206 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
slow that even during the entire period of human history it has made 
but little progress. 
fter the train surmounts the slight rise out of the valley of 
Green River the traveler will see spread wide before him one of the 
most desolate landscapes that he has thus far passed in his western 
trip. For miles the surface of the plain consists of bare clay or 
shale without so much as a clump of sagebrush or greasewood to 
break its monotony. The soil is the same as that about Green River 
and at Grand Junction and Montrose, in Colorado, and all that it 
needs to transform it from a scene of desolation to one of peace 
and plenty is water. To-day it is desolate and waterless, far from 
the homes of men, inhabited only by beasts and birds of prey. Even 
these are not always seen, and the traveler who is unfamiliar with 
the country may imagine that it is totally without animal life; but 
should he camp here in the desert for a time he would find that at 
morning and evening it is alive with birds and animals eagerly seek- 
ing food and ready to fight for it. 
West of the crossing of Green River, at what is now the town of 
Greenriver, the old Spanish trail divided. The main trail, which 
Greenriver, Utah, on July 18, and |] on the day following ae safely 
thence went into the Grand Canyon of | at the mouth of Virgin 
Colorad 
canyon; but they had lost their | account by Dellenbaugh of Powell's 
sre and had no means of esti- | seco i 
the distance yet to be traveled i a fragmental 
n settlements at the einai: a ehaaee recorded during 
mouth of the Grand ir | some parts of his first trip. To-day a 
progress was slow, too, and eetsita tinal 
abandon the river and attempt to climb 
out of the canyon. These men suc- 
ceeded in reaching the plateau only to 
be killed by the Indians, who did not 
believe their story about coming down 
through the canyon but thought they 
were white men from across the river 
reached the mouth of the eanyon, and 
at Grand Canyon to commemorate his 
exploration. 
The pioneer trips thus made by Maj. 
Powell in hardship and peril prepared 
ey, who to-d 
later, guide their motor boats with 
confidence, though even yet not with- 
out danger, over stretches of the river 
irrigation and for generating 
power, so that men can make homes 
| in this still wild country 
