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+Project Gutenberg's Little Masterpieces of Science: Explorers, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Little Masterpieces of Science: Explorers
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: George Iles
+
+Release Date: July 24, 2009 [EBook #29502]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPLORERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sigal Alon, Marcia Brooks, Fox in the Stars
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LITTLE MASTERPIECES OF SCIENCE
+
+[Illustration: Christopher Columbus.]
+
+
+
+
+Little Masterpieces
+of Science
+
+Edited by George Iles
+
+
+
+
+EXPLORERS
+
+
+ Christopher Columbus Charles Wilkes
+ Lewis and Clarke Clarence King
+ Zebulon M. Pike John Wesley Powell
+
+[Illustration]
+
+NEW YORK
+
+DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+
+1902
+
+
+Copyright, 1902, by Doubleday, Page & Co.
+
+Copyright, 1891, by Justin Winsor
+
+Copyright, 1871, by Oliver Wendell Holmes
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+ "Peace hath her victories
+ No less renown'd than war."
+
+
+The love of adventure, the expectation of the unexpected, have ever
+prompted men stout of heart, and ready of resource, to brave the perils
+of wilderness and sea that they might set their feet where man never
+trod before. The world owes much to the explorers who have faced hostile
+savages, stood in jeopardy from the cobra and the lion, the foes as
+deadly which lurk in the brook which quenches thirst. A traveller like
+Clarke takes his life in his hands. He breaks a path which leads he
+knows not whither: it may bring him to a shore whence he has no ship to
+sail from; it may end in an abyss he cannot bridge. The thickets rend
+and sting him, poison may colour a tempting grain or berry, frost may
+deaden his energies and lull him to the sleep that knows no waking. He
+has but little aid from science: beyond food and medicine he carries
+little more than a watch, a compass, a rifle, and a cartridge belt.
+Beyond all instruments and weapons are his skill, agility, gumption,
+diplomacy. And these resources in no mean measure are shared by the man
+for whom he prepares the way, the immigrant, who, in the early days of
+settlement, requires a constancy even higher than the explorer's own.
+It is one thing to traverse a wilderness under the excitement of hourly
+adventure; it is another thing to stay there for a lifetime and convert
+it to a home.
+
+The race of American explorers is not extinct. Major Powell is with us
+to-day, hale and hearty still. Peary, in the prime of his powers, is as
+capital an example of courage and resource as ever threw themselves upon
+the riddle of the frozen north. Beyond the Arctic and Antarctic circles
+little remains unknown on earth. When at last every rood of ground and
+knot of sea is mapped and charted, whither shall the explorer direct his
+steps? He cannot repeat the conquests of Lewis and Clarke, Pike and
+Peary, but he need not on that account fold his hands so long as a brave
+heart and a quick wit are wanted in the world.
+
+GEORGE ILES
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+ WINSOR, JUSTIN
+
+ COLUMBUS DISCOVERS AMERICA
+
+ Embarks at Palos, August 3, 1492. A mishap befalls the
+ _Pinta_. Sees the Peak of Teneriffe in eruption. Arrives at
+ the Canaries. Falsifies his reckoning to conceal from his crew
+ the length of the voyage. On September 13th his compass points
+ to the true north, a fact without precedent. Next day a water
+ wagtail is seen, betokening an approach to land. Two pelicans
+ alight on board, with the same significance. These promises
+ fail, and the crew becomes disheartened and discontented. On
+ October 11th Columbus sees a light, presumably on shore: four
+ hours later, next day, land is descried and named by Columbus
+ San Salvador. Discussion as to where this place is: the
+ balance of probability inclines to Watling's Island. 3
+
+
+ LEWIS AND CLARKE
+
+ ARRIVAL AT THE PACIFIC OCEAN, 1805
+
+ Descent of the last rapid of the Columbia River, November 2. A
+ feast of wappatoo root. Meet unfriendly Indians. Observe Mount
+ St. Helen, of Vancouver, about ninety miles off. The country
+ fertile and delightful, abounding with game. The ocean suddenly
+ appears. Rough weather and its effects. Friendly Indians bring
+ food. Rain ruins merchandise, clothing and food. Thievish
+ Indians are withstood. The journey comes successfully to an
+ end. 29
+
+
+ PIKE, ZEBULON M.
