346 
The Colorado River 
new railway which was to cost the president so dear. Then 
they bought a boat from the ferryman, and after repairing it 
laid in a supply of rations, engaged some men, and ran a half- 
mile down Grand River. Brown then left to go East in order 
to perfect his arrangements for this attempt to survey a rail¬ 
way route through the dangerous canyons. The boat party 
continued down Grand River to the head of the canyon, 
twenty-four miles, and then more slowly descended over 
rougher water, averaging five or six miles a day. At a distance 
of forty-three miles from the start the rapids grew very bad, 
and at one place they were forced to make a portage for twelve 
miles. At the end of one hundred miles they came to the 
little Mormon settlement of Moab. From here to the Junction 
of the Grand and Green was a distance of sixty miles, and the 
water was the same as it is just above the Junction, in the 
canyons of the Green, Stillwater, and Labyrinth, that is, com¬ 
paratively smooth and offering no obstacles except a rather 
swift current. Nowhere had the cliffs risen above one thou¬ 
sand feet, and the river had an average fall of five feet to the 
mile. This was the first party on record to navigate, for any 
considerable distance, the canyons of Grand River. From the 
Junction they proceeded up the Green, towing the boat, de¬ 
siring to reach the Rio Grande Western Railway crossing, one 
hundred and twenty miles away. By this time their rations 
were much diminished and they allowed themselves each day 
only one-half the ordinary amount, at the same time going on 
up the river as fast as possible, yet at the end of about eight 
days, when still thirty miles from their destination, they were 
reduced to their last meal. Fortunately they then arrived at 
the cabin of some cattlemen, Wheeler Brothers, who, discover¬ 
ing their plight, put their own ample larder, with true Western 
hospitality, at the surveyors’ disposal. Thus opportunely 
fortified and refreshed, the men reached the railway crossing 
the following night. 
In reviewing all the early travels through this inhospitable 
region, one is struck by the frequent neglect of the question of 
food-supplies. In such a barren land, this is the item of first 
importance, and yet many of the leaders treated it apparently 
