showed him how hard it would be to do this part over again, and he resolved to stay and finish the work as far as possible now. His first assistant, Hislop, G. W. Gibson, the coloured cook, and the coloured steward, H. C. Richards, volunteered to stand by him, and the next morning the eleven others pushed on, leaving a boat for these five to follow with. For six days this determined little crew worked along at the rate of about four miles a day, with a ration of one small scrap of bread, a little coffee, and some condensed milk for breakfast and supper, and three lumps of sugar for dinner. Stanton says there was not a murmur of discontent from the men “carrying the survey over the rocks and cliffs on the side of the canyon, and handling the boat through the rapids of the river. At night, when they lay down on the sand to sleep, after a meal that was nine-tenths water and hope and one-tenth bread and coffee, it was without complaint.” Relief was had on the sixth day, when they met a boat being towed up with provisions. This was near the end of Narrow Canyon. At one point in the lower part of Cataract they passed a place where, on a rock surface about six feet above the level of the water, they saw the inscription, “D. JULIEN—1836.” They thought it could have been cut only from a boat or raft, and concluded that it was done by a party of Canadians which they heard had tried to explore this country at that early day. This inscription occurs also in two other known places, near the lower part of Stillwater Canyon (four or five miles above mouth of Grand River), and farther up, about the middle of Bowknot Bend, Labyrinth Canyon, Green River. (See cut, page 352.) At Dandy Crossing, the party rested a few days, the boats were repaired, and fresh supplies of food purchased. They met near here Jack Sumner, of Powell’s first party. From this place to the head of Marble Canyon, the mouth of the Paria, it is plain and easy going, at least for any one who has been through Cataract Canyon. Brown and Stanton went ahead with six men, the others coming along later with the survey.

Marble Canyon, Lower Portion. Marble Canyon, Lower Portion. Walls about 3500 feet. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

At Dandy Crossing three of the party left the river—J. N. Hughes, J. C. Terry, and T. P. Rigney. One man joined the party, Harry McDonald, a frontiersman and an experienced boatman. At Lee Ferry, Reynolds left and Brown went to Kanab for supplies, for Dandy Crossing was not a metropolis, and more rations were needed before venturing to enter the Grand Canyon. Only one transit instrument was left, and it was decided that Brown, Stanton, Hislop, McDonald, Hansborough, Richards, Gibson, and Nims, the photographer, should form the party to proceed, making an examination, taking notes and photographs, but not attempting an instrumental survey. Brown returned from Kanab by July 9th, and an immediate start was made with the three boats,—boats entirely unfitted for the work in Cataract Canyon, and tenfold more inadequate for the giant gorge, with its terrible descents, now before them. It seems a pity they did not realise this and leave the continuation of the work till proper boats could be had, but it appears as if they again underestimated the dangers of the river. At any rate they went bravely forward with a courage that deserved a better reward. The first ugly rapids in Marble Canyon are the two near together about ten miles below Lee’s Ferry, where the prospectors met their punishment early in July, 1872. These the Brown party reached safely, and made the necessary portages, camping at the foot of the Soap Creek or lower fall. Brown appeared to feel lonely and troubled, and asked Stanton to come and sit by his bed and talk. They smoked and talked till a late hour about home and the prospect for the next day. Brown’s wife and two children were at this time travelling in Europe and probably the thought of them so far away made him somewhat blue. Then, if he had before thought that this canyon would be easy, the nature of the rapids around him served to undeceive his mind. The deepening gorge, inadequate boats, and increasingly bad rapids probably affected his nerves, for that night he dreamed of the rapids, and this troubled him so much that he mentioned it to Stanton in the morning. Breakfast over, they went on. We had camped at the head of the Soap Creek Rapids, and this party at the foot. In the first rapid below, which was one of five that we easily ran before stopping for dinner, Brown’s boat was capsized. He and his oarsman McDonald, were thrown out on opposite sides, McDonald into the current and Brown unfortunately into the eddy, where he was drawn under by one of the whirlpools numerous in this locality, and was never seen again. A half-minute later Stanton’s boat passed the spot, but all he saw was the lost leader’s note-book on the surface of the angry waters which had so suddenly swallowed up its owner. The whole day long the party sat sadly watching the place to see if the treacherous river would give up the dead, but darkness fell in the gorge, and the Colorado dashed along toward the sea as if no boat had ever touched its relentless tide. What was one man more or less to this great dragon’s maw! For three days after the others battled their way along without further disaster, and then came Sunday, when they rested. On Monday, while Stanton and Nims were making notes and photographs, the men were to finish up the lower end of the second of two very bad rapids where portages were made. Stanton’s boat, containing Hansborough and Richards, was following the first boat, which had made the stretch with difficulty because the current set against the left-hand cliff. The second boat was driven against the foot of this wall under an overhanging shelf, and in the attempt to push her off she was capsized and Hansborough never rose again. Richards, who was a strong swimmer, made some distance down-stream, but before the first boat could reach him he sank, and that was the end for him. This terrible disaster, added to the death of Brown, and the foolhardiness of proceeding farther with such boats as they had, forced the decision which should have been made at Lee’s Ferry. Stanton resolved to leave the river, but with the determination to return again to battle with the dragon at the earliest opportunity. The next thing was to get out of the canyon. They searched for some side canyon leading in from the north, by means of which they might return to the world, and just above Vesey’s Paradise they found it and spent their last night in Marble Canyon at that point. From the rapid where Brown was lost, to Vesey’s Paradise, my diary records that on our expedition of 1872 we ran twenty-six rapids, let down four times, and made two portages, all without any particular difficulty. I mention this merely to show the difference proper boats make in navigating this river, for the season was nearly the same; Brown was there in July and we in August, both the season of high water. The night passed by Stanton and his disheartened but courageous band at Vesey’s Paradise was long to be remembered, for one of the violent thunderstorms frequent in the canyon in summer, came up. The rain fell in floods, while about midnight the storm culminated in a climax of fury. Stanton says that in all his experience in the Western mountains he never heard anything like it. “Nowhere has the awful grandeur equalled that night in the lonesome depths of what was to us death’s canyon.” The next day was fair, and by two in the afternoon, July 19th, they were on the surface of the country, twenty-five hundred feet above the river, and that night reached a cattle ranch.

Looking West from Jacob’s Pool on Road to Lee’s Ferry. Vermilion Cliffs in Distance. Looking West from Jacob’s Pool on Road to Lee’s Ferry. Vermilion Cliffs in Distance. The “Jacob” after whom the pool was named was Jacob Hamblin. This is the country Stanton was in after leaving the river. Photograph by W. BELL.

By November 25th of the same year (1889) the indefatigable Stanton had organised a new party to continue the railway survey. He still had confidence in the scheme, and he refused to give up. And this time the boats were planned with some regard to the waters upon which they were to be used. McDonald was sent to superintend their building at the boatyard of H. H. Douglas & Co., Waukegan, Illinois. There were three, each twenty-two feet long, the same as our boats, four and one-half feet beam, and twenty-two inches deep, and each weighed 850 pounds. They were built of half-inch oak, on plans furnished by Stanton, with ribs one-and-one-half by three-quarters of an inch, placed four inches apart, all copper fastened. Each boat had ten separate air-tight galvanised-iron compartments running around the sides, and they were so arranged that the canned goods could be put under the foot-boards for ballast. There was a deck fore and aft, and there were life-lines along the sides. They were certainly excellent boats, and while in some respects I think our model was better, especially because the two transverse bulkheads amidships in ours tended to make their sides very strong and stiff, yet these boats of Stanton’s were so good that the men would be safe as long as they handled them correctly. Cork life-preservers of the best quality were provided, and the order was for each man to wear his whenever in rough or uncertain water. All stores and provisions were packed in water-tight rubber bags, made like ocean mail-sacks, expressly for the purpose. The expedition was thus well provided.

