CHAPTER IX 
A Canyon of Cataracts—■ The Imperial Chasm ■— Short Rations —A Split in the 
Party — Separation — Fate of the Howlands and Dunn — The Monster 
Vanquished, 
P OWELL'S winter of investigation had probably given him 
a good idea of what kind of rapids might be expected in 
the formations composing the canyons as far as the mouth of 
Grand Riven hut he now had confronting him water which 
for aught he could tell might indulge in plunges of a hundred 
feet or more at one time, between absolutely vertical walls. 
And the aspect of the surroundings at the junction of the Green 
and the Grand is not reassuring. It is a barren and dismal 
place, with no footing but a few sand-banks that are being con¬ 
stantly cut away and reformed by the whirling current, except 
on their higher levels where a few scrawny hackberry trees and 
weeds find room to continue a precarious existence. To get 
out of or into this locality either by climbing the cliffs or by 
navigating the rivers is a difficult feat, and to trust oneself to 
the current blindly rushing down toward the sea is even 
worse, more especially so on the occasion of this first descent 
when all beyond was a complete blank. But the party faced 
the future bravely and cheerfully. They climbed out at two 
points on tours of inspection of the country above, while some 
took the opportunity to overhaul the supply of rations, which, 
having been so often wet, was seriously damaged. The flour 
was musty and full of hard lumps. To eliminate the lumps, 
therefore, they screened it with a piece of mosquito netting 
for a sieve; at the same time they eliminated more than two 
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