The Romance of the Colorado River eBook

Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 334 pages of information about The Romance of the Colorado River.

The Romance of the Colorado River eBook

Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 334 pages of information about The Romance of the Colorado River.
the Green.  The waters of the two came together with a good deal of a rush, the commingling being plainly visible.  Neither overwhelmed the other; it was a perfect union, and in some respects it is quite appropriate that the combined waters of these streams should have a special name to represent them.  The new tributary was Grand River, and when our boats floated on the united waters, we were at last on the back of the Dragon.  Away sped the current of the Colorado, swirling along, spitefully lashing with its hungry tongue the narrow sand-banks fringing the rugged shores, so that we scarcely knew where to make a landing.  Finally we halted on the right, constantly watching the boats’ lines lest the sand should melt away and take our little ships with it.  Along the bases of the cliffs above the high waters were narrow strips of rocky soil, supporting a few stunted cottonwoods and hackberry trees, which, with some stramonium bushes in blossom, were the sum total of vegetation.  In every way the Junction is a desolate place.  It is the beginning of Cataract Canyon, and forty-one miles must be put behind us before we would see its end—­forty-one miles of bad river, too.  From a point not far up the Green, which we easily reached with a boat, a number climbed out by means of a cleft about fifty feet wide, taking the photographic outfit along.  The country above was a maze of crevices, pinnacles, and buttes, and it seemed an impossibility for any human being to travel more than a few hundred yards in any direction.  The character of the place may best be illustrated by stating that Steward, who had gone up by a different route, was unable to reach us, though we could talk to him across a fissure.  Many of these breaks could be jumped, but some of them were too wide for safety.  The surface was largely barren sandstone, only a patch of sand here and there sustaining sometimes a bush or stunted cedar.  It is the Land of Standing Rocks, as the Utes call it.

The supplies were now gone over and carefully and evenly divided, so that an accident to one boat should not cripple us any more than possible, and on Tuesday, the 19th of September, our bows were headed down the Colorado.  A few miles below the Junction, a trail was seen coming down a canyon on the left, showing that the Utes have always known how to find the place.  If Macomb had been properly guided he could have reached it.  The familiar roar of rapids soon came to our ears, and thenceforth there was no respite from them.  The first was so ugly that the boats were lowered by lines, the second was much the same, and then we reached a third which was even worse.  The water was now growing cold, and as one’s clothes are always wet when running rapids or portaging on the Colorado, we felt the effects of the deep shadows, combined with the cold drenchings.  Our dinners were quickly prepared, for we were on allowance and Andy was not bothered with trying to satisfy our appetites; he cooked as much as directed, and if there were hungry

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The Romance of the Colorado River from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.