e 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.

So well did they now get on, running rapids and making fine time, that
they began to look forward with great hope to a speedy termination of
the canyon. When therefore the river took an unexpected turn towards the
south and the lower formations once more began to appear, till the black
granite, dreaded and feared, closed again threateningly about them,
they were considerably disheartened. At the very beginning they were
compelled to make a portage. Then they reached a place which appeared
worse than anything they had yet seen. This was partly due to the
condition of the men and it was partly a fact. They could discover no
way to port