UTAH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 21 
With characteristic foresight, he provided for all obser- 
vations as to directions of the river and topography to be 
taken in duplicate so that in case of loss of one, the other 
set might be preserved. The wisdom of this precaution 
was demonstrated shortly after entering Lodore Canyon 
at the foot of Brown’s Park, when one of the boats was 
wrecked in a rapid, called Disaster Falls, and the men 
and everything in the boat were spilled in the river. Two 
of the crew reached shore and the third landed on a low 
rocky island in the river, from which he was rescued after 
numerous trials and brought in safety to the mainland. 
All of the instruments and provisions in this boat were 
given as a peace offering to the merciless river, but no 
life was sacrificed. 
Day after day the wonders of the great river 
‘and canyon unfolded until the mysteries of the can- 
yon became common, every day occurrences. With no 
further mishap, the party reached the head of Marble 
Canyon, beginning just below the mouth of the Pariah 
River in Arizona. In this gorge a legend claimed that 
the river ran into the side of a great mountain and dis- 
appeared for miles and finally appeared on the other side 
of the range. The wonders of the 600 or 700 miles of 
canyon passed were marvelous, almost beyond concep- 
tion, with canyons so deep and narrow that the stars 
could be seen in day time, with stretches of continuous 
rapids for scores of miles followed by miles of placid 
water. With the most stupendous exhibition of natural 
sculpture work, from great pot holes containing pine 
trees, two feet in diameter, not reaching the levels of the 
walls, to the largest natural bridges in the world, this 
panorama had passed by, but what lay beyond in this 
gorge with a rapid to begin it—what was to follow? 
The Major and his men were inured to danger, and what- 
ever their misgivings in their talks about their camp fire, 
when the order to go was given, after a few days’ rest, 
not a man hesitated, but men and boats took the river 
again. This canyon, 45 miles long, formed part of the 
first great bend of the river where it cuts through the 
southern end of Kaibab Plateau or Buckskin Mountain 
and extends to the mouth of the Little Colorado River, 
where the nature of the rocks change from limestone to 
