221 
Method of Working 
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 water. Standing on this beach, some of the 
men take a line of the little boat and let it drift down against an¬ 
other 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 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 canyon. 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.” 
At this season of the year there is a good deal of cloudy and 
rainy weather in the Grand Canyon region, and this makes the 
gorge decidedly gloomy when one is compelled to stay in it 
and descend the river. The next morning with two hours of 
similar manoeuvring the rapid was passed. The same day they 
found a stretch where the river was so swift the boats were 
tossed from side to side like feathers, entirely unmanageable. 
Here they met with another rapid and two of the boats were 
in such a position they could not escape running it. But they 
went through without damage. Then the third crew tried to 
reach land, and succeeded, only to find that there was no foot¬ 
hold. They pushed out again, to be overwhelmed by a power¬ 
ful wave which filled the boat full. She drifted helpless through 
several breakers and one of these capsized her. The men 
hung to the side, the only thing to do in the Colorado unless 
one has on a life preserver (and even then it is advisable), as 
she drifted down to the other boats, where she was caught and 
