ence to
Powell's orders, I waited for the plunge, every instant ready to execute
a command. We kept in the middle of the stream, and as we neared the
brink our speed began to accelerate. Then of a sudden there was a
dropping away of all support, a reeling sensation, and we flew down the
declivity with the speed of a locomotive. The gorge was chaos. The boat
rolled and plunged. The wild waters rolled over us, filling the open
spaces to the gunwale. With the camp kettles that were left out of
the cabins for that purpose, Hillers and I bailed as hard as we could,
letting the boat go with the current, but it seemed to do little good,
for every moment the waves broke over the craft from end to end, and
our efforts might as well have been made with a teaspoon, though in many
other rapids the kettles had proved effective. Here and there, as we
shot down, I could look back under a canopy of foam and see the head
of a great black rock. Fortunately we safely cleared everything, and in
probably less than a minute we were at the bottom, lying to in an eddy,
bailing fast and watching for the other boat. No sign of any living
thing could be discovered as we peered up the rapid, which from below
had the appearance of an almost vertical fall. Presently at the top of
the foam a white speck moved, clearly seen against the dark background.
It was the Canonita on the edge of the fall. I can see her yet, pausing
for an instant, apparently, and then disappearing completely amidst the
plunging waters. A minute later she reappeared at the bottom and ran
alongside of us in good order. Owing to the large amount of water there
seemed to be not much danger of striking a rock, and our boats did not
capsize easily. After the plunge was begun we did not try to guide the
boats--it would have been useless. The fall here was about forty feet
in a third of a mile. Some of the men called it the Sockdologer.
The picture of it from above, on page 219, does not give a correct
impression, as the plate was too slow, but it was the best that could
be done at the time. The canyon continued very narrow at the bottom, the
river averaging about one hundred and fifty feet. Late in the afternoon
we arrived at a much worse place than the Sockdologer, though the fall
was not so great. Landing on the left on some broken rocks, we saw no
chance of getting around the rapid there, so we crossed to the right and
landed on another little pile of rocks in a small alcove. The wa