The boats had to be handled with extra caution. The method
of travelling was for Powell to go ahead in the Emma Dean to examine the
nature of each rapid before the other boats should come down to it. If
he saw a clear chute he ran through and signalled "come on," but if he
thought it too risky he signalled "land," and the place was examined as
well as he was able from the shore. If this investigation showed a great
many dangerous rocks, or any other dangerous element, a portage was
made, or the boats were let down along the edge by lines without taking
out the cargoes. In this careful way they were getting along very well,
when one day they came to a particularly threatening place. Powell
immediately perceived the danger, and, landing, signalled the other
boats to do likewise. Unfortunately, the warning came too late for the
No-Name, which was drawn into a sag, a sort of hollow lying just above
the rapid, to clutch the unwary and drive them over the fall to certain
destruction. Powell for a moment had given his attention to the last
boat, and as he turned again and hurried along to discover the fortune
of the No-Name, which was plunging down, without hope of escape, toward
the frightful descent, he was just in time to see her strike a rock
and, rebounding, careen so that the open compartment filled with water.
Sweeping on down now with railway speed, broadside on, she again struck
a few yards below and was broken completely in two, the three men being
tossed into the foaming flood. They were able to gain some support
by clinging to the main part of the boat, which still held together.
Drifting on swiftly over a few hundred yards more to a second rapid full
of large boulders, the doomed craft struck a third time and was entirely
demolished, the men and the fragments being carried then out of sight.
Powell climbed as rapidly as possible over the huge fallen rocks, which
here lie along the shore he was on, and presently he was able to get a
view of his men. Goodman was in a whirlpool below a great rock; reaching
this he clung to it. Howland had been washed upon a low rocky island,
which at this stage of water was some feet above the current, and Seneca
Howland also had gained this place. Howland extended a long pole to
Goodman and by means of it pulled him to the island, where all were safe
for the time being. Several hundred yards farther down, the river took
another and more violent fall, rendering the situation exceedingl