Tapeets Creek. Tapeets Creek. Character of some of the tributary valleys of the north side of the Grand Canyon through the Kaibab section. The extreme height of the north wall is seen in the distance. A considerable valley intervenes between it and the river. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

From the railway[2] the boats were hauled on waggons to the mouth of Crescent Creek near Frémont River, so as to avoid doing Cataract Canyon over again. There were twelve men, of whom four had been with the Brown party. They were R. B. Stanton, Langdon Gibson, Harry McDonald, and Elmer Kane, in boat No. 1, called the _Bonnie Jean_, John Hislop F. A. Nims, Reginald Travers, and W. H. Edwards in boat No. 2, called the _Lillie;_ and A. B. Twining, H. G. Ballard, L. G. Brown, and James Hogue, the cook, in the _Marie_, boat No. 3. Christmas dinner was eaten at Lee’s Ferry, with wild flowers picked that day for decoration. On the 28th they started into the great canyon, passed the old wreck of a boat and part of a miner’s outfit, and on the 31st reached the rapid where Brown was lost. It was now the season of low water, and the rapid appeared less formidable, though on entering it the place was seen to be in general the same, yet the water was nine feet lower. The next day Nims, the photographer, fell from a ledge a distance of twenty-two feet, receiving a severe jar and breaking one of his legs just above the ankle. The break was bandaged, and one of the boats being so loaded that there was a level bed for the injured man to lie on, they ran down about two miles to a side canyon coming in from the north. By means of this Stanton climbed out, walked thirty-five miles to Lee’s Ferry, and brought a waggon back to the edge. Nims was placed on an improvised stretcher, and carried up the cliffs, four miles in distance and seventeen hundred feet in altitude. At half-past three in the afternoon the surface was reached. Twice the stretcher had to be swung along by ropes where there was no footing, and twice had to be perpendicularly lifted ten or fifteen feet. No one was injured. Nims was taken to Lee’s Ferry and left with W. M. Johnson, who had been a member of our land

## parties during the winter of 1871-72, and who had come with the

_Cañonita_ party through Glen Canyon. Nims was in good hands. After this accident Stanton was obliged to assume the duties of photographer and took some seven hundred and fifty views without previous experience.

[2] The Rio Grande Western. The route was west of the river.

The Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon. In the First Granite Gorge. Upper walls are not seen. Those in sight are 1000 to 1200 feet. Above they rise in terraces to between 5000 and 6000. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

By January 13th they had arrived at Point Retreat, where the canyon had before been abandoned, and here they found the supplies and blankets they had cached in a marble cave in perfect condition. The new boats were so well suited to the river work that they were able to run most of the rapids just as we had done, often going at the rate of fifteen miles an hour, and sometimes by actual measurement, twenty. Ten miles below Point Retreat, and twenty-five miles above the Little Colorado, when they were going into camp one evening they discovered the body of Peter Hansborough. The next morning, with a brief ceremony, they buried the remains at the foot of the cliff, carving his name on the face of the rock, and a point opposite was named after the unfortunate man. From Point Hansborough the canyon widens, “the marble benches retreat, new strata of limestone, quartzite, and sandstone come up from the river,” writes Stanton, “and the débris forms a talus equal to a mountain slope. Here the bottoms widen into little farms covered with green grass and groves of mesquite, making a most charming summer picture, in strong contrast with the dismal narrow canyons above.” They then passed the Little Colorado and entered the Grand Canyon proper, meeting with a lone prospector in the wide portion just below the Little Colorado, the only person they had seen in any of the canyons traversed.

The Great Unconformity. The Great Unconformity. Top of the Granite, Grand Canyon. Photograph by MITCHELL PRUDDEN.

Arriving at the First Granite Gorge (Archæan formation), they were at the beginning of the wildest stretch of river of all, perhaps the wildest to be found anywhere, the fall in the first ten miles averaging twenty-one feet to the mile, the greatest average except in Lodore and a portion of Cataract, and as this descent is not spread over the ten miles, but occurs in a series of falls with comparatively calm water between, it is not hard to picture the conditions. Stanton also pronounces these rapids of the First Granite Gorge the most powerful he saw, except two in the Second Granite Gorge. On January 29th they had cautiously advanced till they were before the great descent some of our party had called the Sockdologer, the heaviest fall on the river, about eighty feet in a third of a mile. They proceeded all along in much the same careful fashion as we had done, and as everyone who hopes to make this passage alive must proceed. The water being low, they were able to let their boats by line over the upper end of the Sockdologer with safety, but, in attempting to continue, the _Marie_ was caught by a cross-current and thrown against the rocks, turned half over, filled with water, and jammed tightly between two boulders lying just beneath the surface. In winter, the air in the canyon is not very cold, but the river coming so swiftly from the far north is, and the men with lines about their waists who tried to go through the rushing waist-deep water found it icy. Taking turns, they succeeded with a grappling-hook in getting out the cargo, losing only two sacks of provisions, but though they laboured till dark they were not able to move the boat. Giving her up for lost, they tried to secure a night’s rest on the sharp rocks. Had a great rise in the river occurred now the party would have been in a terrible predicament, but though it rose a few days later it spared them on this occasion. It came up only two feet, and this was a kindness, for it lifted the _Marie_ so that they were able to pull her out of the vise. When they saw her condition, however, they were dismayed for one side was half gone, and the other was smashed in. The keel remained whole. By cutting four feet out of the centre and drawing the ends together, five days’ hard work made practically another boat. They were then able to proceed, and, going past Bright Angel Creek, arrived on February 6th at what Stanton describes as “the most powerful and unmanageable rapid” on the river. This, I believe, was the place where we were capsized. Thompson at that time, before we ran it, declared it looked to him like the worst rapid we had encountered but at the stage of water then prevailing we could not get near it. Stanton wisely made a portage, of the supplies and let the boats down by lines. His boat, the _Bonnie Jean_, played all sorts of pranks, rushing out into the current, ducking and diving under water, and finally floating down sideways. Then they thought they would try what Stanton calls Powell’s plan of shooting a boat through and catching it below. Such a harum-scarum method was never used on our expedition, and I never heard Powell suggest that it was on the first. Stanton cites as authority one of Powell’s statements in the Report. At any rate in this instance it was as disastrous as might have been expected. The poor _Marie_ was again the sufferer, and came out below “in pieces about the size of toothpicks.” The _Lillie_ was then carried down and reached the river beyond in safety. A day or two after this McDonald decided to leave the party, and started up a little creek coming in from the north, to climb out to the plateau, and make his way to Kanab. This he succeeded in doing after several days of hard work and tramping through the heavy snow on the plateau. The other ten men concluded to remain with Stanton and they all went on in the two boats. Several days later they passed the mouth of the Kanab. The terrible First Granite Gorge was well behind them. But now the river began to rise. Before reaching the Kanab it rose four feet and continued to rise for two days and nights, altogether some ten or twelve feet. A little below the Kanab, where the canyon is very narrow, they came upon a peculiar phenomenon. They heard a loud roar and saw breakers ahead. Thinking it a bad rapid, they landed immediately on some rocks, and, going along these to examine the place, the breakers had disappeared, but as they stood in amazement there suddenly arose at their feet the same huge waves, twelve or fifteen feet high and one hundred and fifty feet long, across the river, “rolling down-stream like great sea waves, and breaking in white foam with a terrible noise.” These waves, as was later ascertained, were the result of a cloudburst on the headwaters of the Little Colorado, and indicate what might be expected in here in the event of a combination of such waves with the highest stage of water. The next day they were diminished, and the river fell somewhat, but it was still so powerful they could barely control the boats and had a wild and tumultuous ride, sometimes being almost bodily thrown out of the boats. By this time their rations were getting low, but by pushing on as fast as possible they reached Diamond Creek on March 1st, where supplies were planned to meet them. Remaining there ten days to recuperate they went on with only eight men, three concluding to leave at this place. The Second Granite Gorge begins about eighteen miles above Diamond Creek, and is about thirty miles long. It is much like the First Granite Gorge, being the same formation, excepting that it is shorter and that the declivity of the river is not so great. From Diamond Creek down to the end of the canyon is about fifty miles. It is a bad stretch, and contains some heavy falls which, as the river was still somewhat high, were often impossible to get around, and they were obliged to run them. The stage of water in both these Granite Gorges makes a great difference in the character of the falls. For example, in the Second Gorge, when Wheeler made his precarious journey in 1871, he was able, coming from below, to surmount the rapids along the sides with two of his boats, because the water happened to be at a stage that permitted this, whereas Stanton found it impossible to pass some of them without running, and Powell found the one that split his party the same way. So it appears that one day finds these gorges easier or harder than another; but at their easiest they are truly fearful places. At one of the worst falls Stanton’s boat suddenly crashed upon a rock that projected from the shore, and there she hung, all the men being thrown forward. The boat filled and stuck fast, while the great waves rolled over her and her crew. Stanton tried to straighten himself up, and was taken in the back by a breaker and washed out of the craft altogether into a whirlpool, and finally shot to the surface fifty feet farther down. He had on his cork jacket and was saved, though he was ducked again and carried along swiftly by the tremendous current. The second boat had better luck and came through in time to pick Stanton up. The damaged boat was gotten off with a hole in her side ten by eighteen inches, which was closed by a copper patch, at the first chance, the air chambers having kept the craft afloat. After this the bad rapids were soon ended, and on the morning of March 17th (1890) the party emerged into an open country and upon a peaceful, quiet river. Continuing down through Black and the other canyons, and through the intervening valleys, they reached, on the 26th of April, the salt tide where Alarçon, three and a half centuries earlier, had first put a keel upon these turbulent waters, the only party thus far to make the entire passage from the Junction to the sea. And as yet no one has made the complete descent from Green River Valley to the counter-current of the Tidal Bore, so if there is any reader who desires to distinguish himself here is a feat still open to him.

