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Frederick S. Dellenbaugh - The Romance of the Colorado River
CHAPTER IX.
A Canyon of Cataracts - The Imperial Chasm - Short Rations - A Split in the Party - Separation - Fate of
the Howlands and Dunn - The Monster Vanquished.
Powell's winter of investigation had probably given him a good idea of what kind of rapids might be
expected in the formations composing the canyons as far as the mouth of Grand River, but he now had
confronting him water which for aught he could tell might indulge in plunges of a hundred feet or more at
one time, between absolutely vertical walls. And the aspect of the surroundings at the junction of the
Green and the Grand is not reassuring. It is a barren and dismal place, with no footing but a few
sand-banks that are being constantly cut away and reformed by the whirling current, except on their
higher levels where a few scrawny hackberry trees and weeds find room to continue a precarious
existence. To get out of or into this locality either by climbing the cliffs or by navigating the rivers is a
difficult feat, and to trust oneself to the current blindly rushing down toward the sea is even worse, more
especially so on the occasion of this first descent when all beyond was a complete blank. But the party
faced the future bravely and cheerfully. They climbed out at two points on tours of inspection of the
country above, while some took the opportunity to overhaul the supply of rations, which, having been so
often wet, was seriously damaged. The flour was musty and full of hard lumps. To eliminate the lumps,
therefore, they screened it with a piece of mosquito netting for a sieve; at the same time they eliminated
more than two hundred pounds of the precious freight and threw this away, a foolish proceeding, for by
proper cooking it might have been utilised for food. Together with the losses by the wreck of the
No-Name and other mishaps, and with what had been consumed, their food-supply was now reduced from
the original ten-months' amount to a two-months' quantity, though they had not yet been on the way quite
sixty days; that is, they had used up eight months' supplies in two months, including a mountain sheep and
a deer the hunters had brought down, and they were barely more than half-way to the end of the journey.
At this alarming rate they would be starving long before they saw the walls of the Grand Canyon break
away.
Nevertheless no thought of pursuing any course but the one planned occurred to them, and on July 21st
they cast off from the sand-banks and were carried rapidly down on the swift torrent of the Great
Colorado. They had not gone far before plenty hard work was furnished, in the shape of two portages
were necessary to pass particularly dangerous places, and numerous bad rapids to run. In the afternoon the
Emma Dean, in attempting to navigate one of the more favourable-looking foaming descents, was
swamped, pitching Powell and the others headlong into the roaring flood. They were fortunately able to
cling to the boat till they floated into more tranquil waters, where they managed to climb on board,
signalling the other boats to land before the plunge. This they could do, and the boats were brought down
by a portage, which took all the rest of the day. The approach of darkness compelled a halt for the night
on some rocks where they had barely room enough to lie down. Three much-needed oars had been lost
with the capsize of the Dean. These were sadly missed in the rough water that surrounded them the
following day, so at the first large pile of driftwood they made a landing and secured a cottonwood log for
oar-timber. While the oars were making, Powell and his brother climbed up to where some pinyon trees
were seen growing, and collected a quantity of gum with which to calk the leaky boats. They needed all
the preparation possible, for the rapids now came ever thicker, ever faster, and more violent. The walls
also grew in altitude from the thirteen hundred feet of the Junction to fifteen hundred feet, then to
eighteen hundred feet, nearly vertical in places.
An examination of the barometric record was now made to see how much they had by this time
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