cidentally, and
so well did this arrangement work that in a capsize the oars remained in
the rowlocks. To any one wishing to try the descent of the Colorado, I
commend these boats as being perhaps as well adapted to the work as
any that can be devised; though perhaps a pointed stern would be an
improvement. Iron construction is not advisable, as it is difficult to
repair.

When I went the first, time to look at the boats lying on Bagley's
wharf, their ominous porpoise-like appearance gave me a peculiar
sensation. I had expected rough-water, but this was the first
understanding I had that the journey was to be more or less amphibian.
On a day when the waves on Lake Michigan were running high we took them
out for trial. The crews were filled out by Bagley's men, our party not
all being present, and with some reporters and a cargo of champagne and
cigars our course was laid for the open sea. The action of the boats was
all that could be desired, and, in the great billows it was so constant
that our reportorial friends found some difficulty in obtaining their
share of the refreshments. We were satisfied that the boats could ride
any sea, and they were accordingly placed on a car and sent by way of
the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy and the Union Pacific railways to
Green River Station. These companies charged nothing for this service
and also transported all the men and baggage on the same terms. On the
29th of April we alighted at Green River and found the boats already
there. This place, when the railway was building, had been for a
considerable time the terminus, and a town of respectable proportions
had grown up, but with the completion of the road through this region,
the terminus had moved on, and now all that was to be seen of those
golden days was a group of adobe walls, roofless and forlorn. The
present "city" consisted of about thirteen houses, and some of these
were of such complex construction that one hesitates whether to describe
them as houses with canvas roofs, or tents with board sides. The
population consisted of a few whites, a number of Chinese railway
labourers, an occasional straggling miner, native, or cattleman, and
last but not least, at the small railway-station eating-house, honoured
by the patronage of emigrant-trains, his highness Ah Chug, the cook,
whose dried-apple pies, at twenty-five cents apiece, I have never ceased
to enjoy, for they were the ladder by which I was able to descend from
a