EXPERIENCES IN THE GRAND CANYON 



179 



almost clear when I went over a dip, 

 bow first, and struck another rock I had 

 not seen. There was a thud and crack- 

 ing like the breaking of a shingle. It 

 was all over m a minute. 



THE EDITH WRECKED 



The Bdith was a wreck ; my brother 

 had disappeared. Lauzon was climbing 

 frantically over some boulders trying to 

 get farther down the stream to the head 

 of the next rapid. I could not proceed 

 with my wrecked boat, and landed on 

 the right in an eddy in the middle of the 

 rapid. Climbing to the top of the rock, 

 I looked over the next rapid, but Ells- 

 worth was nowhere to be seen, and I 

 had no idea that he had escaped. 



I was returning to my wrecked boat 

 when Bert called, and pointed to the 

 foot of the cliff. Going back once more, 

 I saw my brother in a little opening at 

 the foot of the wall where he had 

 climbed out, 20 feet above the next 

 rapid. Returning to the wrecked boat, 

 I was soon beside him. 



His outer garments by this time were 

 frozen. I soon procured blankets from 

 my bed, removed his clothes, and 

 wrapped him up. 



Lauzon, true to our expectations of 

 what he would do when the test came, 

 swam out and rescued the Defiance be- 

 fore she was carried over the next rapid. 

 Seeing that he could not aid either of 

 us, he had bailed out. Coming across 

 with a big grin on his face, he remarked, 

 "Young fellows, business is picking 

 up;" then added, "and we're losing lots 

 of good pictures." 



These experiences were our Christmas 

 presents that year, and they were not 

 done up in small packages, either. 



QUICK REPAIRS 



We repaired the wrecked boat Christ- 

 mas day. Three smashed ribs on the 

 side were replaced with mesquite which 

 we found growing on the walls. We 

 patched the hole with the loose bottom 

 laid inside the boats, then painted them. 

 A piece of canvas was tacked over this, 

 and painted also. A piece of tin finished 

 the repair, and the Edith was as sea- 

 worthv as ever. 



Some of our provisions were lost or 

 spoiled in the upset. Both sacks of flour 

 were wet, on the outside at least. At 

 each camp the wet sacks were placed by 

 the fire until this wet flour hardened, and 

 we went on using from the center as if 

 nothing had ever happened. We caught 

 a few fish. We felt pretty good one 

 morning when we saw fresh meat in sight 

 in the form of a big mountain sheep. My 

 brother reached for his camera at the 

 same instant that I grabbed my six 

 shooter, but the trigger was rusted and 

 we had no mutton stew that day. 



The motion-picture camera had been 

 under the water in our difficulties in the 

 rapids and needed a thorough cleaning, 

 so we held up one day and repaired it. 



The next day we were again running 

 rapids under walls 4,500 feet high. A 

 day or two later we camped at the mouth 

 of Havasu Canyon (Cataract Creek), but 

 on quite a different stage of water than 

 that we had seen when here before (see 

 picture, page 180). It was 50 or 60 

 feet higher on the walls when we had 

 worked our way down on that over- 

 land trip. At the next camp below here, 

 New Year's eve, the walls of the inner 

 gorge rose 3,000 feet above us and were 

 almost sheer ; then another wall rose be- 

 yond this, with a narrow plateau between. 

 The loss of the boats in that section would 

 quite likely have been fatal, as there was 

 no chance of climbing out over such walls 

 as those. 



WIRELESS WARNINGS 



In these sections, if it was not pos- 

 sible to go below the rapid to inspect it, 

 the one who arrived first would climb 

 out and, with signals of the hands or a 

 flag, would direct the one who remained 

 how to proceed ; or if he ran the rapid 

 without getting out, he would point out 

 the hidden rocks, which looked so much 

 like innocent waves from above the rapid. 

 We were always endeavoring to make 

 time. If the rapids were simply big wa- 

 ter, without danger of an upset, we would 

 wear a light rubber coat, so that the 

 splashing water would freeze on the coat 

 instead of on our clothes. 



If the life-preservers were not con- 

 stantly worn, they were always kept in- 



