w days later it spared them
on this occasion. It came up only two feet, and this was a kindness, for
it lifted the Marie so that they were able to pull her out of the vise.
When they saw her condition, however, they were dismayed for one side
was half gone, and the other was smashed in. The keel remained whole. By
cutting four feet out of the centre and drawing the ends together, five
days' hard work made practically another boat. They were then able to
proceed, and, going past Bright Angel Creek, arrived on February 6th at
what Stanton describes as "the most powerful and unmanageable rapid"
on the river. This, I believe, was the place where we were capsized.
Thompson at that time, before we ran it, declared it looked to him
like the worst rapid we had encountered but at the stage of water then
prevailing we could not get near it. Stanton wisely made a portage, of
the supplies and let the boats down by lines. His boat, the Bonnie Jean,
played all sorts of pranks, rushing out into the current, ducking
and diving under water, and finally floating down sideways. Then they
thought they would try what Stanton calls Powell's plan of shooting a
boat through and catching it below. Such a harum-scarum method was never
used on our expedition, and I never heard Powell suggest that it was on
the first. Stanton cites as authority one of Powell's statements in the
Report. At any rate in this instance it was as disastrous as might have
been expected. The poor Marie was again the sufferer, and came out below
"in pieces about the size of toothpicks." The Lillie was then carried
down and reached the river beyond in safety. A day or two after this
McDonald decided to leave the party, and started up a little creek
coming in from the north, to climb out to the plateau, and make his way
to Kanab. This he succeeded in doing after several days of hard work
and tramping through the heavy snow on the plateau. The other ten men
concluded to remain with Stanton and they all went on in the two boats.
Several days later they passed the mouth of the Kanab. The terrible
First Granite Gorge was well behind them. But now the river began to
rise. Before reaching the Kanab it rose four feet and continued to rise
for two days and nights, altogether some ten or twelve feet. A little
below the Kanab, where the canyon is very narrow, they came upon a
peculiar phenomenon. They heard a loud roar and saw breakers ahead.
Thinking it a bad rapid, they landed immedia