+
+ THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI, 1806
+
+ Meets friendly Indians and whites. A serious fire. Deep snow
+ inflicts severe hardship. A trackless journey ends in safety
+ and a hospitable welcome. Provisions exorbitant in price. A
+ march on snowshoes. Sleds of native pattern are made. Delay
+ through water on the ice. Bitter cold and the curse of solitude.
+ A dismal swamp. Unfriendly Indians and the purchasing power
+ of whiskey. The main source of the Mississippi comes into
+ view. Disabled by excessive exertion. Hoists the flag. Visits
+ of Indian chiefs. 55
+
+
+ WILKES, CHARLES
+
+ MANILA IN 1842
+
+ Character of the city Spanish and Oriental: numerous canals. A
+ strange and motley population, the artisans for the most part
+ Chinese. Malays and Chinese live apart. Much evidence of
+ volcanic activity in the Philippines. Natural resources
+ abundant. Primitive tools cause much waste of labour. The
+ buffalo as a draught animal. Rice the staple diet: defective
+ mode of culture. Hemp, its growth and manufacture. Crops of
+ coffee, sugar and cotton. The ravages of locusts. Geography of
+ the country and the diverse elements of its population. Its
+ army of about 6,000. Frequent rebellions among the troops and
+ tribes. Iron rule of the Government. The market-place a scene
+ of unending interest. Excellent poultry. The environs of
+ Manila delightful. 71
+
+
+ KING, CLARENCE
+
+ THE ASCENT OF MOUNT TYNDALL
+
+ An eight hours' climb over ridges of granite and snow. "Shall
+ we ascend Mount Tyndall?" "Why not?" At first Professor
+ Brewer believes the attempt madness, but yields consent at
+ last. The climb begins and steadily increases in difficulty. A
+ gulf of 5,000 feet in depth. A night's lodging in a granite
+ crevice. Rocks of many tons strike near. The galling pain
+ of heavy burdens. A profound chasm is crossed on a rope.
+ Exhilaration of utmost peril. A small bush ensures salvation.
+ A welcome stretch of trees and flowers. A spire, all but
+ perpendicular, of rock and ice is surmounted, and at last is
+ reached the crest of Mount Tyndall. 97
+
+
+ POWELL, JOHN WESLEY
+
+ THE GRAND CANON OF THE COLORADO IS EXPLORED
+
+ Embarkation under cliffs 4,000 feet high. A swift run ends in
+ a descent of eighty feet in one-third of a mile. Breakers
+ render a boat unmanageable. Walls more than a mile high. The
+ baffling waters capsize a boat. Relics of ancient dwelling-places.
+ Rations destroyed by wet. Clothing lost and blankets scarce.
+ Grand views not fully enjoyed. A wild run through ten miles
+ of rapids. In places the rocks so cut by water that it is
+ impossible to see overhead. Great amphitheatres, half-dome
+ shaped. Mammoth springs of lime-laden waters. An ancient
+ lava-bed channelled out. Stolen squashes provide a feast.
+ Difficulties thicken: is it wise to go on? Three of the party
+ say no, the remainder proceed. All but lost in a whirlpool.
+ Emergence from the Grand Canon in safety and joy. 131
+
+
+
+
+EXPLORERS COLUMBUS DISCOVERS AMERICA
+
+Justin Winsor
+
+ [Part of Chapter IX., "The Final Agreement and the First
+ Voyage" from "Christopher Columbus and How He Received and
+ Imparted the Spirit of Discovery," copyright by Houghton,
+ Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York, 1892.]
