Pacific railways, who took a deep interest in the proposed descent.  The names given to the boats were, for the small one, Emma Dean, the pilot boat (after Mrs. Powell), Kitty Clyde’s Sister, Maid of the Canyon, and No-Name.  The members of the party, together with their disposition in the boats at starting, were as follows:  John Wesley Powell, John C. Sumner, William H. Dunn—­the Emma Dean; Walter H. Powell, G. Y. Bradley—­Kitty Clyde’s Sister; O. G. Howland, Seneca Howland, Frank Goodman—­the No-Name; William R. Hawkins, Andrew Hall—­Maid of the Canyon.

Powell, as noted, had been a volunteer officer in the Civil War.  After that he was connected with the Wesleyan University at Bloomington, Illinois, and with the Normal University at Normal, in the same state.  Sumner, generally known as Jack Sumner, had also been a soldier in the late war.  He was fair-haired and delicate-looking, but with a strong constitution.  Dunn had been a hunter and trapper.  Walter Powell was Major Powell’s youngest brother.  He had been in the late war and had there suffered cruelly by capture and imprisonment.  Bradley was an orderly sergeant of regulars, had served in the late war, and resigned from the army to join this party.  O. G. Howland had been a printer.  Seneca Howland was his younger brother.  Goodman was a young Englishman.  Hawkins had been a soldier in the late war, and Andrew Hall was a Scotch boy nineteen years old.

The spring was chosen for the beginning of the voyage because the Green then is at flood and there would be less trouble about floating the boats through the shoal places and amongst the rocks.  The river in some respects is safer at a lower stage of water, but the work is harder.  This, however, was not known then, and Powell had to take his chances at the flood.  On May 24, 1869, the boats were manned and soon were carried out of sight of the haphazard group of houses which at that time constituted this frontier settlement of Green River.  They were heavily laden, for ten months’ rations were carried, as Powell expected when winter came to be obliged to halt and make a permanent camp till spring.  He calculated the river might be filled with ice.  It has since been ascertained, however, that the Colorado proper rarely has any ice in it.  I remember once hearing that a great many years ago it was frozen over in the neighbourhood of Lee’s Ferry, where for a little distance the current is not rapid.  Powell was providing for every contingency he could think of, and trouble with ice was a possible one.  But even without ice the water in winter is so cold that, as men who make the descent must continually be saturated by the breaking waves and by the necessity of frequently jumping overboard in avoiding rocks, the danger of pneumonia is really greater than that from wreck.  They had an abundance of warm clothing for winter, plenty of ammunition, two or three dozen traps, tools of various kinds, nails, screws; etc.  In the line of scientific instruments there were two sextants, four chronometers, a number of barometers, thermometers, compasses, etc.  With the exception of the Emma Dean, which had on board only instruments and clothing, the boats were loaded in such a way that if one should be lost the expedition would still possess a variety of articles and food.