and it well deserved the name. At the bottom
of a tree-covered precipice reaching a height of 2700 feet, was a
strip of firm, level sand, tapering off with a slope down to the
water, making a perfect landing and dooryard. A great mass of
driftwood, piled up at the end of the rapid, furnished us with all
fuel we needed with small effort on our part. Our tent was backed
against a large rock, while other flat rocks near at hand made
convenient shelves on which to lay our camp dishes and kettles. It
started to drizzle again that night, but what cared we? With a roaring
fire in front of the tent we all cleaned up for a change, sewed
patches on our tattered garments, and, sitting on our beds, wrote the
day's happenings in our journals. Then we crawled into our comfortable
beds, and I was soon dreaming of my boyhood days when I "played
hookey" from school and went fishing in a creek that emptied into the
Allegheny River, or climbed its rocky banks; to be awakened by Jimmy
crying out in his sleep, "There she goes over the rapids."

Jimmy was soon informed that he and the boats were perfectly safe, and
I was brought back to a realization of the fact that I was not going
to get a "whaling" for going swimming in dog-days; but instead was
holed up in Lodore Canyon, in the extreme northwestern corner of
Colorado.

CHAPTER VI

HELL'S HALF MILE

We began our work the next morning where we left off the night before
by bringing the remaining boat down along the edge of the "Triplets."
Then, while Emery cooked the breakfast, Jimmy and I "broke camp." The
beds came first. The air had been released from the mattresses before
we got up,--one way of saving time. A change of dry clothing was
placed with each bed, and they were rolled as tightly as the two of us
could do it, after which they were strapped, placed in a rubber sack,
with a canvas sack over that, both these sacks being laced at the top.
The tent--one of those so-called balloon silk compositions--made a
very small roll; the dark-room tent, with its three plies of cloth,
made the largest bundle of the lot. Everything had been taken from the
boats, and made quite a pile of dunnage, when it was all collected in
a pile ready for loading. After the dishes were washed they were
packed in a box, the smoke-covered pots and pans being placed in a
sack. Everything was sorted and piled before the loading commenced. An
equal division of nearly everything was made, so that the l