+
+
+So, everything being ready, on the 3rd of August, 1492, a half-hour
+before sunrise, he unmoored his little fleet in the stream, and,
+spreading his sails, the vessels passed out of the little river
+roadstead of Palos, gazed after, perhaps, in the increasing light, as
+the little crafts reached the ocean, by the friar of Rabida, from its
+distant promontory of rock.
+
+The day was Friday, and the advocates of Columbus's canonization have
+not failed to see a purpose in its choice as the day of our Redemption,
+and as that of the deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre by Geoffrey de
+Bouillon, and of the rendition of Granada, with the fall of the Moslem
+power in Spain. We must resort to the books of such advocates, if we
+would enliven the picture with a multitude of rites and devotional
+feelings that they gather in the meshes of the story of the departure.
+They supply to the embarkation a variety of detail that their holy
+purposes readily imagine, and place Columbus at last on his poop, with
+the standard of the Cross, the image of the Saviour nailed to the holy
+wood, waving in the early breeze that heralded the day. The
+embellishments may be pleasing, but they are not of the strictest
+authenticity.
+
+In order that his performance of an embassy to the princes of the East
+might be duly chronicled, Columbus determined, as his journal says, to
+keep an account of the voyage by the west, "by which course," he says,
+"unto the present time, we do not know, _for certain_, that any one has
+passed." It was his purpose to write down, as he proceeded, everything
+he saw and all that he did, and to make a chart of his discoveries, and
+to show the directions of his track.
+
+Nothing occurred during those early August days to mar his run to the
+Canaries, except the apprehension which he felt that an accident,
+happening to the rudder of the _Pinta_,--a steering gear now for some
+time in use, in place of the old lateral blades,--was a trick of two
+men, her owners, Gomez Rascon and Christopher Quintero, to impede a
+voyage in which they had no heart. The Admiral knew the disposition of
+these men well enough not to be surprised at the mishap, but he tried to
+feel secure in the prompt energy of Pinzon, who commanded the _Pinta_.
+
+As he passed (August 24-25, 1492) the peak of Teneriffe, it was the time
+of an eruption, of which he makes bare mention in his journal. It is to
+the corresponding passage of the _Historie_, [written by his son,
+Fernando,] that we owe the somewhat sensational stories of the terrors
+of the sailors, some of whom certainly must long have been accustomed to
+like displays in the volcanoes of the Mediterranean.
+
+At the Gran Canarie the _Nina_ was left to have her lateen sails changed
+to square ones; and the _Pinta_, it being found impossible to find a
+better vessel to take her place, was also left to be overhauled for her
+leaks, and to have her rudder again repaired, while Columbus visited
+Gomera, another of the islands. The fleet was reunited at Gomera on
+September 2. Here he fell in with some residents of the Ferro, the
+westermost of the group, who repeated the old stories of land
+occasionally seen from its heights, lying towards the setting sun.
+Having taken on board wood, water, and provisions, Columbus finally
+sailed from Gomera on the morning of Thursday, September 6. He seems to
+have soon spoken a vessel from Ferro, and from this he learned that
+three Portuguese caravels were lying in wait for him in the
+neighbourhood of that island, with a purpose, as he thought, of visiting
+in some way upon him, for having gone over to the interests of Spain,
+the indignation of the Portuguese king. He escaped encountering them.
+
+Up to Sunday, September 9, they had experienced so much calm weather,
+that their progress had been slow. This tediousness soon raised an
+apprehension in the mind of Columbus that the voyage might prove too
+long for the constancy of his men. He accordingly determined to falsify
+his reckoning. This deceit was a large confession of his own timidity
+in dealing with his crew, and it marked the beginning of a long struggle
+with deceived and mutinous subordinates, which forms so large a part of
+the record of his subsequent career.
+
+The result of Monday's sail, which he knew to be sixty leagues, he noted
+as forty-eight, so that the distance from home might appear less than it
+was. He continued to practise this deceit.
