334 
The Colorado River 
eyes like a prairie. Just below our camp there came in a 
muddy stream, which on the other trip was clear and was then 
named Bright Angel to offset the application of Dirty Devil to 
the river at the foot of Narrow Canyon. 
It was now the beginning of September, but the water and 
the air were not so cold as they had been the year before in 
Cataract Canyon, and we did not suffer from being so con¬ 
stantly saturated. Running on the next day following the 
Bright Angel camp, we found the usual number of large rapids, 
in one of which a wave struck the steering oar and knocked 
Jones out of the boat all but his knees, by which he clung to 
the gunwale, nearly capsizing us. We found it impossible to 
help him, but somehow he got in again. The river was every¬ 
where very swift and turbulent. One stretch of three and a 
half miles we ran in fifteen minutes. There were numerous 
whirlpools, but nothing to stop our triumphant progress. On 
the 2d of September there were two portages, and twenty 
rapids run, in the fifteen miles made during the day. Many 
of these rapids were very heavy descents. That night we 
camped above a bad-looking place, but it was decided to run 
it in the morning. Three-quarters of a mile below camp there 
was a general disappearance of the waters. We could see 
nothing of the great rapid from the level of the boats, though 
we caught an occasional glimpse of the leaping, tossing edges, 
or tops, of the huge billows rolling out beyond into the farther 
depths of the chasm. About eight o’clock in the morning all 
was ready for the start. The inflated life-preservers, as was 
customary in our boat, were laid behind the seats where we 
could easily reach them. The Major put his on, a most fort¬ 
unate thing for him as it turned out, but we who were at the 
oars did not for the reason before mentioned,—that they in¬ 
terfered with the free handling of the boat. The men of the 
Canonita took positions where they could observe and profit by 
our movements. Then out into the current we pushed and 
were immediately swept downward with ever-increasing speed 
toward the centre of the disturbance, the black walls springing 
up on each side of the impetuous waters like mighty buttresses 
for the lovely blue vault of the September sky, so serenely 
