199 
Saving the Crew 
time and was entirely demolished, the men and the fragments 
being carried then out of sight. Powell climbed as rapidly as 
possible over the huge fallen rocks, which here lie along the 
shore he was on, and presently he was able to get a view of his 
men. Goodman was in a whirlpool below a great rock; reach¬ 
ing this he clung to it. Howland had been washed upon a low 
rocky island, which at this stage of water was some feet above 
the current, and Seneca Howland also had gained this place. 
Howland extended a long pole to Goodman and by means of 
it pulled him to the island, where all were safe for the time 
being. Several hundred yards farther down, the river took an¬ 
other and more violent fall, rendering the situation exceedingly 
hazardous. A boat allowed to get a trifle too far towards this 
descent would be treated as the No-Name had been served 
higher up, and the expedition could not afford to lose a second 
boat with its contents. The water in these rapids beats furi¬ 
ously against the foot of the opposite vertical cliff, and if a 
boat in either place should by chance get too far over towards 
this right-hand wall it would be dashed to pieces there, even 
could it escape the rocks of the main channel. The problem 
was how to rescue the men from the island and not destroy 
another boat in doing it. Finally, the Emma Dean was 
brought down, and Jack Sumner undertook to reach the island 
in her. Keeping well up stream, as near the first fall as he 
could, a few bold strokes enabled him to land near the lower 
end. Then, all together, they pulled the boat to the very head 
of the island and beyond that as far as they could stand up in 
the water. Here one man sat on a rock and held the boat 
steady till the others were in perfect readiness to pull with all 
their power, when he gave a shove and, clinging on, climbed 
in while the oarsmen put their muscle to the test. The shore 
was safely attained, and Powell writes: “We are as glad to 
shake hands with them as though they had been on a voyage 
around the world, and wrecked on a distant coast.” This dis¬ 
aster was most serious, even though the men were saved, for, 
besides the loss of the craft itself, all the barometers by some 
miscalculation were on the No-Name. They were able to make 
camp on the shore and survey the situation. “No sleep comes 
