owhere 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.

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.

From the railway* the boats were hauled on waggons to the mouth of
Crescent Creek near Fremont 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