Looking up the Grand Canyon, at the Foot of Toroweap, Uinkaret Division. Looking up the Grand Canyon, at the Foot of Toroweap, Uinkaret Division. Depth of inner gorge about 3000 feet—width, brink to brink, about 3500 feet. Oil sketch by F.S. DELLENBAUGH.

The Grand Canyon—Lava Falls. The Grand Canyon—Lava Falls. Just below the Toroweap. Total depth of canyon about 4500 feet. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

On the Bright Angel Trail. On the Bright Angel Trail. Photograph by MITCHELL PRUDDEN.

Stanton deserves much praise for his pluck and determination and good judgment in carrying this railway survey to a successful issue, especially after the discouraging disasters of the first attempt. He holds the data and believes the project will some day be carried out. From the foregoing pages the reader may judge the probabilities in the case.

Since the Stanton party several descents successful and unsuccessful have been made. The first was the “Best party,” representing the Colorado Grand Canyon Mining and Improvement Company, with eight men and two boats similar to those used by Stanton. The expedition left Green River, Utah, July 10, 1891. The members were James S. Best, Harry McDonald, John Hislop, William H. Edwards, Elmer Kane, L. H. Jewell, J. H. Jacobs, A. J. Gregory, and J. A. McCormick. Four of these, Hislop, McDonald, Kane, and Edwards had been with Mr. Stanton, to whom I am indebted for this information. The men had cork life-jackets. In Cataract Canyon one boat was wrecked but no one was lost, and they made their way to Lee Ferry with the remaining boat and there abandoned the expedition.

In 1891, a steam launch, the _Major Powell_, thirty-five feet long, with two six-horsepower engines driving twin screws was brought out in the summer from Chicago by way of the Rio Grande Western Railway to the crossing of Green River, and there launched in September of that year. A screw was soon broken, and the attempt to go down the river abandoned. In 1892 another effort was made, but this also was given up after a few miles. But in 1893, W. H. Edwards, who had been with the Stanton party, together with L. H. Johnson and some others, took the _Major Powell_ down to the Junction and back, making a second trip in April. The round trip took fourteen days. They also went up the Grand some distance. Entering the jaws of Cataract Canyon they went to the head of the first rapid. On trying to return the current proved almost too much for the power. With block and tackle to help the engines they finally got above the swift water, and had no further serious trouble. Mr. Johnson says the launch came near being wrecked. Several other steam craft were later put on the river, the Undine being the most pretentious (see cut, page 390). She was wrecked trying to run up a rapid on Grand River above Moab. In 1894 Lieut. C. L. Potter made an unsuccessful attempt to go from Diamond Creek to the mouth of the Virgin, September 20th, 1895, N. Galloway and William Richmond started from Green River, Wyoming, and went down in flat, bottomed boats to Lee Ferry. September, 1896, they started again from Henry’s Fork, Wyoming, and went to the Needles reaching there February 10, 1897. Since that time Galloway has made several successful descents. In August, 1896, George F. Flavell and a companion left Green River, Wyoming, and successfully descended to Yuma in flat-bottomed boats, reaching there December, 1896.

In 1907, three miners, Charles Russell, E. R. Monett, and Albert Loper, with three steel boats each sixteen feet long, left Green River, Utah, September 20th, to make the descent. Loper and one damaged boat were left at Hite near the mouth of Frémont river, while Russell and Monett proceeded. In the beginning of the Grand Canyon they lost a boat, but with the remaining one after various disasters, they finally made their exit from the Grand Canyon, January 31, 1908. Their boats of steel were about the most unsuitable of any ever put on the river. They carried a copy of this volume all the way through and found it of value.

A view of the Grand Canyon may now be had without risk or discomfort of any kind, as the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé Railway runs trains direct to Hotel Tovar at the very edge of the gorge at one of the grandest portions, opposite Bright Angel Creek. There are several trails in this region leading down to the river besides the one from the hotel. It is always a hard climb for those unaccustomed to mountaineering. From the north, for any who are fond of camping, an interesting trip may be made from Modena on the Salt Lake to Los Angeles Railway via St. George to the Toroweap and the Kaibab country, though this is a matter of several weeks, and necessitates an outfit.

The Grand Canyon may be crossed at two points, Bright Angel Trail and Bass’s Trail, and the heights of the north rim gained in that manner though it is not an easy trip.

In a general way we have now traced the whole history of the discovery and exploration of this wonderful river, which after nearly four centuries still flings defiance at the puny efforts of man to cope with it, while its furious waters dash on through the long, lonely gorges, as untrammelled to-day as they were in the forgotten ages. Those who approach it respectfully and reverently are treated not unkindly, but woe and disaster await all others. The lesson of these pages is plain, and the author commends it to all who hereafter may be inspired to add their story to this Romance of the Colorado River.

Agreement made by Major Powell with men of his first expedition. From a copy in the handwriting of one of the party.

(COPY) This agreement made this twenty-fifth day of February, eighteen-hundred-and-sixty-nine, between J. W. Powell, party of the first part, and J. C. Sumner, W. H. Dunn, and O. G. Howland, party of the second part, witnesseth, that the said party of the second part agree to do the following work, respectively, for the party of the first part, namely: J. C. Sumner agrees to do all necessary work required with the sextant; W. H. Dunn to make barometrical observations night and morning of each day, when required, also to make observations when needed for determining altitude of walls of the Cañon, also to make not more than sixty-two hourly series of not more than eight days each, he to have the aid of an assistant for the last two mentioned classes of observations; O. G. Howland to make a topographical drawing of the course of the rivers. The above and foregoing work to be performed during the proposed exploration of the Green River, from Green River City, Wyoming Territory, to the Colorado River, and of the Colorado River from that point to Callville, (blank space left here evidently for the insertion of the name of the territory in which Callville was situated. F.S.D.) ———; the party of the second part to perform the foregoing work to the best of their ability; the party of the second part also agreeing to do a fair proportion of the work necessary in getting supplies and boats safely through the channels of the aforementioned rivers, for use of the expedition; and also agreeing to save for specimens for stuffing, for the party of the first part, all suitable skins of animals which they may collect while engaged in the above exploration of the Green and Colorado rivers, J. W. Powell, party of the first part, agreeing to allow the party of the second part five days at one time for prospecting for gold and silver, if not too often; also to allow thirty days to the party of the second part for hunting and trapping between the first day of September and the first day of December, eighteen-hundred-and-sixty-nine, and sixty days between the first day of January and the first day of June, eighteen-hundred-and-seventy; the party of the first part also agreeing to pay to the party of the second part, respectively, twenty-five dollars each per month for the time employed in all such service, and also agreeing to pay in addition the annexed prices for all skins procured for him by the party of the second part; J. W. Powell, the party of the first part, to furnish boats, supplies, ammunition, etc., sufficient for the use of the expedition. This agreement to go into effect the first day of June eighteen-hundred-and-sixty-nine, and not to continue over one year.

Should it be necessary to proceed on the journey, without delay on account of disaster to boats or loss of rations, then the time specified for hunting may not be required by either party, nor shall it be deemed a failure of contract to furnish supplies should such supplies be lost in transit.

J. C. Sumner J.W. Powell William H. Dunn In Charge of Col. River Ex. O. G. Howland Deer . . $1.25 each Martin .$1.50 each Weasel $.35 each Sheep . 1.25 " Otter 3.50 " Bear (grown grizzly) 10.00 " Antelope 1.00 " Beaver 1.00 " " cub . . . 1.00 " Elk . . 2.00 " Wildcat .50 " grown cinnamon 5.00 " Wolf (grey)1.00 " Porcupine .50 " " cub . . . 1.00 " " coyote .50 " Squirrel .35 " grown black . . 3.00 " Fox (cross)1.50 " Rabbit .35 " " cub . . . 1.00 " " red . . .75 " Woodchuck .35 " Mink. . 1.50 " Badger .50 " and all other skins at proportionate rates.

EPILOGUE

Major Powell had kindly consented to write an introduction to this volume wherein I have inadequately presented scenes from the great world-drama connected with the Colorado River of the West, but a prolonged illness prevented his doing any writing whatever, and on September 23, 1902, while, indeed, the compositor was setting the last type of the book, a funeral knell sounded at Haven, Maine, his summer home, and the most conspicuous figure we have seen on this stage, the man whose name is as inseparable from the marvellous canyon-river as that of De Soto from the Mississippi, or Hendrik Hudson from the placid stream which took from him its title, started on that final journey whence there is no returning. A distinguished cortege bore the remains across the Potomac, laying them in a soldier’s grave in the National Cemetery at Arlington. Thus the brave sleeps with the brave on the banks of the river of roses, a stream in great contrast to that other river far in the West where only might be found a tomb more appropriate within sound of the raging waters he so valiantly conquered.

