84 EXPLOKATION OF THE CANONS OF THE COLORADO. 
the boats to the end of her line, when she reaches a corner of the project 
ing rock, to which one of the men clings, and steadies her, while I examine 
an eddy below. I think we can pass the other boats down by us, and 
catch them in the eddy. This is soon done and the men in the boats in the 
eddy pull us to their side. On the shore of this little eddy there is about 
two feet of gravel beach above the water. Standing on this beach, some 
of the men take the line of the little boat and let it drift down against 
another projecting angle. Here is a little shelf, on which a man from my 
boat climbs, and a shorter line is passed to him, and he fastens the boat to 
the side of the cliff. Then the second one is let down, bringing the line of 
the third. When the second boat is tied up, the two men standing on the 
beach above spring into the last boat, which is pulled up alongside of ours. 
Then we let down the boats, for twenty five or thirty yards, by walking 
along the shelf, landing them again in the mouth of a side canon. Just 
below this there is another pile of boulders, over which we make another 
portage. From the foot of these rocks we can climb to another shelf, forty 
or fifty feet above the water. 
On this bench we camp for the night. "We find a few sticks, which 
have lodged in the rocks. It is raining hard, and we have no shelter, but 
kindle a fire and have our supper. "We sit on the rocks all night, wrapped 
in our ponchos, getting what sleep we can. 
August 15. This morning we find we can let down for three or four 
hundred yards, and it is managed in this way: We pass along the wall, by 
climbing from projecting point to point, sometimes near the water's edge, 
at other places fifty or sixty feet above, and hold the boat with a line, while 
two men remain aboard, and prevent her from being dashed against the 
rocks, and keep the line from getting caught on the wall. In two hours we 
have brought them all down, as far as it is possible, in this way. A few 
yards below, the river strikes with great violence against a projecting rock, 
and our boats are pulled up in a little bay above. We must now manage 
to pull out of this, and clear the point below. The little boat is held by 
the bow obliquely up the stream. We jump in, and pull out only a few 
strokes, and sweep clear of the dangerous rock. The other boats follow in 
the same manner, and the rapid is passed. 
