REPOET OF THE SECRETARY. 19 



The Story of his well-tilled life has been told I)}' others; he was too 

 near and too dear a friend for nie, perhaps, to speak of it With a 

 wholly impartial judgment, but I am glad to belieye that I, too, had 

 acquired his friendship and that this mutual feeling colored all our 

 relations. 



Major Powell, who had taken his part in the great eyents of our 

 ciyilw"ar( where he seryed as captain of artiller}- under Grant at Vicks- 

 burg) and who liad lost an arm in his country's seryice, w'as tirst 

 known to me, as to many others, by one of tlie most remarkable feats 

 of exploration left for anyone to accomplish. 



The old Spanish explorer, Coronado, who in 1540 penetrated to what 

 is now known as the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, came back with 

 the story of a crack in the earth at the bottom of which the great 

 tower of the cathedral of Seyille would seem no bigger than a man. 

 This w^as set down as a trayeler's tale. 



In this unexplored region the Colorado Kiyer. howeyer, was found 

 to flow for nearl}^ 1,000 miles through scenery unequaled on this 

 globe, for during a great part of its course it is l)ounded by walls over 

 a mile in altitude, at the bottom of which the unknown stream descends 

 with frequent falls through a channel from which there is no escape 

 except b}^ climbing the nearly impassable precipices w^hich shut it in. 

 The riyer is the only road, and its entire course al)ounds in hourly 

 perils. This was the scene of Major Powell's exploration in 1807, which, 

 though conducted for pureh" scientific purposes, j^et, considering all 

 that it involyed, may be called one of heroic adventure, w^hile the skill 

 which overcame every difficulty was not less conspicuous than the 

 courage of the leader, who, maimed as he was, fought with constant 

 physical perils, but came through safel}^ together with those who had 

 trusted their lives to his guidance. None of his sul)sequent distin- 

 guished scientific life will ever eft'ace the memory of this splendid 

 feat. It is one which surpasses in all its eleiients of interest and 

 danger, perhaps, the work of any such explorer of modern times. 



I leave to more competent hands the description of the great and 

 notable work in geology and ethnology which occupied Major Powell's 

 later life, and only add a few words on some qualities of the man 

 best known to an intimate friend. 



I have b(^en with Major Powell in the life of the city and in the 

 life of the wilderness, and wherever 1 lune been with him I think 1 

 have been more impressed with tlie simplicity and self-comprised 

 nature of his character than even with the complexit}" of his knowl- 

 edge and achievements. Besides his splendid capacity for leadership 

 in battle and adventure, besides his varied knowledge as a scientific 

 man, the mystery of this world, which pure science so little recog- 

 nizes, was always present to Major Powell's mind; the lapse of ages, 