+
+The distances given by Columbus are those of dead reckoning beyond any
+question. Lieutenant Murdock, of the United States Navy, who has
+commented on this voyage, makes his league the equivalent of three
+modern nautical miles, and his mile about three-quarters of our present
+estimate for that distance. Navarrete says that Columbus reckoned in
+Italian miles, which are a quarter less than Spanish miles. The Admiral
+had expected to make land after sailing about seven hundred leagues from
+Ferro; and in ordering his vessels in case of separation to proceed
+westward, he warned them when they sailed that distance to come to the
+wind at night, and only to proceed by day.
+
+The log as at present understood in navigation had not yet been devised.
+Columbus depended in judging of his distance on the eye alone, basing
+his calculations on the passage of objects or bubbles past the ship,
+while the running out of his hour glasses afforded the multiple for long
+distances.
+
+On Thursday, the 13th of September, he notes that the ships were
+encountering adverse currents. He was now three degrees west of Flores,
+and the needle of the compass pointed as it had never been observed
+before, directly to the true north. His observation of this fact marks a
+significant point in the history of navigation. The polarity of the
+magnet, an ancient possession of the Chinese, had been known perhaps for
+three hundred years, when this new spirit of discovery awoke in the
+fifteenth century. The Indian Ocean and its traditions were to impart,
+perhaps through the Arabs, perhaps through the returning Crusaders, a
+knowledge of the magnet to the dwellers on the shores of the
+Mediterranean, and to the hardier mariners who had pushed beyond the
+pillars of Hercules, so that the new route to that same Indian Ocean was
+made possible in the fifteenth century. The way was prepared for it
+gradually. The Catalans from the port of Barcelona pushed out into the
+great Sea of Darkness under the direction of their needles, as early at
+least as the twelfth century. The pilots of Genoa and Venice, the hardy
+Majorcans and the adventurous Moors, were followers of almost equal
+temerity.
+
+A knowledge of the variation of the needle came more slowly to be known
+to the mariners of the Mediterranean. It had been observed by Peregrini
+as early as 1269, but that knowledge of it which rendered it greatly
+serviceable in voyages does not seem to be plainly indicated in any of
+the charts of these transition centuries, till we find it laid down on
+the maps of Andrea Bianco in 1436.
+
+It was no new thing then when Columbus, as he sailed westward, marked
+the variation, proceeding from the northeast more and more westerly; but
+it was a revelation when he came to a position where the magnetic north
+and the north star stood in conjunction, as they did on this 13th of
+September, 1492. As he still moved westerly the magnetic line was found
+to move farther and farther away from the pole as it had before the 13th
+approached it. To an observer of Columbus's quick perceptions, there was
+a ready guess to possess his mind. This inference was that this line of
+no variation was a meridian line, and that divergence from it east and
+west might have a regularity which would be found to furnish a method of
+ascertaining longitude far easier and surer than tables or water clocks.
+We know that four years later he tried to sail his ship on observations
+of this kind. The same idea seems to have occurred to Sebastian Cabot,
+when a little afterwards he approached and passed in a higher latitude,
+what he supposed to be the meridian of no variation. Humboldt is
+inclined to believe that the possibility of such a method of
+ascertaining longitude was that uncommunicable secret, which Sebastian
+Cabot many years later hinted at on his death-bed.
+
+The claim was made near a century later by Livio Sanuto in his
+_Geographia_, published at Venice, in 1588, that Sebastian Cabot had
+been the first to observe this variation, and had explained it to
+Edward VI., and that he had on a chart placed the line of no variation
+at a point one hundred and ten miles west of the island of Flores in the
+Azores.
+
+These observations of Columbus and Cabot were not wholly accepted during
+the sixteenth century. Robert Hues, in 1592, a hundred years later,
+tells us that Medina, the Spanish grand pilot, was not disinclined to
+believe that mariners saw more in it than really existed and that they
+found it a convenient way to excuse their own blunders. Nonius was
+credited with saying that it simply meant that worn-out magnets were
+used, which had lost their power to point correctly to the pole. Others
+had contended that it was through insufficient application of the
+loadstone to the iron that it was so devious in its work.
