The next day they reached a clear little stream coming in through a deep canyon on the right, and because they had honoured the devil by conferring his name on a river higher up, Powell concluded to honour the good spirits by calling this Bright Angel River.  In its narrow valley ruined foundations of houses and fragments of pottery were discovered.  There were also indications of old trails by which the builders had made their way about.  By the l7th of August, the rations were reduced to musty flour enough for ten days, a few dried apples, and plenty of coffee.  The bacon had spoiled and was thrown away.  Now the problem of food was a paramount consideration.  Should they be detained by many bad places, they might be forced by the food question to abandon the river, if possible, and strike for the Mormon settlements lying to the north.  The barometers were rendered useless, so that they could not determine the altitude to see what proportion of descent still remained ahead.  They hoped, however, that the worst was behind.  They now carefully divided evenly among the boats the little stock of flour, so that, in case of disaster, all of it should not be lost at once.  Notwithstanding all the difficulties and the dark outlook, Powell never failed in his wonderful poise of mind and balance of nerve.  But he was anxious, and he sang sometimes as they sailed along till the men, he once told me, he believed thought he had gone crazy.  Of course the singing was more or less a mask for his real feelings.

On the 19th the pioneer boat, running some distance ahead of the others, was again upset by a wave.  As usual the men succeeded in clinging to the upturned craft, the closed compartments always keeping the boat afloat, and were carried down through another rapid.  The companion boats were detained by whirlpools and could not quickly go to the rescue, but when they finally did reach the Dean, she was bailed out, the men climbed on board of her again, and they all went on without even trying to land.  The next day, in one hour, they ran on a wild dashing river ten miles without stopping, and, what was to them most important, they ran out of the granite.  The bright colours of the sedimentary rocks put new cheer into them.  On they ran, down the narrow canyon, now about three thousand feet deep, always on swift water, but for a time there were no bad rapids.  On August 25th they reached a fall where the river was once dammed up for a great height by an overflow of lava from craters on and near the brink.  One of the craters was plainly visible from below.  The canyon appeared to have been once filled by the lava to the depth of fifteen hundred feet.  They named the descent Lava Falls and made a portage.  Not far below this they found a garden which had been planted by the Shewits Pai Utes living on the plateau above.  The corn was not ripe, though some squashes were, and helping themselves to a few of these they ran on to a comfortable place and had a feast.