320 
The Colorado River 
at the mouth of the Paria, and which we had to pass to reach 
the camp mentioned. Mrs. Thompson would willingly have 
gone all the way through if her husband had consented to it. 
On the 15th it was “all ashore not going”; we said our 
farewells to those leaving for Kanab, and turned our attention 
to the river. We would see no one after starting till we ar¬ 
rived at the mouth of the Kanab, where we had discovered, 
during the winter, that a pack-train, with some difficulty, could 
be brought in with supplies. It was not till the 17th that we 
were able to leave, as the boats needed some further attention. 
On that day, about nine o’clock, we cast off and went down 
some five miles, running one little rapid and another of con¬ 
siderable size before we halted for dinner. The walls were 
still not high, only about five hundred feet, and I climbed out 
to secure a farewell glance at the open country. On starting 
again we had not gone far before we came to a really bad 
place, a fall of about eighteen feet in seventy-five yards, where 
it was deemed respectful to make a portage. This accom¬ 
plished, another of the same nature, with an equally fierce growl, 
discovered itself not far below, and a camp was made where 
we landed at its head. This was ten miles below our starting- 
point, and seemed to be the spot where a band of ten mining 
prospectors were wrecked about a month before. They had 
gone in to the mouth of the Paria on a prospecting trip, and 
concluded they would examine the Grand Canyon. Conse¬ 
quently they built a large raft, and after helping themselves to 
a lot of our cooking utensils and other things from some caches 
we had made when we went out from the river for our winter’s 
work, they sailed away, expecting to accomplish wonders. 
Ten miles, to the first bad rapids, was the extent of their 
voyage, and there they were fortunate to escape with their 
lives, but nothing else, and by means of ladders made from 
driftwood, they reached once more the outer world, having 
learned the lesson the Colorado is sure to teach those who re¬ 
gard it lightly. We made a portage at the place and enjoyed a 
good laugh when we looked at the vertical rocks and pictured 
the prospectors dismally crawling out of the roaring waters 
with nothing left but the clothes on their backs. Our opinion 