+
+What was thought possible by the early navigators possessed the minds of
+all seamen in varying experiments for two centuries and a half. Though
+not reaching such satisfactory results as were hoped for, the
+expectation did not prove so chimerical as was sometimes imagined when
+it was discovered that the lines of variation were neither parallel, nor
+straight, nor constant. The line of no variation which Columbus found
+near the Azores had moved westward with erratic inclinations, until
+to-day it is not far from a straight line from Carolina to Guinea.
+Science, beginning with its crude efforts at the hands of Alonzo de
+Santa Cruz, in 1530, has so mapped the surface of the globe with
+observations of its multifarious freaks of variation, and the changes
+are so slow, that a magnetic chart is not a bad guide to-day for
+ascertaining the longitude in any latitude for a few years neighbouring
+to the date of its records. So science has come around in some measure
+to the dreams of Columbus and Cabot.
+
+But this was not the only development which came from this ominous day
+in the mid-Atlantic in that September of 1492. The fancy of Columbus was
+easily excited, and notions of a change of climate, and even aberration
+of the stars were easily imagined by him amid the strange phenomena of
+that untracked waste.
+
+While Columbus was suspecting that the north star was somewhat wilfully
+shifting from the magnetic pole, now to a distance of 5 deg. and then of
+10 deg., the calculations of modern astronomers have gauged the polar
+distance existing in 1492 at 3 deg. 28', as against the 1 deg. 20' of to-day.
+The confusion of Columbus was very like his confounding an old world
+with a new, inasmuch as he supposed it was the pole star and not the
+needle which was shifting.
+
+He argued from what he saw, or what he thought he saw, that the line of
+no variation marked the beginning of a protuberance of the earth, up
+which he ascended as he sailed westerly, and that this was the reason of
+the cooler weather which he experienced. He never got over some notions
+of this kind, and he believed he found confirmation of them in his later
+voyages.
+
+Even as early as the reign of Edward III. of England, Nicholas of Lynn,
+a voyager to the northern seas, is thought to have definitely fixed the
+magnetic pole in the Arctic regions, transmitting his views to Cnoyen,
+the master of the later Mercator, in respect to the four circumpolar
+islands, which in the sixteenth century made so constant a surrounding
+of the north pole.
+
+The next day (September 14), after these magnetic observations, a water
+wagtail was seen from the _Nina_,--a bird which Columbus thought
+unaccustomed to fly over twenty-five leagues from land, and the ships
+were now, according to their reckoning, not far from two hundred leagues
+from the Canaries. On Saturday they saw a distant bolt of fire fall into
+the sea. On Sunday, they had a drizzling rain, followed by pleasant
+weather, which reminded Columbus of the nightingales, gladdening the
+climate of Andalusia in April. They found around the ships much green
+floatage of weeds, which led them to think some islands must be near.
+Navarrete thinks there was some truth in this, inasmuch as the charts of
+the early part of this century represent breakers as having been seen in
+1802, near the spot where Columbus can be computed to have been at this
+time. Columbus was in fact within that extensive _prairie_ of floating
+seaweed which is known as the Sargasso Sea, whose principal longitudinal
+axis is found in modern times to lie along the parallel of 41 deg. 30', and
+the best calculations which can be made from the rather uncertain data
+of Columbus's journal seem to point to about the same position.
+
+There is nothing in all these accounts, as we have them abridged by La
+Casas, to indicate any great surprise, and certainly nothing of the
+overwhelming fear which, the _Historie_ tells us, the sailors
+experienced when they found their ships among these floating masses of
+weeds, raising apprehension of a perpetual entanglement in their
+swashing folds.
+
+The next day (September 17) the currents became favourable, and the
+weeds still floated about them. The variation of the needle now became
+so great that the seamen were dismayed, as the journal says, and the
+observation being repeated Columbus practised another deceit and made it
+appear that there had been really no variation, but only a shifting of
+the polar star! The weeds were now judged to be river weeds, and a live
+crab was found among them,--a sure sign of near land, as Columbus
+believed, or affected to believe. They killed a tunny and saw others.
