244 
The Colorado River 
—assembled on the beach to give us God-speed. The cheer¬ 
ful conception of this service on the part of a deaf-mute was 
to fill the air with violent gestures to indicate—and it was vivid 
enough—that we could not possibly escape destruction. One 
of his series represented with uncomfortable clearness a drown¬ 
ing man vainly striving to climb up a vertical wall. This pan¬ 
tomime was the last thing I saw from my position at the oars 
as we turned a bend and left the “city” behind. 
We were much better provided for than the first party. 
We had a guide, our boats were superior, our plan for supplies 
was immeasurably better, both as to caring for what we took 
along and what we were to receive at the several indicated 
places—mouth of the Uinta, mouth of the Dirty Devil, Cross¬ 
ing of the Fathers, and the Paria. We also had rubber life- 
preservers to inflate at the more dangerous points. Mine did 
me little good, as I soon found it was in my way and I never 
wore it; nor did Hillers wear his. As we handled the oars of 
our boat we concluded it would be safer to do it in the best 
manner possible, and not be encumbered by these sausages 
under our elbows, but we always placed them behind us at bad 
places, ready for use; all the others, however, wore theirs and 
seemed to find no objection to them in the way of inter¬ 
ference. A cork jacket could be worn easier when rowing, 
and I would recommend it, but the thing of first importance 
is to have the right kind of boats, and know how to handle 
them. An humble spirit is also a great safeguard. After 
starting, the usual number of slight accidents occurred, 
but there was nothing to interfere with our steady progress 
into the silent, lonely land, where the great Dragon, whose 
tail we were now just touching, tore the air to tatters with his 
writhings. Our light oars were snapped like reeds, but luckily 
we had plenty of extras, and some ten-foot ones were cut 
down to eight, and these proved to be strong enough. On 
the morning of the 23d we were treated to a snow-storm and 
the air was very cold. It soon cleared, however; and the sun 
shone again bright and warm, and we went on rejoicing. The 
next day we reached the mouth of Black’s Fork, and after this 
the river was deeper and we were less troubled by grounding, 