In the history of the United States the place of John Wesley Powell is clear.[1] A great explorer, he was also foremost among men of science and probably he did more than any other single individual to direct Governmental scientific research along proper lines. His was a character of strength and fortitude. A man of action, his fame will endure as much by his deeds as by his contributions to scientific literature. Never a seeker for pecuniary rewards his life was an offering to science, and when other paths more remunerative were open to him he turned his back upon them. He believed in sticking to one’s vocation and thoroughly disapproved of wandering off in pursuit of common profit. The daring feat of exploring the canyons of the Colorado was undertaken for no spectacular effect or pecuniary reward, but was purely a scientific venture in perfect accord with the spirit of his early promise. As G. K. Gilbert remarks in a recent number of _Science_[2] it was “of phenomenal boldness and its successful accomplishment a dramatic triumph. It produced a strong impression on the public mind and gave Powell a national reputation which was afterwards of great service, although based on an adventurous episode by no means essential to his career as an investigator.” The qualities which enabled him so splendidly to perform his many self-imposed tasks were an inheritance from his parents, who possessed more than ordinary intelligence. Joseph Powell, his father, had a strong will, deep earnestness, and indomitable courage, while his mother, Mary Dean, with similar traits possessed also remarkable tact and practicality. Both were English born, the mother well educated, and were always leaders in the social and educational life of every community where they dwelt. Especially were they prominent in religious circles, the father being a licensed exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Both were intensely American in their love and admiration of the civil institutions of the United States and both were strenuously opposed to slavery, which was flourishing in America when they arrived in 1830. For a time they remained in New York City and then removed to the village of Palmyra whence they went to Mount Morris, Livingston County, New York, where, on March 24, 1834, the fourth of their nine children, John Wesley, was born. Because of the slavery question Joseph Powell left the Methodist Episcopal Church on the organisation of the Wesleyan Methodist Church and became a regularly ordained preacher in the latter. It was in this atmosphere of social, educational, political, and religious fervor that the future explorer grew up. When he was four or five years old the family moved to Jackson, Ohio, and then, in 1846, went on westward to South Grove, Walworth County, Wisconsin, where a farm was purchased. They were in prosperous circumstances, and the boy was active in the management of affairs, early exhibiting his trait for doing things well. His ploughing, stack-building, and business ability in disposing advantageously of the farm products and in purchasing supplies at the lake ports received the commendation of the countryside.

[1] I am indebted to Major Powell’s brother-in-law, Prof. A. H. Thompson, for many of the facts herein stated, and for revision of dates to his brother Prof. W. B. Powell.

[2] October 10, 1902.

Canyon John Wesley Powell. 1834–1902.

His early education was such as the country schools provided. He later studied at Janesville, Wisconsin, earning his board by working nights and mornings. His parents ever held before him the importance of achieving the highest education possible. Thus he continually turned to books, and while his oxen were eating or resting, he was absorbed in some illuminating volume. In 1851 his family removed to Bonus Prairie, Boone County, Illinois, where a larger farm had been purchased. About 1853 the Wesleyan College was established at Wheaton, Illinois, and the family removed there in order to take advantage of the opportunities afforded. The father became one of the trustees and Powell entered the preparatory classes. With intervals of teaching and business pursuits, he continued here till 1855, when, largely through the influence of the late Hon. John Davis, of Kansas, he entered the preparatory department of Illinois College at Jacksonville, Illinois. Thus far he had shown no special aptitude for the natural sciences, though he was always a close observer of natural phenomena. His ambition at this period, which was also in accord with the dearest wishes of his parents, was to complete his college course and enter the ministry. Illinois College not possessing a theological atmosphere after a year spent there he departed, and in 1857 began a course of study at Oberlin College, Ohio. Among his studies there was botany, and in this class Powell at last discovered himself and his true vocation—the investigation of natural science. He became an enthusiastic botanist and searched the woods and swamps around Oberlin with the same zeal and thoroughness which always characterised his work. He made an almost complete herbarium of the flora of the county, organising the class into a club to assist in its collection. In the summer of 1858, having returned to Wheaton, Illinois, where the family had settled in 1854, he joined the Illinois State Natural History Society, then engaged in conducting a natural history survey of the State through the voluntary labour of its members. To Powell was assigned the department of conchology. This work he entered upon with his usual application and made the most complete collection of the mollusca of Illinois ever brought together by one man. Incidentally, botany, zoology, and mineralogy received attention, and in these lines he secured notable collections. With the broad mental grasp which was a pronounced trait, he perceived that these studies were but parts of the greater science of geology, which he then announced, to at least one of his intimate friends, was to be the science to which he intended to devote his life. The next year was given to study, teaching, and lecturing, usually on some topic connected with geology.

In the spring of 1860, on a lecturing tour, he visited some of the Southern States, and while there closely observed the sentiment of the people on the subject of slavery, with the result that he expressed the conviction that nothing short of war could settle the matter. In the summer of 1860 he became principal of the public schools of Hennepin, Illinois. These he organised, graded, and taught with a vigour which was characteristic, yet never forgetting his geological investigations in the neighbouring country, where, on Saturdays and at other times when the schools were not in session, he made botanical and zoological collections.

Convinced that war was inevitable, the winter of 1860-61 found him studying military tactics and engineering. When the call came for troops, he was the first man to enroll, and largely through his efforts Company H of the 20th Regiment, Illinois Infantry, was raised in Putnam County. When the regiment was organised at Joliet, Illinois, he was appointed sergeant-major, and in this capacity went to the front. When the force was sent to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, his prescience in studying military engineering made him invaluable. He was practically given charge of planning and laying out and constructing the fortifications at that place, a work he executed so well that it received the unqualified commendation of General Frémont. The second lieutenant of Company H resigning, Powell was elected to fill the vacancy. After a service of a few weeks with his company he was put in charge of the fortifications he had constructed, being retained in this post after the departure of his regiment. In the early winter of 1861-62 he recruited a company of artillery, largely from loyal Missourians. This company was mustered into service as Battery F, 2d Illinois Artillery, John Wesley Powell, Captain. After drilling a few weeks he was ordered to proceed with his battery to Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, where he arrived the latter part of March, 1862. The battery took part in the battle of Shiloh, April 6th of that year, and during the engagement, as Powell raised his arm, a signal to fire, a rifle ball struck his hand at the wrist glancing toward the elbow. The necessary surgery was done so hastily that later a second operation was imperative, which left him with a mere stump below the elbow-joint. Never for long at a time afterward was he free from pain and only a few years ago a third operation was performed which brought relief.

As soon as the original wound was healed he went back to his command, assisting as Division Chief of Artillery in the siege of Vicksburg. After the fall of this place he took part in the Meridian Raid. Then he served on detached operations at Vicksburg, Natchez, and New Orleans until the summer of 1864, when he was re-assigned to the former command in the Army of the Tennessee. In all the operations after the fall of Atlanta he bore an active part, and when Sherman commenced the march to the sea, Powell was sent back to General Thomas at Nashville, in command of twenty batteries of artillery. At the battle of Nashville he served on the staff of Thomas and continued with this command till mustered out in the early summer of 1865. As a soldier his career was marked by a thorough study and mastery not only of the details of military life, but of military science. Especially was he apt in utilising material at hand to accomplish his ends—a trait that was also prominent in his civil life. Bridges he built from cotton-gin houses, mantelets for his guns from gunny bags and old rope, and shields for his sharpshooters from the mould-boards of old ploughs found on the abandoned plantations. All this time wherever possible he continued his studies in natural science. He made a collection of fossils unearthed in the trenches around Vicksburg, land and river shells from the Mississippi swamps, and a large collection of mosses while on detached duty in Illinois. He also familiarised himself with the geology of regions through which the armies passed to which he was attached. Time and again he was commended for his services and declined promotion to higher rank in other arms of the service. “He loved the scarlet facings of the artillery, and there was something in the ranking of batteries and the power of cannon,” writes Thompson, “that was akin to the workings of his own mind.”

