JOHN WESLEY POWELL IO7 



able as to the region to be explored, but he must have the best 

 of judgment in weighing their meaning ; uninfluenced by his 

 desire to explore the region, uninfluenced by any consideration 

 except his responsibility upon the one hand as to his men, and 

 his responsibility upon the other hand as to the advancement of 

 knowledge. This capacity for the faithful study of all the facts 

 known about a region, the power to comprehend their possible 

 significance with reference to the success of an expedition, are 

 the qualities which separate the great, successful explorer from 

 the incapable one whose expeditions are doomed in advance to 

 almost certain failure and often to loss of life. 



Preparatory to his great journey through the canyons of the 

 Colorado, Powell spent the larger part of two years in careful 

 exploratory work in the plateau country of the West, thus, so far 

 as possible, fully acquainting himself with the problem before 

 attempting its solution. Bold the project was, but Powell with 

 delicately balanced judgment, decided that the chance for suc- 

 cess and the chance to escape from the canyon in case of the 

 impossibility of the accomplishment of the project, were suffi- 

 ciently great to warrant the undertaking. 



Powell's full appreciation of the dangers of the exploration 

 was shown by the extreme care with which he made prepara- 

 tions. Boats the strongest possible were built, but not so large 

 that they could not be carried. They were provided with water- 

 tight compartments fore and aft, so that they would not sink 

 when swamped. All the necessary articles, from provisions to 

 instruments, were divided into equal parts and distributed 

 among the boats, so that wrecking one boat would not necessi- 

 tate the abandonment of the expedition. 



In this matter of careful consideration of all the dangers in- 

 volved, forecasting of difficulties and preparing for each of them, 

 Powell is to be compared with Nansen, who has done two great 

 pieces of successful exploratory work, the first crossing of 

 Greenland and the drifting expedition of the Fram. In all 

 three of these expeditions not a man was lost who remained 

 with his leader. It is true that great dangers were encountered. 

 It is true that at various times, whether disaster would come to 

 the members of the expedition seemed to lie almost on the turn- 



