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CHAPTER XIII

A COMPANION VOYAGER

THURSDAY morning, October the 26th, found Emery feeling very poorly,
but insisting on going ahead with our day's work, so Camp No. 34 was
soon behind us. We were embarked on a new stream, flowing
west-southwest, with a body of water ten times the size of that which
we had found in the upper canyons of the Green. Our sixteen-foot boats
looked quite small when compared with the united currents of the Green
and the Grand rivers. The Colorado River must have been about 350 feet
wide here just below the junction, with a three-mile current, and
possibly twenty-five feet deep, although this is only a guess. The
Grand River appeared to be the higher of the two streams, and had a
decidedly red colour, as though a recent storm was being carried down
its gorges; while the colour of the Green was more of a coffee
colour--coffee with a little cream in it.

A fourth of a mile below the junction the two currents began to mix,
with a great ado about it, with small whirlpools and swift eddies, and
sudden outbursts from beneath as though a strangled current was
struggling to escape from the weight which overpowered it. The boats
were twisted this way and that, and hard rowing was necessary to carry
us down to the steadied current, and to the first rapid, which we
could hear when yet far above it.

Soon we were running rapids again, and getting a lot of sport out of
it. There were some rocks, but there was water enough so that these
could be avoided. If one channel did not suit us, we took another, and
although we were drenched in every rapid, and the cockpit was half
filled each time, it was not cold enough to cause us any great
discomfort, and we bailed out at the end of each rapid, then hurried
on to tackle the next. Each of these rapids was from a fourth to a
third of a mile in length. The average was at least one big rapid to
the mile. When No. 5 was reached we paused a little longer, and looked
it over more carefully than we had the others. It had a short, quick
descent, then a long line of white-topped waves, with a big whirlpool
on the right. There were numerous rocks which would take careful work
to avoid. The waves were big,--big enough for a motion picture,--so
Emery remained on shore with both the motion-picture camera and the
8X10 plate camera in position, ready to take the picture, while I ran
my boat.

At the head of this rapid we saw footprints in the sand, but not ma