In 1862 he was married to his cousin, Miss Emma Dean, of Detroit, who still lives in Washington with their daughter, an only child. Mrs. Powell was often his companion in the army and early Western journeys. Upon the return of Powell to civil life in 1865 he was tendered a nomination to a lucrative political office in Du Page County, Illinois, and at the same time he was offered the chair of geology in the Wesleyan University, a struggling Methodist College at Bloomington, Illinois. There was no hesitation on his part. He declined the political honour and its emoluments and accepted the professorship, which he retained two years. At the session of the Illinois Legislature in 1867 a bill was passed, largely through his effort, creating a professorship of geology and natural history in the State Normal University at Normal, Illinois, with a salary of fifteen hundred dollars and an appropriation of one thousand dollars annually to increase the geological and zoological collections. He was elected to this chair and at about the same time was also chosen curator of the Illinois State Natural History Society, whose collections were domiciled in the museum of the Normal University. Attracted by the Far West as a field for profitable scientific research, the summer of 1867 found him using his salary and the other available funds to defray the expense of an expedition to the then Territory of Colorado for the purpose of securing collections. He organised and outfitted at Plattsmouth, Nebraska. All his assistants were volunteers except the cook. A. H. Thompson, afterwards so closely associated with him in the detailed exploration of the Colorado and in subsequent survey work, was the entomologist of the party. They crossed the plains with mule teams to Denver, worked along the east slope of the Front Range, climbed Pike’s Peak, and went westerly as far as South Park. Without realising it, apparently, Powell was all these years steadily approaching the great exploit of his life, as if led on and prepared by some unseen power. Now the project of exploring the mysterious gorges of which he heard such wonderful tales dawned upon him. It was as near an inspiration as can be imagined. Henceforth his mind and energy were directed irresistibly toward the accomplishment of this conception. Again in 1868 he was in the field with the same financial backing, to which was added a small allotment from the Illinois Industrial University at Champaign, Illinois, a State school. All but Mrs. Powell and his brother Walter, of this 1868 party, returned East on the approach of autumn, while with these and several trappers and hunters, among whom were the two Rowlands, William Dunn, and William Rhodes Hawkins, afterwards of his party to explore the canyons, he crossed the range to White River and wintered there near the camp of Chief Douglass and his band of Utes. When spring came in 1869 he went out to Granger, on the Union Pacific Railway, and there disposed of his mules and outfit, proceeding immediately to Washington, where he induced Congress to pass a joint resolution endorsed by General Grant authorising him to draw rations from Western army posts for a party of twelve men while engaged in making collections for public institutions. Never was assistance better deserved. Then he returned to Illinois and obtained from the trustees of the Normal University permission to again divert his salary and the other funds to Western work. The trustees of the Illinois Industrial University allotted him five hundred dollars, and the Chicago Academy of Sciences, through the influence of Dr. Andrews, the curator, also contributed two hundred and fifty or five hundred dollars. In addition some personal friends contributed small sums.

Green River from the U.P. Railway to White River, showing gorges through the Uinta Mountains. Green River from the U.P. Railway to White River, showing gorges through the Uinta Mountains.

The object proposed was to make collections in natural history to be shared accordingly with the contributing institutions. While these collections were one of Powell’s objects, others were the examination of the geology, and particularly the solution of the greatest remaining geographical problem of the United States, the canyons of the Green and Colorado rivers. The Green, as has been explained in preceding pages, was known as far as the Uinta Mountains, and here and there at widely separated points on down to about Gunnison Valley. But there were long gaps, and below Gunnison Crossing as far as the Grand Wash the knowledge of the canyons as already pointed out was vague in the extreme. The altitude of Green River Station, Wyoming, was known to be about six thousand feet above sea level, and that of the mouth of the Virgen less than one thousand. How the river made up this difference was not understood and this problem was what Powell now confronted. His fortitude, nerve, courage, and war experience served him well in this endeavour upon which he started, as previously described, in the spring of 1869. The War Department and perhaps the Smithsonian Institution, furnished some instruments. This expedition met with so many disasters that Powell deemed a second descent in the interest of science desirable, and for a continuation of his explorations, Congress voted in 1870 an appropriation of ten thousand dollars. This second expedition was successful, performing its work in the years 1871-72-73. At the Session of 1871-72 another appropriation was made by Congress for proceeding with the topographical and geological survey of the country adjacent to the river. These appropriations were expended under the supervision of the Smithsonian Institution and were continued annually for work under the titles, Exploration of the Colorado River and its Tributaries, and Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, up to 1879, when the work was consolidated largely through Powell’s endeavour, with two other surveys, Hayden’s and Wheeler’s. The latter thought all this work ought to be done by the War Department, but Powell believed otherwise and his view prevailed. Out of these grew by the consolidation the Geological Survey, of which Clarence King was made director, Powell, because of the earnest efforts he had made to bring about the consolidation, refusing to allow his name to be presented. The new Geological Survey was under the Interior Department, and in 1881, when King resigned the directorship, Powell was immediately appointed in his place. The results of Powell’s original field-work were topographic maps of a large part of Utah, and considerable portions of Wyoming, Arizona, and Nevada, constructed under the direction of Powell’s colleague, Prof. A. H. Thompson. There were also many volumes of reports and monographs, among them the account of the expedition of 1869, entitled _The Exploration of the Colorado River of the West, 1869 to 1872; The Geology of the Uinta Mountains, by Powell; Lands of the Arid Region_ by Powell; _Geology of the High Plateaus of Utah_, by C. E. Dutton of the Ordnance Department, U.S.A.; _Geology of the Henry Mountains_, by G. K. Gilbert; and four volumes of _Contributions to North American Ethnology_, one of which contained Lewis H. Morgan’s famous monograph on “Houses and House Life of the American Aborigines.” Early in his Western work Powell became interested in the native tribes. In the winter of 1868, while on White River, he studied language, tribal organisation, customs, and mythology of the Utes and from 1870 to 1873 he carried on studies among the Pai Utes, the Moki, etc., being adopted into one of the Moki clans. On his journeys during these periods he often took with him several of the natives for the purpose of investigating their myths and language. Eventually he became the highest authority on the Shoshonean tribes. In 1874 he was one of the commissioners to select and locate the Southern Pai Utes on a reservation in south-eastern Nevada.

The Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon. Boats of the second Powell Expedition, showing armchair in which Powell sat. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

North American archæology also claimed his interest and about the time of the consolidation of the Surveys Powell proposed the establishment of a Bureau of Ethnology to carry on investigations in this field as well as the ethnologic. This was done and the Bureau was attached to the Smithsonian Institution with Powell as director, an office that he held without salary till his resignation as head of the Geological Survey in 1894. After this he received a salary as chief of the Bureau of Ethnology in which office he remained till his death. The widely known extensive series of valuable volumes published by the Bureau, constituting a mine of information, attest the efficacy of his supervision. He contributed much to these and also wrote numerous papers on anthropological subjects and made many addresses. His labours as a pioneer in and organiser of the science of ethnology have been recognised by learned institutions and societies throughout the world. The results of his direction of the Geological Survey are seen in the maps, reports, bulletins, and monographs, constituting an imperishable monument to his ability as an organiser and administrator.

He delivered many lectures and once, when he appeared on the platform at the University of Michigan, an incident occurred which illustrates his tact and his faculty for seizing means at hand to accomplish his end. At this time it was the habit of the students at public lectures to guy the speaker, even Charles Sumner having been a victim. Powell had been warned of this practice. As he advanced in evening dress a voice called out “How are your coat tails?”—a greeting which was repeated from all parts of the house. During a momentary lull he exclaimed with the peculiar squinting of the eyes and the half-laugh his friends so well remember: “Your greeting reminds me of Dave Larkins’s reply when criticised for wearing a wamus[3] in July. Dave said, with his slow drawl, ‘If you don’t like my wamus I can take it off.’” The suggestion took with the students and when the laughter had ceased, cries of “You’ll do—go on,” came from everywhere. The incident roused Powell, and he has often said he never talked better nor had a more attentive audience. He was rewarded with enthusiastic applause. With his closing sentence he said: “I have given you the finest account of the exploration of the Colorado River my command of language permits. I have been as dramatic and as eloquent as I thought this occasion demanded. If any one wishes a plain statement regarding the exploration, I will be happy to give it to him at my hotel.” There was a hush for a moment as the students grasped the implication and cries of “Sold!” burst from them. A large number did call the next morning to discover whether he had actually stated facts, which of course he had.

[3] A wamus in old times was a very heavy woollen garment.

He possessed absolute independence of thought and never accepted what was-told him unless he could demonstrate its accuracy. Often in his explorations he was told he could not travel in certain places, but he went on just the same to find out for himself. He had a rare faculty of inducing enthusiasm in others, and by reposing complete confidence in the individual, impelled him to do his very best. Thus he became the mainspring for much that was never credited to him, and which was really his in the germ or original idea. Gilbert truly says, “it is not easy to separate the product of his personal work from that which he accomplished through the organisation of the work of others. He was extremely fertile in ideas, so fertile that it was quite impossible that he should personally develop them all, and realising this, he gave freely to his collaborators. The work which he inspired and to which he contributed the most important creative elements, I believe to be at least as important as that for which his name stands directly responsible.”[4]

[4] _Science_, Oct. 10,1902. See also “John Wesley Powell,” edited by G. K. Gilbert, reprinted from The Open Court, 1903.

Pilling’s Cascade. Pilling’s Cascade. Creeks of the high Plateaus. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.

