een designed and scaled on a
draughting-board, but they have been so oddly worked upon by the
elements, by the attrition of their own disintegrated particles and the
intangible carving of water, that while one block stands out as a castle
embattled on a lofty precipice, another looms up in the quivering air
with a quaint likeness to something neither human nor divine. This is
where the Overland traveller makes his first acquaintance with those
erosions which are a characterizing element of Western scenery. A broad
stream flows easily through the valley, and acquires a vivid emerald hue
from the shales in its bed, whence its name is derived. Under one of
the highest buttes a small town of newish wooden buildings is scattered,
and this is ambitiously designated Green River City, which, if for
nothing else, is memorable to the tourist for the excellence of the
breakfast which the tavern-keeper serves.

[Illustration: INDIAN LODGE NEAR FLAMING GORGE.]

But it was from here, on May 28, 1869, that Major Powell started down
the canon on that expedition from which the few miners, stock-raisers
and tradespeople who saw his departure never expected to see him return
alive. His party consisted of nine men--J.C. Sumner and William H. Dunn,
both of whom had been trappers and guides in the Rocky Mountains;
Captain Powell, a veteran of the civil war; Lieutenant Bradley, also of
the army; O. G. Howland, formerly a printer and country editor, who had
become a hunter; Seneca Howland; Frank Goodman; Andrew Hall, a Scotch
boy; and "Billy" Hawkins, the cook, who had been a soldier, a teamster
and a trapper. These were carefully selected for their reputed courage
and powers of endurance. The boats in which they travelled were four in
number, and were built upon a model which, as far as possible, combined
strength to resist the rocks with lightness for portages and protection
against the over-wash of the waves. They were divided into three
compartments, oak being the material used in three and pine in the
fourth. The three larger ones were each twenty-one feet long: the other
was sixteen feet long, and was constructed for speed in rowing.
Sufficient food was taken to last ten months, with plenty of ammunition
and tools for building cabins and repairing the boats, besides various
scientific instruments.

Thus equipped and in single file, the expedition left Green River City
behind and pulled into the shadows of the phenomenal rocks in the ea