Virgen.  The total stock of food left the explorers was ten pounds of flour, fifteen of dried apples, and about seventy of coffee.  Powell and his brother here said farewell to their companions of the long and perilous journey.  They went to the Mormon settlements, while the others continued down the river in the boats to Yuma where Hawkins and Bradley left.  Sumner and Hall continued to the Gulf which they reached before the end of September.

This expedition, by hard labour, with good boats had, accomplished in about thirty working days the distance from the mouth of Grand River down, while White claimed to have done it on a clumsy raft in eleven!  And where White professed to find smooth sailing in his imaginary voyage, Powell had discovered the most dangerous river of all.

Of his companions on this extraordinary journey, Powell says “I was a maimed man, my right arm was gone; and these brave men, these good men, never forgot it.  In every danger my safety was their first care, and in every waking hour some kind service was rendered me, and they transfigured my misfortune into a boon.”

CHAPTER X

Powell’s Second Attack on the Colorado—­Green River City—­Red Canyon and a Capsize—­The Grave of Hook—­The Gate of Lodore—­Cliff of the Harp—­Triplet Falls and Hell’s Half-Mile—­A Rest in Echo Park.

Though Powell had demonstrated the possibility of passing alive through the thousand-mile stretch of canyons on the Green and Colorado, the scientific results of his hazardous voyage were not what he had desired.  Owing to the numerous disasters many of the instruments had been lost, and he had been prevented by this, as well as by other circumstances, from fully accomplishing his intention.  On this account he concluded to continue his labours in this direction, and determined to make another descent if he could secure the pecuniary aid of the Government.  His application was favourably considered, as it certainly deserved to be, and Congress appropriated a sum for a second expedition that should also examine the adjacent country for a distance of twelve miles on each side of the river.  To insure certainty of food supplies for the continuance of the work, Powell visited the region in 1870 for the purpose of examining the feasibility of having rations taken in by pack-trains at several points.  He concluded this could be done at the mouth of the Uinta River, at the mouth of the Dirty Devil, at the Ute Ford or Crossing of the Fathers, and at the mouth of the Paria, where he expected to retire from the river for the winter, to conduct explorations in the surrounding mountains.  It was on this occasion that he went to the Uinkaret Mountains (September, 1870) and investigated the cause of the disappearance of the Howlands and Dunn.  Returning then to Kanab, at that time the farthest frontier settlement of the Mormons, he visited the Moki Towns, across the Colorado,