In the field of geology he was particularly facile in the invention of apt descriptive terms, and indeed he was never at a loss for words to express new meanings, coining them readily where none had existed that were appropriate. Some of his ideas have been developed by younger men, till they have become distinct divisions of the larger science to which they belong. His greatest work in the Geological Survey, that which was more the result of his personal effort, may be summed up under three heads: First, the development of a plan for making a complete topographic map of the United States; second, the organisation of a Bureau for the collection of facts and figures relating to the mineral resources of the country; and third, his labours to preserve for the people the waters and irrigable lands of the Arid Region. It is hard to say which of these is greater or which was nearer his heart. Together they constitute a far-reaching influence in the development of the country such as no one man heretofore has contributed. His Studies and recommendations with regard to the arid lands of the West are of the greatest importance to that district and to the country at large and the nearer they can be carried out the better will it be for posterity. He perceived at once that the reservation of sites for storage reservoirs was of the first importance and this was one of the earliest steps he endeavoured to bring about.

Of late years when he might have relaxed his labours, he turned his attention to the field of psychology and philosophy, working till his malady, sclerosis of the arteries, produced his last illness. The result was two treatises in this line. _Truth and Error_, published in 1899, and “treating of matter, motion, and consciousness as related to the external universe or the field of fact,” as Gilbert describes it, and _Good and Evil_, running as a series of essays in the _American Anthropologist_, treating of the same factors as related to humanity or to welfare. A third volume was planned to deal with the emotions, and he had also woven these ideas into a series of poems, of which only one has been published. Few understand these later products of Powell. Many condemn them; but Gilbert expresses his usual clear, unbiassed view of things and says (and I can do no better than to quote him, a man of remarkably direct thought, and for many years very close to Powell): “His philosophic writings belong to a field in which thought has ever found language inadequate, and are for the present, so far as may be judged from the reviews of _Truth and Error_, largely misunderstood. Admitting myself to be of those who fail to understand much of his philosophy, I do not therefore condemn it as worthless, for in other fields of his thought events have proved that he was not visionary, but merely in advance of his time.”

One inexplicable action in his career, to my mind, was his complete ignoring in his report of the men and their work, of his second river expedition, particularly of his colleague, Prof. Thompson, whose skill and energy were so largely responsible for the scientific and practical success of the second expedition. The report embodied all the results achieved by this expedition and gave no credit to the men who with unflagging zeal, under stress and difficulties innumerable accumulated the data. This has ever appeared to me unjust, but his reasons for it were doubtless satisfactory to himself. The second expedition is put on record, for the first time in this volume, except for a lecture of mine printed some years ago in the _Bulletin_ of the American Geographical Society.

The life of Powell is an example of the triumph of intelligent, persistent endeavour. Long ago he had formulated many of his plans and as far back as 1877, and even 1871, as I understood them, he carried them out with remarkable precision. Before the authorisation of the Bureau of Ethnology, its scope was developed in his mind and he saw completed the many volumes which have since been published. His power to observe the field ahead, standing on the imperfections of the present, was extraordinary. As a soldier he was a patriot, as an explorer he was a hero. As a far-seeing scientific man, as an organiser of government scientific work, as a loving, friendly, and a delightful comrade whether by the camp-fire or in the study, and as a true sympathiser with the aspirations and ambitions of subordinates or equals, there has seldom been his superior.

APPENDIX

In the Marble and Grand Canyons the fall is as follows.[1] The vertical dotted lines of diagram on page 57 give these divisions, beginning at the left with 2.

[1] After Dutton, _Tertiary History_, p. 240.

DISTANCE FALL FALL IN IN IN MILES FEET FEET PER MILE I. Marble Canyon...........................65.2——-510——-7.82 2. Little Colorado to the Granite..........18.2——-110——-6.04 3. Granite Falls...........................10———-210——21. 4. To Powell’s Plateau in the Granite......26.4——-320——12.13 5. Around western base of Powell’s Plateau.10.8——-100——-9.26 6. Head of Kanab Division..................4.0———-50——10.42 7. Main Kanab and Uinkaret Division........65.2——-310——-4.75 8. Shewits Division to Granite.............12————70——-5.83 9. Granite to Diamond Creek................ 8———-210——11.66 10. Granite below Diamond Creek............ 7.2———25——-3.47 ll. Granite below Diamond Creek............10.8——-100——-9.26 12. Shewits Granite to End of Canyon.......35———-175——-5.

From Little Colorado to Kaibab Division.....9.6———60——-6.25 Kaibab Division............................58———-700——12.07 Kanab Division.............................47.6——-240——-5.01 Uinkaret Division..........................19.2——-100——-5.21 Shewits Division...........................84———-540——-6.43

The exact number of rapids cannot be given, as in some portions of Lodore, Cataract, Marble, and the Grand Canyon it is difficult to divide the almost continuous fall into parts. The number also varies with the stage of water, a high stage covering up some of the smaller rapids. I count 62 rapids in Cataract Canyon. but Stanton makes it 75. The discrepancy arises in the way of dividing some of the descent in the worst portions. Lodore for a large part of its length is so nearly one continuous rapid that it is difficult to count the special drops. In Marble Canyon I counted 63, and in the distance from the Little Colorado to the mouth of the Kanab, 131. We counted about 600 from Green River Valley to the Kanab Canyon, and Stanton’s party counted 520 large rapids from Frémont River to the Grand Wash, or about 600 from the Junction. From Green River Valley to the foot of Black Canyon something over 1000 would be a near estimate of the total number of rapids. The velocity is always tremendous. The width of the river varies according to the locality. Green River is from 250 to 400 feet in the canyons, and 800 to 1000 in the valleys. The Colorado is from 75 to 400 or 500 in the canyons and from 1200 to 1500 in the valleys. In the Granite Gorges there are points where the distance between the buttresses at the water is no more than 50 feet. In Marble Canyon there are a dozen places where the width is not over 60 to 75 feet. The depth varies from several feet to an unknown quantity in the narrow parts. There is also a variation of depth with the year and the season. Years when the high mountains receive an abnormal snow-fall the river rises to abnormal heights and at such times the depth of water in the Grand Canyon is enormous and the velocity appalling. Ordinarily the current varies from three miles per hour to twenty or more.

Our method of navigating was to go with caution. A landing was made above every rapid where possible, and the rapid inspected. Sticks were thrown in when practicable and watched to find the set of the main current which was the one we tried to follow. If it dashed against a cliff, our plans were laid accordingly.

We went into a rapid with as little headway as possible, and often executed “back-water” to retard the boat. The steering oar was used to throw the boat one way or another in rapids, but it was mainly on the side oars that we relied for steering.

In our boat Powell looked ahead, and gave orders “left” or “right,” referring not to the direction in which he wished to go but to the oar which we were to pull with reference to our left or right not his. “Steady” meant to let the boat take her course.

N. Galloway, who has since made several descents, goes through rapids stern foremost. He can thus see how to guide with the oars.

List of Illustrations

Looking up the Bright Angel Trail. This is one of the modern trails into the Grand Canyon, which at this point is some 6000 feet deep. From water-color sketch by Thomas Moran, N.A.

In Glen Canyon. Walls of homogeneous sandstone 1000 feet high. Photograph by J. FENNEMORE, U.S. Colorado River Expedition.

Looking into the First Granite Gorge, Grand Canyon foot of Bright Angel Trail. Canyon 300 miles long. River 1000 feet below point of view. Total depth between 5000 and 6000 feet. Photograph by HALL.

The Inner Gorge of the Grand Canyon at the foot of Toroweap. Depth from point of view about 3000 feet. Total depth about 4500 feet. Width about 3500 feet from brink to brink. Negative 20x24 by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.

House Ruins on Cliff of Glen Canyon. There were habitations also under the heavy top ledge. Photograph by J. FENNEMORE, U.S. Geol. Survey.

Wytfliet-Ptolemy Map of 1597. From BANCROFT’S _History of Arizona and New Mexico_.

The Ancient Ruin on the Cliff. Glen Canyon. Photograph by J. FENNEMORE, U.S. Geol. Survey.

Western Part United States. Relief map by E.E. HOWELL.

Gulf of Calfornia at the Mouth of the Colorado. Photograph by DELANCY GILL.

Alarçon’s Ships Struggling With the Great Bore of the Colorado—1540. Drawing by F.S. DELLENBAUGH.

Native Ladies of the Colorado.

Freaks of Erosion.

One of the Cocopa Giants. Height, 6 feet, 4 inches. The costume in early days was “nothing.” Photograph by DELANCY GILL.

Komohoats. A Pay Ute Boy—S.W. Nevada. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Sur.

Professor McGee and a Group of Cocopas. Originally the Cocopas wore no clothing. Photograph by DELANCY GILL.

The Colorado at the Junction of the Gila. Looking up stream, Gila right hand lower corner. Colorado about 500 yards wide. Photograph by DELANCY GILL.

An Arizona Landscape. There are Navajo Gardens at the bottom of this canyon. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN.

Cocopa Tule Raft. Photograph by DELANCY GILL.

