EPILOGUE 
M ajor POWELL had kindly consented to write an in¬ 
troduction to this volume wherein I have inadequately 
presented scenes from the great world-drama connected with 
the Colorado River of the West, but a prolonged illness pre¬ 
vented his doing any writing whatever, and on September 23, 
1902, while, indeed, the compositor was setting the last type 
of the book, a funeral knell sounded at Haven, Maine, his 
summer home, and the most conspicuous figure we have seen 
on this stage, the man whose name is as inseparable from the 
marvellous canyon-river as that of De Soto from the Missis¬ 
sippi, or Hendrik Hudson from the placid stream which took 
from him its title, started on that final journey whence there is 
no returning. A distinguished cortege bore the remains across 
the Potomac, laying them in a soldier’s grave in the National 
Cemetery at Arlington. Thus the brave sleeps with the brave 
on the banks of the river of roses, a stream in great contrast to 
that other river far in the West where only might be found a 
tomb more appropriate within sound of the raging waters he 
so valiantly conquered. 
In the history of the United States the place of John Wes¬ 
ley Powell is clear.^ A great explorer, he was also foremost 
among men of science and probably he did more than any 
other single individual to direct Governmental scientific re¬ 
search along proper lines. His was a character of strength 
and fortitude. A man of action, his fame will endure as much 
by his deeds as by his contributions to scientific literature. 
Never a seeker for pecuniary rewards his life was an offering to 
' I am indebted to Major Powell’s brother-in-law, Prof. A. H. Thompson, for 
many of the facts herein stated, and for revision of dates to his brother Prof. W. 
B. Powell. 
371 
