One member of this party was Nathan Galloway, of Richfield, Utah.  To him we owe much of the success of our journey.  Mr. Galloway hunts and traps through the wilds of Utah, Colorado, and Arizona, and has a fame for skill and nerve throughout this entire region.  He makes a yearly trip through the upper canyons, usually in a boat of his own construction; and in addition has the record of being the only person who has made two complete trips through the entire series of canyons, clear to Needles.  He it is who has worked out the type of boats we used, and their management in the dangerous waters of the Colorado.

We have tried to make this narrative not only simple, as we say, but truthful.  However, no two people can see things in exactly the same light.  To some, nothing looks big; to others, every little danger is unconsciously magnified out of all proportion.  For instance, we can recall rapids which appeared rather insignificant at first, but which seemed decidedly otherwise after we had been overturned in them and had felt their power—­especially at the moment when we were sure we had swallowed a large part of the water that composed them.

The reader will kindly excuse the use of the first person, both singular and plural.  It is our own story, after all, and there seems to be no other way than to tell it as you find it here.

+Contents+

CHAPTER PAGE

    I. Preparations at green river city, Wyoming 1

   II.  Interesting sights of southern Wyoming 12

  III.  The gateway of all the canyons 22

   IV.  Suspicious hosts 36

    V. The battle with Lodore 50

   VI.  Hell’s half mile 64

  VII.  Jimmy goes over the mountain 71

 VIII.  An inland excursion 83

   IX.  Canyon of desolation 93

    X. Hospitable RANCHMEN 102

   XI.  Wonders of erosion 111

  XII.  Could we succeed? 121

 XIII.  A companion voyager 129

  XIV.  A Patient amid the cataracts 142

   XV.  Placer gold 156

  XVI.  A warning 169

 XVII.  A night of thrills 178

XVIII.  MARBLE HALLS AND MARBLE WALLS 190

  XIX.  Signalling our canyon home 203

   XX.  One month later 219

  XXI.  What Christmas Eve brought 235