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Show 24 EXPLORATION OF THE OANONS OI•' THE COLORADO. denly narrowed by rocks which have been tumbled from the cliffs or bave been washed in by lateral streams. Immediately above the narrow, rocky channel ' on one or both sides, there is often a bay of quiet water, in which . we can land with ease. Sometimes the water descends with a smooth, unruffled surface, from· the broad, quiet spread above, into the nar.~·ow, angry channel below, by a semicircular sag. Great care must be taken not to pass over the brink into this deceptive pit, but above it we can row with safety. I walk along the bank to examine the ground, leaving ono of my men with a flag to guide the other boats to the landing-place. I soon seo one of the boats make shore all right and feel no more concern ; but a minute after, I hear a shout, and looking around, soo one of the boats shooting down tho center of the sag. It is the "No Name,'' with Captain Howland, his brother, and Goodman. I feel that its going over is inevitable, and run to save the third boat. A minute more, and she tm·ns the point and heads for the shore. Then I turn down stream again, and scramble along to look for the boat that has gone over. The first fall is not great, only ton or twelve feet, and we often run such; but below, the river tumbles down again for forty or fifty feet, in a channel filled with dangerous rocks that break the waves into whirlpools and beat them into foam. I pass around a great crag just in time to see the boat strike a rock, and, rebounding from the shock, careen and fill the open compartment with water. Two of the men lose their oars; she swings around, and is carried down at a rapid rate, broadside on, for a few yards, and strikes amidships on another rock with great force, is broken quite in two, and the men are thrown into the river ; the larger part of the boat floating buoyantly, they soon seize it, and down the river they drift, past the rocks for a few hundred yards to a socon<l rapid, filled with huge boulders, where the boat strikes again, and is dashed to pieces, an<l the men and fragments are soon carried beyond my sight. Running along, I turn a bend, and see a man's head above the water, washed abo~t in a whirlpool below a great rock. It is F1·ank Goodman, clinging to it with a grip upon which life depends. Coming opposite, I see llowland trying to go to ills aid from an island on which he has been washed. Soon, he comes near enough to reach F1:ank with a polo, which ho oxtonds toward him. 'rl10 latter lots 0'0 the rock b ' Fi~uro !.1.- Wiuuic'll 01'otto, u t~ido cunou. (Wall11 :.!,000 foot high.) |