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GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 



slow that even during the entire period of human histoi y it has made 

 but little progress. 



After the train surmounts the slight rise out of the valley of 

 Green Kiver 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 13, and 

 thence went into the Grand Canyon of 

 the Colorado. Here they met many 

 mishaps but found no falls over which 

 rhey could not take their boats, and in 

 time they reached the deepest part of 

 the canyon^ but they had lost their 

 instruments and had no means of esti- 

 mating the distance yet to be traveled 

 to the Mormon settlements at the 

 mouth of the Grand Wash. Their 

 progress was slow, too, and provisions 

 began to run short, and several of the 

 party became discouraged and dissatis- 

 fied. Powell did all he could to induce 

 the men to remain with the expedi- 

 tion, but three of them decided to 

 abandon the river and attempt to dimb 

 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 

 who had killed a squaw in a drunken 

 brawl. What made their fate more 

 tragic was the success of Powell and 

 his remaining men, who continued 

 down the river and on the next day 

 reached the mouth of the canyon, and 



on the day following arrived safely 

 at the mouth of Virgin River. 



No romance is more entertaining 

 and exciting than the account of this 

 expedition, told in the plain, simple 

 language of Maj. Powell, or than the 

 account by Dellenbaugh of Powell's 

 second trip, made in 1871 and 1872, to 

 verify and extend the fragmental 

 scientific observations recorded during 

 some parts of his first trip. To-day a 

 fitting monument to Maj. Powell stands 

 on the brink of that titan of chasms 

 at Grand Canyon to commemorate his 

 exploration. 



The pioneer trips thus made by Maj. 

 PoweU in hardship and peril prepared 

 the way for the topographic engineers 

 and geologists of the Geological Sur- 

 vey, who to-day, more than 50 years 

 later, guide their motor boats with 

 confidence, though even yet not with- 

 out danger, over stretches of the river 

 traversed by the Powell party. These 

 engineers are doing pioneer work of 

 another sort, for they are making 

 plans by which the river can be used 

 for irrigation and for generating 

 power, so that men can make homes 

 in this stiU wild country. 