+They again observed a water wagtail, "which does not sleep at sea." Each
+ship pushed on for the advance, for it was thought the goal was near.
+The next day the _Pinta_ shot ahead and saw great flocks of birds
+towards the west. Columbus conceived that the sea was growing, fresher.
+Heavy clouds hung on the northern horizon, a sure sign of land, it was
+supposed.
+
+On the next day two pelicans came on board, and Columbus records that
+these birds are not accustomed to go twenty leagues from land. So he
+sounded with a line of two hundred fathoms to be sure he was not
+approaching land; but no bottom was found. A drizzling rain also
+betokened land, which they could not stop to find, but would search for
+on their return, as the journal says. The pilots now compared their
+reckonings. Columbus said they were 400 leagues, while the _Pinta's_
+record showed 420, and the _Nina's_ 440.
+
+On September 20 other pelicans came on board; and the ships were again
+among the weeds. Columbus was determined to ascertain if these indicated
+shoal water and sounded, but could not reach bottom. The men caught a
+bird with feet like a gull; but they were convinced it was a river bird.
+Then singing land birds, as was fancied, hovered about as it darkened,
+but they disappeared before morning. Then a pelican was observed flying
+to the southwest, and as "these birds sleep on shore, and go to sea in
+the morning," the men encouraged themselves with the belief that they
+could not be far from land. The next day a whale could be but another
+indication of land; and the weeds covered the sea all about. On
+Saturday, they steered west by northwest, and got clear of the weeds.
+This change of course so far to the north, which had begun on the
+previous day, was occasioned by a head wind, and Columbus says he
+welcomed it, because it had the effect of convincing the sailors that
+westerly winds to return by were not impossible. On Sunday (September
+23), they found the wind still varying; but they made more westering
+than before,--weeds, crabs, and birds still about them. Now there was
+smooth water, which again depressed the seamen; then the sea arose,
+mysteriously, for there was no wind to cause it. They still kept their
+course westerly and continued it till the night of September 25.
+
+Columbus at this time conferred with Pinzon, as to a chart which they
+carried, which showed some islands, near where they now supposed the
+ships to be. That they had not seen land, they believed was either due
+to currents which had carried them too far north, or else their
+reckoning was not correct. At sunset Pinzon hailed the Admiral, and said
+he saw land, claiming the reward. The two crews were confident that such
+was the case, and under the lead of their commanders they all kneeled
+and repeated the _Gloria in Excelsis_. The land appeared to lie
+southwest, and everybody saw the apparition. Columbus changed the
+fleet's course to reach it; and as the vessels went on, in the smooth
+sea, the men had the heart, under their expectation, to bathe in its
+amber glories. On Wednesday, they were undeceived, and found that the
+clouds had played them a trick. On the 27th their course lay more
+directly west. So they went on, and still remarked upon all the birds
+they saw and weed-drift which they pierced. Some of the fowl they
+thought to be such as were common at the Cape Verde Islands, and were
+not supposed to go far to sea. On the 30th of September, they still
+observed the needles of their compasses to vary, but the journal records
+that it was the pole star which moved, and not the needle. On October 1,
+Columbus says they were 707 leagues from Ferro; but he had made his crew
+believe they were only 584. As they went on, little new for the next few
+days is recorded in the journal; but on October 3, they thought they saw
+among the weeds something like fruits. By the 6th, Pinzon began to urge
+a southwesterly course, in order to find the islands, which the signs
+seemed to indicate in that direction. Still the Admiral would not swerve
+from his purpose, and kept his course westerly. On Sunday the _Nina_
+fired a bombard and hoisted a flag as a signal that she saw land, but it
+proved a delusion. Observing towards evening a flock of birds flying to
+the southwest, the Admiral yielded to Pinzon's belief, and shifted his
+course to follow the birds. He records as a further reason for it that
+it was by following the flights of birds that the Portuguese had been so
+successful in discovering islands in other seas.
