362 
The Colorado River 
descent some of our party had called the Sockdologer, the 
heaviest fall on the river, about eighty feet in a third of a mile. 
They proceeded all along in much the same careful fashion as 
we had done, and as everyone who hopes to make this passage 
alive must proceed. The water being low, they were able to let 
their boats by line over the upper end of the Sockdologer with 
safety, but, in attempting to continue, the Marie was caught 
by a cross-current and thrown against the rocks, turned half 
over, filled with water, and jammed tightly between two boul- 
The Great Unconformity. 
Top of the Granite, Grand Canyon. 
Photograph by T. Mitchell Prudden. 
ders lying just beneath the surface. In winter, the air in the 
canyon is not very cold, but the river coming so swiftly from 
the far north is, and the men with lines about their waists who 
tried to go through the rushing waist-deep water found it 
icy. Taking turns, they succeeded with a grappling-hook in 
getting out the cargo, losing only two sacks of provisions, but 
though they laboured till dark they were not able to move the 
boat. Giving her up for lost, they tried to secure a night’s 
rest on the sharp rocks. Had a great rise in the river occurred 
now the party would have been in a terrible predicament, but 
though it rose a few days later it spared them on this occasion. 
