A kettle of hot steaming soup, and blankets all spread out on which to rest, was the work Rogers and I had done to prepare for them, and they sank down on the beds completely exhausted.  The children cried some but were soon pacified and were contented to lie still.  A good supper of hot soup made them feel much better all around.

The first thing Bennett and Arcane did was to look round and see the situation at the falls, and see if the obstacle was enough to stop our progress, or if we must turn back and look for a better way.  They were in some doubt about it, but concluded to try and get the animals over rather than to take the time to seek another pass, which might take a week of time.  We men all went down to the foot of the fall, and threw out all the large rocks, then piled up all the sand we could scrape together with the shovel, till we had quite a pile of material that would tend to break a fall.  We arranged everything possible for a forced passage in the morning, and the animals found a few willows to browse and a few bunches of grass here and there, which gave them a little food, while the spring supplied them with enough water to keep them from suffering with thirst.

Early in the morning we took our soup hastily and with ropes lowered our luggage over the small precipice, then the children, and finally all the ropes were combined to make a single strong one about thirty feet long.  They urged one of the oxen up to the edge of the falls, put the rope around his horns, and threw down the end to me, whom they had stationed below.  I was told to pull hard when he started so that he might not light on his head and break his neck.  We felt this was a desperate undertaking, and we fully expected to lose some of our animals, but our case was critical and we must take some chances.  Bennett stood on one side of the ox, and Arcane on the other, while big Rogers was placed in the rear to give a regular Tennessee boost when the word was given.  “Now for it,” said Bennett, and as I braced out on the rope those above gave a push and the ox came over, sprawling, but landed safely, cut only a little by some angular stones in the sand pile.  “Good enough,” said some one and I threw the rope back for another ox.  “We’ll get ’em all over safely” said Arcane, “if Lewis down there, will keep them from getting their necks broken.”  Lewis pulled hard every time, and not a neck was broken.  The sand pile was renewed every time and made as high and soft as possible, and very soon all our animals were below the falls.  The little mule gave a jump when they pushed her and lighted squarely on her feet all right.  With the exception of one or two slight cuts, which bled some, the oxen were all right and we began loading them at once.