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 s