PARRY — GREAT CANON OF THE COLORADO. 501 



The folloAving morning, being on the 25th of August, they 

 made a landing, repaired their raft by some additional pieces 

 of dry cedar, and continued on their course. The river here 

 was about two hundred yards wide, flowing regularly at a 

 rate of 2£ to 3 miles per hour. According to their estimate 

 they reached the month of Green River, and entered the 

 main Colorado 30 miles from the point of starting. Below 

 the junction the stream narrows, and is confined between 

 perpendicular rocky walls, gradually increasing in elevation. 

 At an estimated distance of 40 miles from Green River they 

 passed the mouth of the San Juan, both streams being here 

 hemmed in by perpendicular walls. From this point the 

 canon was continued, with only occasional breaks formed by 

 small side canons equally inaccessible with the main chasm. 

 Still they experienced no difficulty in continuing their voy- 

 age, and were elated with the prospect of soon reaching the 

 settlements on the Colorado, below the Great Canon. 



On the 28th, being the fourth day of their journey, they en- 

 countered the first severe rapids, in passing one of which, 

 Henry Strole was washed off, and sank in a whirlpool below. 

 The small stock of provision was also lost, and when White 

 emerged from the foaming rapids, he found himself alone, 

 without food, and with gloomy prospects before him for com- 

 pleting his adventurous journey. His course now led through 

 the sullen depths of the Great Canon, which was a succession 

 of fearful rapids, blocked up with masses of rock, over which 

 his frail raft thumped and whirled, so that he had to adopt 

 the precaution of tying himself fast to the rocking timbers. 

 In passing one of these rapids, his raft parted, and he was 

 forced to hold on to the fragments by main strength, until he 

 effected a landing below in a shallow eddy, where he suc- 

 ceeded, standing waist deep in water, in making necessary 

 repairs, and started again. One can hardly imagine the 

 gloomy feelings of this lone traveller, with no human voice 

 to cheer his solitude, hungry, yet hopeful and resolute, closed 

 in on every side by the beetling cliffs that shut out sunlight 

 for the greater part of the long summer day, drenched to the 

 skin, sweeping down the resistless current, shooting over 

 foaming rapids, and whirling below in tumultuous whirlpools, 

 ignorant of what fearful cataracts might yet be on his un- 

 swerving track, down which he must plunge to almost certain 

 destruction ; still, day after day, buoyed up with the hope 

 of finally emerging Jrom his prison walls, and feasting his 

 eyes on an open country, with shaded groves, green fields, and 

 human habitations. 



The mouth of the Colorado Chiquito was passed on the 

 fourth day, in the evening, the general appearance of which 

 was particularly noted, as he was here entangled in an eddy 

 for two hours, until rescued, as he says, " by the direct inter- 



