not less than seventy-five miles distant, across an unknown country.  So heavily did this situation weigh upon him that he almost concluded to abandon the river and try the chance on the top, but then he says:  “For years I have been contemplating this trip.  To leave the exploration unfinished, to say that there is a part of the canyon which I cannot explore, having already almost accomplished it, is more than I am willing to acknowledge, and I determine to go on.”  So he awoke Walter Powell and explained to him Howland’s decision.  Walter agreed to stand by him, and so did Sumner, Hawkins, Bradley, and Hall.  The younger Howland wished to remain, but would not desert his brother.  O. G. Howland was determined to leave the river, and Dunn was with him.

I have never met any of the men of this party except Powell and his brother Walter, so I have no other account of the affair than the one just stated, which is from Powell’s Report, and is the same that he gave me orally before that Report was printed.  Walter Powell never mentioned the subject, or in any way suggested to me that there was anything behind the version of Powell.  But others have.  They have said that the real cause of the break was an incompatibility between Powell and the elder Howland.  It is quite possible that Powell may have discovered Howland persona non grata, but had this been as serious as some have said, Howland would not have waited, it seems to me, till they came to a particularly bad-looking place to take his departure.  At any rate, that was a long night for Powell, and whatever the main cause of Howland’s leaving was, it was a trying ordeal for the leader.  Howland’s obligation certainly was to go on as if he were an enlisted soldier, and he evidently failed in this duty.  When daylight finally came a solemn breakfast was prepared and eaten.  No one had much heart.  The river was then crossed again to the north side.  The decision of the three men to leave rendered one boat useless, and the poorest, the Dean, which was a pine boat, was left behind.  Two rifles and a shotgun were given to the men who were leaving, but their share of the rations they refused to take, being sure they could secure all the game they required.  Their calculations were correct enough, and they would have arrived at the settlements had not an unforeseen circumstance prevented.  When the river party were ready to start the three deserters helped lift the two boats over a high rock and down past the first fall.  Then they parted.  Powell wrote a letter to his wife which Howland took, Sumner gave him his watch with directions that it be sent to his sister in the event of the river party being annihilated, and the duplicate records of the trip were separated, one set being given to Howland, who at the last begged them not to go on down the river, assuring them that a few miles more of such river as that now ahead of them would consume the last of the scant rations and then it would be too late to try to escape.  In