A Miscalculation 
337 
hats rapidly. There was need for expeditious work, for we 
could not tell what might be around the corner. Presently 
enough water was out to steady the boat, and we then helped 
Powell and Jones to get in. Our oars had fortunately re¬ 
mained in the rowlocks, and grasping them, without waiting to 
haul in the hundred feet of line trailing in the current, we made 
for the left wall, where I managed to leap out on a shelf and 
catch the rope over a projection, before the Cafionita^ un¬ 
harmed, dashed up to the spot; her only mishap was the loss 
of a rowlock and two oars. 
Starting once more on the swift current, we found rapids 
sometimes so situated that it was difficult to make a landing 
for examination. At one of these places, towards evening, a 
good deal of time was spent working down to the head of an 
ugly looking spot which could not be fairly seen. An enor¬ 
mous rock lay in the very middle at the head of the descent. 
There was no landing-place till very near the plunge, and in 
dropping down when we came to the point where it was planned 
that I should jump out upon a projecting flat rock, a sudden 
lurch of the boat due to what Stanton afterwards called fount¬ 
ains, and we termed boils, caused me, instead of landing on 
the rock, to disappear in the rushing waters. The current 
catching the boat, she began to move rapidly stern foremost 
toward the fall. Powell and Jones jumped out on rocks as 
they shot past, hoping to catch the line, but they could not 
reach it, and Jones had all he could do to get ashore. Mean¬ 
while I had come to the surface, and going to the boat by 
means of the line which I still held, I fairly tumbled on board. 
Hillers handed me one of my oars which had come loose, and 
we were ready to take the fall, now close at hand, albeit we 
were stern first. As we sped down, the tide carried us far up 
on the huge rock, whose shelving surface sank upstream below 
the surging torrent, and at the same moment turned our bow 
towards the left-hand bank. Perceiving this advantage we 
pulled with all our strength and shot across the very head of 
the rapid, running in behind a large rock on the brink, where 
the boat lodged till I was able to leap ashore, or rather to an¬ 
other rock where there was a footing, and make fast the linec 
22 
