Farewell to the Boats 
341 
From the Little Colorado we had travelled one hundred 
and eight miles, run one hundred and thirty-one rapids, made 
seven portages, and let down six times. The water had now 
fallen again some three feet, but it was still so high that it had 
backed up into the side canyon, where we ran the boats on 
account of an excellent camping-place. Sunday was spent 
resting here, and Thompson took observations for time. On 
Monday morning we expected to pack up again and proceed 
down the gorge, but Powell, instead of directing this course, 
announced that he had decided to end the river work at this 
point on account of the extreme high water, which would ren¬ 
der impassable the rapid where the Howlands and Dunn 
had left. In addition, word was brought that the Shewits 
were in a state of war and had resolved to ambush us as we 
came down, a plot that had been revealed by a friendly mem¬ 
ber of the tribe to Jacob Hamblin. The ambush plan did not 
disturb us much, however, but the stage of water for the be¬ 
ginning of the Second Granite Gorge was another matter, and 
there was no telling when it would fall. It had been demon¬ 
strated by our winter’s explorations that it would not be ab¬ 
solutely necessary for us to continue below this point so far as 
perfecting the topographic work was concerned, and as we 
were there for geographic purposes and not for adventure, the 
decision was against unnecessary risk. This decision then was, 
and ever since has been, a matter of great disappointment to 
me, for I was ready to finish up the Grand Canyon. It was 
with mingled feelings of regret and relief that I helped unload 
the boats, those faithful friends, which had carried us safely 
over so many miles of turbulent river, and from the constant 
hourly association had almost taken on a personality, till they 
seemed like members of the party. Sadly I turned my back 
on their familiar lines and followed the pack-train up the nar¬ 
row gorge in the direction of Kanab. 