+
+Columbus now found himself two hundred miles and more farther than the
+three thousand miles west of Spain, where he supposed Cipango to lie,
+and he was 25-1/2 deg. north of the equator, according to his astrolabe. The
+true distance of Cipango or Japan was sixty-eight hundred miles still
+farther, or beyond both North America and the Pacific. How much beyond
+that island, in its supposed geographical position, Columbus expected to
+find the Asiatic main we can only conjecture from the restorations which
+modern scholars have made of Toscanelli's map, which makes the island
+about 10 deg. east of Asia, and from Behaim's globe, which makes it 20 deg.. It
+should be borne in mind that the knowledge of its position came from
+Marco Polo, and he does not distinctly say how far it was from the
+Asiatic coast. In a general way, as to these distances from Spain to
+China, Toscanelli and Behaim agreed, and there is no reason to believe
+that the views of Columbus were in any noteworthy degree different.
+
+In the trial years afterward, when the Fiscal contested the rights of
+Diego Colon, it was put in evidence by one Vallejo, a seaman, that
+Pinzon was induced to urge the direction to be changed to the southwest,
+because he had in the preceding evening observed a flight of parrots in
+that direction, which could have only been seeking land. It was the main
+purpose of the evidence in this part of the trial to show that Pinzon
+had all along forced Columbus forward against his will.
+
+How pregnant this change of course in the vessels of Columbus was has
+not escaped the observation of Humboldt and many others. A day or two
+further on his westerly way, and the Gulf Stream would, perhaps,
+insensibly have borne the little fleet up the Atlantic coast of the
+future United States, so that the banner of Castile might have been
+planted at Carolina.
+
+On the 7th of October, Columbus was pretty nearly in latitude 25 deg.
+50',--that of one of the Bahama Islands. Just where he was by longitude
+there is much more doubt, probably between 65 deg. and 66 deg.. On the next day
+the land birds flying along the course of the ships seemed to confirm
+their hopes. On the 10th the journal records that the men began to lose
+patience; but the Admiral reassured them by reminding them of the
+profits in store for them, and of the folly of seeking to return when
+they had already gone so far.
+
+It is possible that, in this entry, Columbus conceals the story which
+came out later in the recital of Oviedo, with more detail than in the
+_Historie_ and Las Casas, that the rebellion of his crew was threatening
+enough to oblige him to promise to turn back if land was not discovered
+in three days. Most commentators, however, are inclined to think that
+this story of a mutinous revolt was merely engrafted from hearsay or
+other source by Oviedo upon the more genuine recital, and that the
+conspiracy to throw the Admiral into the sea has no substantial basis in
+contemporary report. Irving, who has a dramatic tendency throughout his
+whole account of the voyage to heighten his recital with touches of the
+imagination, nevertheless allows this, and thinks that Oviedo was
+misled by listening to a pilot, who was a personal enemy of the Admiral.
+
+The elucidations of the voyage which were drawn out in the famous suit
+of Diego with the Crown in 1513 and 1515, afford no ground for any
+belief in this story of the mutiny and the concession of Columbus to it.
+
+It is not, however, difficult to conceive the recurrent fears of his men
+and the incessant anxiety of Columbus to quiet them. From what Peter
+Martyr tells us,--and he may have got it directly from Columbus's
+lips,--the task was not an easy one to preserve subordination and to
+instil confidence. He represents that Columbus was forced to resort in
+turn to argument, persuasion and enticements, and to picture the
+misfortunes of the royal displeasure.
+
+The next day, notwithstanding a heavier sea than they had before
+encountered, certain signs sufficed to lift them out of their
+despondency. These were floating logs, or pieces of wood, one of them
+apparently carved by hand, bits of cane, a green rush, a stalk of rose
+berries and other drifting tokens.
