Powell’s winter of investigation had probably given him a good idea of what kind of rapids might be expected in the formations composing the canyons as far as the mouth of Grand River, but he now had confronting him water which for aught he could tell might indulge in plunges of a hundred feet or more at one time, between absolutely vertical walls.  And the aspect of the surroundings at the junction of the Green and the Grand is not reassuring.  It is a barren and dismal place, with no footing but a few sand-banks that are being constantly cut away and reformed by the whirling current, except on their higher levels where a few scrawny hackberry trees and weeds find room to continue a precarious existence.  To get out of or into this locality either by climbing the cliffs or by navigating the rivers is a difficult feat, and to trust oneself to the current blindly rushing down toward the sea is even worse, more especially so on the occasion of this first descent when all beyond was a complete blank.  But the party faced the future bravely and cheerfully.  They climbed out at two points on tours of inspection of the country above, while some took the opportunity to overhaul the supply of rations, which, having been so often wet, was seriously damaged.  The flour was musty and full of hard lumps.  To eliminate the lumps, therefore, they screened it with a piece of mosquito netting for a sieve; at the same time they eliminated more than two hundred pounds of the precious freight and threw this away, a foolish proceeding, for by proper cooking it might have been utilised for food.  Together with the losses by the wreck of the No-Name and other mishaps, and with what had been consumed, their food-supply was now reduced from the original ten-months’ amount to a two-months’ quantity, though they had not yet been on the way quite sixty days; that is, they had used up eight months’ supplies in two months, including a mountain sheep and a deer the hunters had brought down, and they were barely more than half-way to the end of the journey.  At this alarming rate they would be starving long before they saw the walls of the Grand Canyon break away.

Nevertheless no thought of pursuing any course but the one planned occurred to them, and on July 21st they cast off from the sand-banks and were carried rapidly down on the swift torrent of the Great Colorado.  They had not gone far before plenty hard work was furnished, in the shape of two portages were necessary to pass particularly dangerous places, and numerous bad rapids to run.  In the afternoon the Emma Dean, in attempting to navigate one of the more favourable-looking foaming descents, was swamped, pitching Powell and the others headlong into the roaring flood.  They were fortunately able to cling to the boat till they floated into more tranquil waters, where they managed to climb on board, signalling the other boats to land before the plunge.  This they could do, and the boats were brought down by a portage, which took all