52 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Five days were occupied in making rafts to navigate the river. 

 These were unwieldy contraptions, about forty feet long and eighteen 

 feet wide, lashed together with such unsuitable materials as were at 

 hand. Great sweeps were fitted to them, not for the purpose of 

 propulsion, but to exercise some little control over their otherwise 

 erratic actions. Loading upon these queer vessels the remaining 

 goods and the provisions obtained from the natives, the diminished 

 party on September 1st set out from Tête Jaune Cache. The Indians, 

 amazed at the boldness of the undertaking, looked on in stolid wonder 

 and shook their heads mournfully as raft after raft departed on its 

 perilous journey. At first the rafts drifted rapidly with the swift 

 current of the river; but after a few hours the speed diminished 

 greatly. Other rafts were ahead and behind that on which our 

 diarist travelled — as quaint a procession of Argonauts as the western 

 world has ever seen. Day by day they drifted placidly, uneventfully, 

 into the unknown. The day's voyage lasted from 4 a.m. till 6 p.m. 

 when the rafts were made fast for the night. 



So five days went by in monotonous procession, but on September 

 6th, soon after daybreak, a sullen roar of rushing waters reached them, 

 the forewarning of the Grand Canyon. Immediately they made 

 for the shore which they, fortunately, succeeded in reaching before the 

 indraught of the canyon became perceptible. The rapids, they found 

 on examination, were in three distinct stretches, separated by little 

 bays or eddies of quiet water. The precipitous banks contracted the 

 river into a narrow channel obstructed by rocks whose jagged points 

 ripped it into great, frothy, curling waves as the pent-up waters rushed 

 through with resistless impetuosity and with a deafening noise as 

 of continuous thunder. It seemed like courting death to risk the 

 descent; but the alternative was death by starvation. The raft 

 was lightened and the goods portaged to a place below the rapids. 

 Ten men remained aboard to make the venture. Once the raft was 

 in the current it swept onward into what appeared to be the very 

 jaws of death. In the centre the rocky reef foaming and boiling; 

 on the side the eddying whirlpool ready to engulf all — Scylla and 

 Charybdis. In breathless suspense their companions watched the 

 unwieldy thing rushing with frightful velocity toward the rock. 

 Above nature's tumult and din rang out suddenly the commands 

 of the pilot. Instantly all bent manfully to the sweeps. The rock 

 was passed, but so close that the raft was half submerged and the 

 stern rowlock torn off. Then it shot intp the eddy. The tension 

 was over. The suppressed feelings gave voice in cheers and sobs. 