The Grand Canyon from Bright Angel Hotel. 12 miles to opposite rim. Total depth here between 5000 and 6000 feet. Photograph by HALL.

The Grand-Marble Canyon Region. Scale about 30 miles to the inch. This is not as accurate as the map opposite page 41, but is given as an aid to the understanding of that. Compare also map on page 12.

The Work of Erosion. The Witch of Endor and Cerberus. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.

The Work of Corrasion Paranuweap Canyon of the Virgen River, Southern Utah. 20 to 30 feet wide and 1500 feet deep and 18 miles long. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.

The Grand Canyon and Terrace Plateau Region.

The “Hole in the Wall,” near Ft. Defiance, Arizona. This kind of sandstone has the peculiarity of weathering in this way, sometimes producing larger arches, alcoves, etc. Photograph by BEN WITTICK.

Looking down upon Glen Canyon. Cut through homogeneous sandstone. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Pinnacle in the Canyon the Chelly. About 1500 feet high. It is much wider from the side. Photograph by BEN WITTICK.

Bad Lands on Black’s Fork of Green River. Photograph by U.S. Geol. Survey.

In Lower Kanab Canyon. Width about 75 feet, depth 2500 to 3000 feet. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN.

The Pink Cliffs. Southern end of High Plateaus. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.

Towers at Short Creek. Southern Utah. This is a part of the great line of the Vermillion Cliffs. The region here represented possesses some of the most magnificent scenery of the whole West. Outline drawing by W.H. HOLMES.

Map from a United States Geological Survey

Gray’s Peak, 14,341 feet. Torrey’s Peak, 14,336 feet. Tip-top of the Continental Divide whence the Colorado derives flood waters. Photograph by U.S. Geol. Survey.

Balanced Rock. On Trail from House Rock Valley to Lee’s Ferry. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN.

Outline Sketch of the Grand Canyon from Point Sublime. Drawn by W.H. HOLMES.

Character of the Mountains and High Plateau Regions of the Basin of the Colorado. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS.

Profile of the Colorado through the Grand Canyon. From Powell’s Report.

Looking across the Grand Canyon (Inner Gorge) near the Foot of the Toroweap. Depth 3000 feet. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.

Pinnacles in Split Mountain Canyon. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Head of the Canyon of Lodore just inside the “Gate”. Walls 2500 feet high; river 300 feet wide. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Pot-hole in Intermittent Water Course, Glen Canyon. Homogeneous sandstone. These holes are often 10 to 15 feet deep, with the stones which ground them lying in the bottom. Photograph by J. FENNEMORE, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Looking up Green River Valley from below Union Pacific Railway Bridge. Photograph by C.R. SAVAGE.

Specimen of a Navajo. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.

Young Warriors of the North. Photograph by C.R. SAVAGE.

The Joshua Tree. Clistoyucca Arborescens. Southern Nevada. Photograph by C.R. SAVAGE.

A Pai Ute Family at Home. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Barrel Cactus. Pencil sketch by F.S. DELLENBAUGH.

Vegetation of the Southwest. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN.

A Kaibab Pai Ute. Posed by THOMAS MORAN. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.

Side Canyon of Glen Canyon. Homogeneous Sandstone. Photograph by J. FENNEMORE, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Entrance to Acoma, N.M. The town is on top of a mesa, and was a prominent point on the highway from the Rio Grande to Zuñi. Photograph by BEN WITTICK.

Across the House Tops of Zuñi. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS.

Ruin called Casa Grande, Arizona. From a photograph by COSMOS MINDELEFF, U.S. Bu. Eth.

Padre Kino’s Map of 1701. The first map giving the head of the Gulf correctly. From BANCROFT’S _History of Arizona and New Mexico_.

A Lateral Canyon of Escalante River. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Moki Town of Wolpi, Arizona. 700 feet above the valley. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.

Church of San Xavier del Bac, near Tucson. Drawing by F.S. DELLENBAUGH, after a photograph.

Cocopa Woman Grinding Corn. Photograph by DELANCY GILL.

The Grand Canyon from Bright Angel Trail. Painting by THOMAS MORAN.

The Moki Town of Mishongnuvi, Arizona. The hill surmounted by the town lies itself on top of a mesa. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN.

The Canyon of the Little Colorado. Photograph by C. BARTHELMESS.

A Court in Wolpi, Arizona. Drawing by F.S. DELLENBAUGH.

A Zuñi Home. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.

The Governors of Zuñi. Shows well the genreal type of the Puebloans of the Basin of the Colorado. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS.

Upper Waters of Rio Virgin. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.

Pai Ute Girls, Southern Utah, Carrying Water. The jugs are wicker made tight with pitch. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Ashtishkel, a Navajo Chief. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Map of Green River through the Uinta Mountains.

Flaming Gorge, Green River. Beginning of the Canyons. Picture just taken inside the entrance. Walls 1300 feet. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Red Canyon at Low Water. Length 25 miles. Walls 1800 to 2500 feet high. Average width of river, 250 feet.

Ashley Falls, Red Canyon, Green River. General Ashley wrote his name on a rock about half way up the picture, on the right, in 1825. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Grand Canyon from Bright Angel Trail looking East. Point of view 1000 feet above the water. Total depth between 5000 and 6000 feet. Photograph by ROSE.

Entrance to Black Canyon, first seen by James O. Pattie. Photograph by WHEELER EXPEDITION.

The Navajo Type. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.

Upper Valley of the Virgen. Photograph by C.R. SAVAGE.

The “Navajo Church,” a Freak of Erosion near Ft. Wingate, N.M. The Basin of the Colorado is full of such architectural forms. Photograph by BEN WITTICK.

Cliffs of the Rio Virgin, about 2500 Feet High. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.

The “Colob” Country, Southern Utah. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

In the Canyon of Lodore. Walls about 2500 feet, width of river about 400 feet.

Uinta Utes, Saiar’s Home. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.

Kaibab Pai Ute Boys Playing a Game of Wolf and Deer. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Canyon of Lodore, Green River. Looking up the Canyon. Walls 2000 to 2500 feet. “Wheatstack” in distance. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Las Vegas, Southern Nevada, on the Old Spanish Trail. From an oil sketch by F.S. DELLENBAUGH.

A Canyon in the Cliffs, Southern Nevada. Pencil sketch by F.S. DELLENBAUGH.

Crossing the Lower Colorado. Width 400 to 500 yards. Photograph by DELANCY GILL.

A Cocopa Dwelling, near Mouth of the Colorado. Photograph by DELANCY GILL.

On the Yuma Desert. Photograph by DELANCY GILL.

A Uinta Ute. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.

“Judy,” a Navajo. From a photograph by J.K. HILLERS.

One of the Parks on the Kaibab. Photograph by MITCHELL PRUDDEN.

The Ruins in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, called “Casa Blanca”. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.

The Queen. Pinnacle 200 feet high on Vermillion Creek. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Part of Map No. 1, by Lieut. J.C. Ives, 1858. From the Gulf to the Mouth of the Gila.

Robinson’s Landing. Mouth of the Colorado River. Starting-point of Lieut. Ives’s Exploration. Photograph by Lieut. IVES, redrawn by J.J. YOUNG.

The Steamer “Explorer” in which Lieut. Ives in 1857 Ascended the Colorado to Foot of Black Canyon. Sketch by H.B. MOLLHAUSEN.

Looking down the Grand Canyon from the Mouth of the Kanab. Depth about 4000 feet. Oil sketch by F.S. DELLENBAUGH.

Black Canyon—Looking Down. Photograph by WHEELER EXPEDITION.

Fortification Rock. Castellated Gravels at the foot. Near the head of Black Canyon. Photograph by WHEELER EXPEDITION.

The Canyon of Diamond Creek. Photograph by W.H. JACKSON.

Fort Yuma and the Old Railway Bridge of the Southern Pacific. Photograph by C.R. SAVAGE.

At the Junction of the Green and Grand on the Surface. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Barrel Cactus Compared with the Height of a Man. Photograph by C.R. SAVAGE.

Canyon of San Juan River Looking West at Honiket Trail, Utah. 2000 feet deep. Photograph by CHARLES GOODMAN.

A Glen of Glen Canyon. These are numerous, hence the name.

Cataract Canyon Rapid at Low Water. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Looking up the Grand Canyon from Mouth of Kanab Canyon. Pencil sketch by F.S. DELLENBAUGH.

John Wesley Powell. Explorer of the Canyons of the Colorado. Founder and, till his death, Director of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and long Director of the U.S. Geological Survey. As he looked during the decade following his two descents of the Colorado. Taken about 1876 in Washington. Major Powell died September 23d, 1902.

