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Show 26 EXPLORATION or THE OANONS OF THE COLORADO. with safety, and return to tell the men my conclusion. Sumner and Dunn volunteer to take the little boat and make the attempt. They start, reach it, and out come the barometers; and now the boys set up a shout, and I join them, pleased that they should be as glad to save the instruments as myself. When the boat lands on our side, I find that the only things saved from the wreck were the barometers, a package of thermometers, and a three gallon keg of whisky, which is what the men were shouting about. They had taken it aboard, unknown to me, and now I am glad they did, for they think it will do them good, as they are drenched every day by the melting snow, which runs down from the summits of the Rocky Mountains. Now we come back to our work at the portage. We find that it is necessary to can-y om· rations over the rocks for nearly a mile, and lot our boats down with lines, except at a few points, where they also must be can-ied. Between the river and the eastern wall of the cafion there is an immense talus of broken rocks. These have tumbled down from the cliffs above, and constitute a vast pile of huge angular fragments. On these we build a path for a quarter of a mile, to a small sand beach covered with drift-wood, through which we clear a way for several hundred yards, then continue the trail on over another pile of rocks, nearly half a mile farther down, to a little bay. The greater part of the day is spent in this work. Then we carry our cargoes down to the beach and camp for the night. While the men are building the camp fire, we discover an iron bake oven, several tin plates, a part of a boat, and many other fragments, which denote that this is the place where Ashley's party was wrecked. J~me 11.-This day is spent in can-ying our rations down to the hayno small task to climb over the rocks with sacks of flour or bac.on. We carry them by stages of about 500 yards each, and when night comes, and the last sacl~ is on the beach, wo are tired, bruised, and glad to sleep. June 12.-To-day we take the boats down to the- bay. While at this work, we discover three sacks of flour from the wrecked boat, that have lodged in the rocks. We carry them above high-water mark, and leave them, as our cargoes are already too heavy for the three re:m.a.ining boats. We also find two or three oars, which we pla.ce with them. |