JOHN WESLEY POWELL. 37 



flaring above, with crags and angular projections on the walls, 

 which, cut in many places by side canyons, seem to be a vast wil- 

 derness of rocks. Down in these grand, gloomy depths we glide, 

 ever listening, for the mad waters keep up their roar; ever watch- 

 ing, ever peering ahead, for the narrow canyon is winding, and the 

 river is closed in so that we can see but a few hundred yards, and 

 what there may be below we know not; but we listen for falls, and 

 watch for rocks, or stop now and then, in the bay of a recess, to 

 admire the gigantic scenery. And ever, as we go, there is some 

 new pinnacle or tower, some crag or peak, some distant view of 

 the upper plateau, some strange shaped rock, or some deep, nar- 

 row side canyon." 



After some days a rapid is reached of such formidable char- 

 acter that nearly a day is spent in climbing the walls to study it. 



"I decide that it is possible to let down over the first fall, then 

 run near the right cliff to a point just above the second, where we 

 can pull out into a little chute, and, having run over that in safety, 

 we must pull with all our power across the stream, to avoid the 

 great rock below. On my return to the boat, I announce to the 

 men that we are to run it in the morning. 



* 'After supper Captain Rowland asks to have a talk with me. 

 We walk up the little creek a short distance, and I soon find that 

 his object is to remonstrate against my determination to proceed. 

 He thinks that we had better abandon the river here. Talking 

 with him, I learn that his brother, William Dunn, and himself have 

 determined to go no farther in the boats. So we return to camp. 

 Nothing is said to the other men. 



"For the last two days, our course has not been plotted. I sit 

 down and do this now, for the purpose of finding where we are by 

 dead reckoning. It is a clear night, and I take out the sextant to 

 make observation for latitude, and find that the astronomic deter- 

 mination agrees very nearly with that of the plot quite as closely 

 as might be expected, from a meridian observation on a planet. In 

 a direct line, we must be about forty-five miles from the mouth of 

 the Rio Virgen. If we can reach that point, we know that there 

 are settlements up that river about twenty miles. This forty-five 

 miles, in a direct line, will probably be eighty or ninety in the 

 meandering line of the river. But then we know that there is com- 

 paratively open country for many miles above the mouth of the 

 Virgen, which is our point of destination. 



"As soon as I determine all this, I spread my plot on the sand, 

 and wake Rowland, who is sleeping down by the river, and show 



