ont of the cliff with one
foot on a small projecting rock and one hand fixed in a little crevice.
He called for help, and the men passed him a line, but he could not let
go of the rock long enough to seize it. While he felt his hold becoming
weaker and expected momentarily to drop into the canon, the men went to
the boats and obtained three of the largest oars. The blade of one of
them was pushed into the crevice of a rock beyond him in such a manner
that it bound him across the body to the wall, and another oar was fixed
so that he could stand upon it and walk out of the difficulty. He
breathed again, but had felt that cold air which seems to fan one when
death is near.

Another hour was spent in examining the river, but a good view of it
could not be obtained, and they once more went to the opposite side.
After some hard work among the cliffs they discovered that the lateral
streams had washed a large number of boulders into the river, forming a
dam over which the water made a broken fall of about twenty feet, below
which was a rapid beset by huge rocks for two or three hundred yards.
This was bordered on one side by a series of sharp projections of the
canon-walls, and beyond it was a second fall, ending in another and no
less threatening rapid. At the bottom of the latter an immense slab of
granite projected fully halfway across the river, and upon the inclined
plane which it formed the water rolled with all the momentum gained in
the falls and rapids above, and then swept over to the left. The men
viewed the prospect with dismay, but Major Powell had an insatiable
desire to complete the exploration. He decided that it was possible to
let the boats down over the first fall, then to run near the right cliff
to a point just above the second fall, where they could pull into a
little chute, and from the foot of that across the stream to avoid the
great rock below. The men shook their heads, and after supper--a sorry
supper of unleavened flour and water, coffee and rancid bacon, eaten on
the rocks--the elder Howland endeavored to dissuade the leader from his
purpose, and, failing to do so, told him that he with his brother and
Dunn would go no farther. That night Major Powell did not sleep at all,
but paced to and fro, now measuring the remaining provisions, then
contemplating the rushing falls and rapids. Might not Howland be right?
Would it be wise to venture into that maelstrom which was white during
the darkest hours