Character of Green River Valley in the Vicinity of the Crossing of the U.P. Railway. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Part of a Rapid. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Canyon of Lodore—The Wheatstack. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Green River above Flaming Gorge. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Red Canyon—Green River. Upper Portion. Looking up Stream. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Canyon of Lodore—Upper Part of Disaster Falls. Where Powell lost the _No-Name_ in 1869. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Canyon of Brush Creek—Looking Up. This stream enters the Green not far below foot of Split-Mountain Canyon. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Canyon of Lodore. Looking down on Triplet Falls. Depth about 2500 feet. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN U.S. Geol. Survey.

Echo Rock on Right, from which Echo Park Takes its Name. To one sitting in a boat near foreground a sentence of ten words is repeated. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Canyon of Desolation—Sumner’s Amphitheatre. Walls about 1200 feet. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Canyon of Desolation—Low Water. Cliffs about 2700 feet. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Junction of the Grand and Green. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

In Cataract Canyon. Highest Walls in this canyon 2700 feet. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Craggs at Millecrag Bend, foot of Cataract Canyon. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Music Temple Alcove, Glen Canyon. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Depths of the Grand Canyon at Sunset. Studio painting by F.S. DELLENBAUGH, in the possession of Prof. A.H. Thompson, who considers it the best representation of the canyon from below that he has seen, “the truest—far better than any photograph because more comprehensive.”

The Grand Canyon. The “Sockdologer” Rapid. Fall of about 80 feet in one third of a mile. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Bottom of the Grand Canyon. Looking down from foot of Bright Angel Trail. Photograph by MITCHELL PRUDDEN.

In the Midst of a Grand Canyon Rapid. Studio painting by F.S. DELLENBAUGH.

The Grand Canyon-Granite Buttresses. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Basket Maker. Old woman of the Kaibab Pai Utes. Behind is the typical Pai Ute dwelling of boughs and brush. The dwellings of the Shewits are similar. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Brother Belder’s—Virgen City. A typical frontier Mormon home. Photograph by U.S. Geol. Survey.

Green River Station, U.P. Ry., Wyoming, 1871. Starting point of the two Powell expeditions.

Thompson, Hattan, Jones, Steward, W.C. Powell, Richardson, Dellenbaugh, Bishop. Our First Camp, Green River, Wyoming. U.S. Colorado River Expedition, 1871. The borrowed table was, of course, left behind. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN.

The Boats of Powells Second Expedition on the Beach at Green River, Wyoming. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Ruins of Green River Terminus. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Almon Harris Thompson. Powell’s colleague in the second descent of the Colorado and subsequent work. For over thirty years prominently connected with United States survey work in the basin of the Colorado and adjacent country, and in the Eastern States. Recent photograph by CLINEDINST.

Ready for the Start, U.S. Colorado River Expedition, Green River, Wyoming 1871. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN.

Portraits of All but Two Members of the Boat Party of the U.S. Colorado River Expedition of 1871.

Green River Valley. Camp at Tilted Ledge near Henry’s Fork. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Head of Kingfisher Canyon, Green River. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Heart of Lodore. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Canyon of Lodore. Looking down Stream. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Canyon of Lodore. Looking across a Rapid. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Canyon of Lodore at Triplet Falls. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Island Park. Green River. Between Whirlpool and Split-Mountain Canyons. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Entrance to Split-Mountain Canyon, Right Hand Cliffs. Heigth about 2000 feet. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

In Split-Mountain Canyon. Highest Walls 2700 feet. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Split-Mountain Canyon. Looking down from top near entrance, 3000 feet. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Men of the 1871 Expedition of an Abandoned Cabin Opposite the Mouth of the Uinta River. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Runaways. White River Utes. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Canyon of Desolation. Walls 2000 feet. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

A Halt for Observations. Second Powell Expedition. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Uinte Ute Tipi and a Summer Shelter and Outlook, Showing the Old-time Notched Log for a Ladder. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.

Dellenbaugh Butte, Green River near the San Rafael. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Gunnison Butte. Head of Gunnison Valley and foot of Gray Canyon. Powell Expedition of 1871 repairing boats. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Labyrinth Canyon, Trinalcove. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Bonito Bend, between Labyrinth and Stillwater Canyons. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Butte of the Cross, between Labyrinth and Stillwater Canyons. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Head of Cataract Canyon, Looking down from Top of Walls near the Junction of the Grand and Green. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Side Canyon of Cataract Canyon. 1500 feet deep—20 feet wide at bottom, 300 feet at top. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Side Canyon of Cataract Canyon. See figures of men, centre foreground on brink of lower terrace. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Cataract Canyon, Right-hand Wall toward Lower End. Height about 2700 feet. Note figures of men near edge of water, lower right-hand corner. They show as very small upright dark lines. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Town of Bluff. Upper Valley of the San Juan River. Photograph by CHARLES GOODMAN.

Glen Canyon Wall. About 1200 feet high. Homogeneous sandstone on top of thin bedded sandstone. Photograph by J. FENNEMORE, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Glen Canyon. Sandstone wall about 1200 feet high. Photograph by J. FENNEMORE, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Glen Canyon, Sentinel Rock. Between the Crossing of the Fathers and Lee’s Ferry—about 300 feet high. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Grand Canyon. Cliffs opposite the mouth of Diamond Creek. The highest point visible is about 3500 feet above the river. Photograph by T.H. O’SULLIVAN, Wheeler Exp.

The Beginning of a Natural Arch. Photograph by C.R. SAVAGE.

The Grand Canyon. Near mouth of Diamond Creek. Photograph by T.H. O’SULLIVAN, Wheeler Exp.

The Crew of the “Trilobite.” At the mouth of Diamond Creek. Photograph by T.H. O’SULLIVAN, Wheeler Exp.

The Dining-table in Camp. Dutch oven, left foreground. Photograph by F.S. DELLENBAUGH.

Winter Headquarters at Kanab, 1872–3. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS.

The Uinkaret Mountains at Sunset, from the North-east. Mt. Trumbull in middle, Mt. Logan in the far distance. Oil sketch by F.S. DELLENBAUGH.

Major Powell and a Pai Ute. Southern Utah, 1872. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Expedition Photographer in the Field. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Lake on the Aquarius Plateau. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Butte in Grand Gulch. A tributary of the San Juan. Photograph by CHARLES GOODMAN.

Repairing Boat Near Mouth of Frémont River on the Colorado River, 1872. Photograph by J. FENNEMORE, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Major Powell in the Field, 1872.

Navajos in Characteristic Dress. Photograph by F.S. DELLENBAUGH.

Marble Canyon. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Marble Canyon near the Lower End. Walls about 3500 feet. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

F.S. Dellenbaugh, 1872. Tintype by J.K. HILLERS.

Granite Falls, Grand Canyon. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Running the Sockdologer, Grand Canyon. Fall 80 feet in ⅓ mile. Studio painting by F.S. DELLENBAUGH.

Looking up a Side Canyon of the Grand Canyon in the Kaibab Division. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

A Capsize in the Grand Canyon. Drawing by F.S. DELLENBAUGH.

The Grand Canyon. Looking down from Mouth of Kanab Canyon in Winter. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN.

The Outlet of the Creek in Surprise Valley, near the Mouth of Kanab Canyon, Grand Canyon. Photograph by E.O. BEAMAN.

Mouth of Kanab Canyon. Abandoned boats of the U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp., 1872. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Camp at Oak Spring, Uinkaret Mountains. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Mukoontuweap Canyon, North Fork of the Virgen. Ten miles long, 3500 feet deep. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.

Looking down the Canyon de Chelly, a Tributary of the San Juan and Containing many Cliff Houses. Photograph by BEN WITTICK.

A Cave-Lake in a Sandstone Cliff near Kabab, S. Utah. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

In Marble Canyon, about Midway between Paria and Little Colorado. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Marble Canyon, Lower Portion. Walls about 3500 feet. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Looking West from Jacob’s Pool on Road to Lee’s Ferry. Vermilion Cliffs in Distance. Photograph by W. BELL.

Tapeets Creek. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Grand Canyon. In the First Granite Gorge. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

The Great Unconformity. Top of the Granite, Grand Canyon. Photograph by MITCHELL PRUDDEN.

Looking up the Grand Canyon, at the Foot of Toroweap, Uinkaret Division. Depth of inner gorge about 3000 feet—width, brink to brink, about 3500 feet. Oil sketch by F.S. DELLENBAUGH.

The Grand Canyon—Lava Falls. Just below the Toroweap. Total depth of canyon about 4500 feet. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

On the Bright Angel Trail. Photograph by MITCHELL PRUDDEN.

John Wesley Powell, 1834–1902.

Green River from the U.P. Railway to White River, showing gorges through the Uinta Mountains.

The Grand Canyon. Boats of the second Powell Expedition, showing armchair in which Powell sat. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Colo. Riv. Exp.

Pilling’s Cascade. Creeks of the high Plateaus. Photograph by J.K. HILLERS, U.S. Geol. Survey.