The Colorado River 
186 
portant journeys in connection with his purpose of exploring 
the great walled river; one was down toward the south as far 
as Grand River; a second followed White River to its junction 
with the Green, and a third went northward around the eastern 
base of the Uinta Mountains, skirting the gorges afterward 
named Lodore, Whirlpool, Red Canyon, etc. In these travels 
he formed his plans for an attempt to fully explore, by means 
of a boat voyage, the remarkable string of chasms which for 
more than three centuries had defied examination. He de¬ 
cided that the starting point must be where the Union Pacific 
Railway had just been thrown across Green River, and that 
the only chance for success was to continue on the torrential 
flood till either he should arrive at the end of the great can¬ 
yons near the mouth of the Rio Virgen or should himself be 
vanquished in the endeavour. It was to be a match of human 
skill and muscle against rocks and cataracts, shut in from the 
outer world, always face to face with the Shadow of Death. 
It was to be a duel to the finish between the mysterious tor¬ 
rent on the one side and a little group of valiant men on the 
other. Never had plumed knight of old a more dreadful an¬ 
tagonist. Like the Sleeping Beauty, this strange Problem lay 
in the midst of an enchanted land guarded by the wizard 
Aridity and those wonderful water-gods Erosion and Corrasion, 
waiting for the knight-errant brave, who should break the 
spell and vanquish the demon in his lair. No ordinary man 
was equal to this difficult task, which demanded not alone 
courage of the highest order, but combined with this courage 
a master-mind and the strategic skill of a general. But there 
comes a time for everything. The moment for shattering this 
mystery had apparently arrived and the mortal who was to 
achieve this wonderful feat enters upon the scene with the 
quiet nerve and perfect confidence of a master. He realised the 
gravity of the proposition and therein rested his strength. He 
knew no ordinary boat could hope to live in the turmoil of waters 
that lashed themselves to fury among the rocks and against the 
towering and continuous cliffs; and he knew the party must 
be self-supporting in every sense of the term, depending on 
nothing but their own powers and what they could carry along. 
