192 
The Colorado River 
Powell, as noted, had been a volunteer officer in the Civil 
War. After that he was connected with the Wesleyan Uni¬ 
versity at Bloomington, Illinois, and with the Normal Univer¬ 
sity at Normal, in the same state. Sumner, generally known 
as Jack Sumner, had also been a soldier in the late war. He was 
fair-haired and delicate-looking, but with a strong constitution. 
Dunn had been a hunter and trapper. Walter Powell was 
Major Powell’s youngest brother. He had been in the late 
war and had there suffered cruelly by capture and imprison¬ 
ment. Bradley was an orderly sergeant of regulars, had served 
in the late war, and resigned from the army to join this party. 
O. G. Howland had been a printer. Seneca Howland was his 
younger brother. Goodman was a young Englishman. Haw¬ 
kins had been a soldier in the late war, and Andrew Hall was 
a Scotch boy nineteen years old. 
The spring was chosen for the beginning of the voyage be¬ 
cause the Green then is at flood and there would be less trouble 
about floating the boats through the shoal places and amongst 
the rocks. The river in some respects is safer at a lower stage 
of water, but the work is harder. This, however, was not 
known then, and Powell had to take his chances at the flood. 
On May 24, 1869, the boats were manned and soon were car¬ 
ried out of sight of the haphazard group of houses which at 
that time constituted this frontier settlement of Green River. 
They were heavily laden, for ten months’ rations were carried, 
as Powell expected when winter came to be obliged to halt and 
make a permanent camp till spring. He calculated the river 
might be filled with ice. It has since been ascertained, how¬ 
ever, that the Colorado proper rarely has any ice in it. I re¬ 
member once hearing that a great many years ago it was frozen 
over in the neighbourhood of Lee’s Ferry, where for a little 
distance the current is not rapid. Powell was providing for 
every contingency he could think of, and trouble with ice was 
a possible one. But even without ice the water in winter is so 
cold that, as men who make the descent must continually be 
saturated by the breaking waves and by the necessity of fre¬ 
quently jumping overboard in avoiding rocks, the danger of 
pneumonia is really greater than that from wreck. They had an 
