26 EXPLORATION OF THE CANONS OF THE COLORADO. 
with safety, and return to tell the men my conclusion. Sunnier and Dunn 
volunteer to take the little boat and make the attempt. They start, reach it, 
and out come the barometers; and now the boys set up a shout, and I join 
them, pleased that they should be as glad to save the instruments as myself. 
When the boat lands on our side, I find that the only things saved from the 
wreck were the barometers, a package of thermometers, and a three gallon 
keg of whisky, which is what the men were shouting about. They had 
taken it aboard, unknown to me, and now I am glad they did, for they think 
it will do them good, as they are drenched every day by the melting snow, 
which runs down from the summits of the Rocky Mountains. 
Now we come back to our work at the portage. We find that it is 
necessary to carry our rations over the rocks for nearly a mile, and let our 
boats down with lines, except at a few points, where they also must be 
carried. 
Between the river and the eastern wall of the canon there is an immense 
talus of broken rocks. These have tumbled down from the cliff's above, and 
constitute a vast pile of huge angular fragments. On these we build a 
path for a quarter of a mile, to a small sand beach covered with drift-wood, 
through which we clear a way for several hundred yards, then continue the 
trail on over another pile of rocks, nearly half a mile farther down, to a little 
bay. The greater part of the day is spent in this work. Then we carry 
our cargoes down to the beach and camp for the night. 
While the men are building the camp fire, we discover an iron bake oven, 
several tin plates, a part of a boat, and many other fragments, which denote 
that this is the place where Ashley's party was wrecked. 
June 11. This day is spen,t in carrying our rations down to the bay 
no small task to climb over the rocks with sacks of flour or bacon. We 
carry them by stages of about 500 yards each, and when night comes, and 
the last sack is on the beach, we are tired, bruised, and glad to sleep. 
June 12. To-day we take the boats down to the bay. While at this 
work, we discover three sacks of flour from the wrecked boat, that have 
lodged in the rocks. We carry them above high-water mark, and leave 
them, as our cargoes are already too heavy for the three remaining boats. 
We also find two or three oars, which we place with them. 