+
+Their southwesterly course had now brought them down to about the
+twenty-fourth parallel, when after sunset on the 11th they shifted their
+course to due west, while the crew of the Admiral's ship united, with
+more fervour than usual, in the _Salve Regina_. At about ten o'clock
+Columbus, peering into the night, thought he saw--if we may believe
+him--a moving light, and pointing out the direction to Pero Gutierrez,
+this companion saw it too; but another, Rodrigo Sanchez, situated
+apparently on another part of the vessel, was not able to see it. It was
+not brought to the attention of any others. The Admiral says that the
+light seemed to be moving up and down, and he claimed to have got other
+glimpses of its glimmer at a later moment. He ordered the _Salve_ to be
+chanted, and directed a vigilant watch to be set on the forecastle. To
+sharpen their vision he promised a silken jacket, beside the income of
+ten thousand maravedis which the King and Queen had offered to the
+fortunate man who should first descry the coveted land.
+
+This light has been the occasion of such comment, and nothing will ever,
+it is likely, be settled about it, further than that the Admiral, with
+an inconsiderate rivalry of a common sailor, who later saw the actual
+land, and with an ungenerous assurance, ill-befitting a commander,
+pocketed a reward which belonged to another. If Oviedo, with his
+prejudices, is to be believed, Columbus was not even the first who
+claimed to have seen this dubious light. There is a common story that
+the poor sailor, who was defrauded, later turned Mohammedan and went to
+live among that juster people. There is a sort of retributive justice in
+the fact that the pension of the Crown was made a charge upon the
+shambles of Seville, and thence Columbus received it till he died.
+
+Whether the light is to be considered a reality or a fiction will depend
+much on the theory each may hold regarding the position of the landfall.
+When Columbus claimed to have discovered it, he was twelve or fourteen
+leagues away from the island, where four hours later land was
+indubitably found. Was the light on a canoe? Was it on some small,
+outlying island, as has been suggested? Was it a torch carried from hut
+to hut, as Herrera avers? Was it on either of the other vessels? Was it
+on the low island on which, the next morning he landed? There was no
+elevation on that island sufficient to show even a strong light at a
+distance of ten leagues. Was it a fancy or a deceit? No one can say. It
+is very difficult for Navarrete, and even for Irving, to rest satisfied
+with what after all may have been only an illusion of a fevered mind,
+making a record of the incident in the excitement of a wonderful hour,
+when his intelligence was not as circumspect as it might have been.
+
+Four hours after the light was seen, at two o'clock in the morning, when
+the moon, near its third quarter, was in the east, the _Pinta_, keeping
+ahead, one of her sailors, Rodrigo de Triane descried the land two
+leagues away, and a gun communicated the joyful intelligence to the
+other ships. The fleet took in sail, and each vessel, under backed
+canvas, was pointed to the wind. Thus they waited for daybreak. It was a
+proud moment of painful suspense for Columbus; and brimming hopes,
+perhaps fears of disappointment, must have accompanied that hour of
+wavering enchantment. It was Friday, October 12, of the old chronology,
+and the little fleet had been thirty-three days on its way from the
+Canaries, and we must add ten days more to complete the period since
+they left Palos. The land before them was seen, as the day dawned, to be
+a small island, "called in the Indian tongue" Guanahani. Some naked
+natives were descried. The Admiral and the commanders of the other
+vessels prepared to land. Columbus took the royal standard and the
+others each a banner of the green cross, which bore the initials of the
+sovereign with a cross between, a crown surmounting every letter. Thus,
+with the emblems of their power, and accompanied by Rodrigo de Escoveda
+and Rodrigo Sanchez and some seamen, the boat rowed to the shore. They
+immediately took formal possession of the land, and the notary recorded
+it.
+
+The words of the prayer usually given as uttered by Columbus on taking
+possession of San Salvador, when he named the island, cannot be traced
+farther back than a collection of _Tablas Chronologicas_, got together
+at Valencia in 1689, by a Jesuit father, Claudio Clemente. Harrisse
+finds no authority for the statement of the French canonizers that
+Columbus established a form of prayer which was long in vogue, for such
+occupations of new lands.
+
+Las Casas, from whom we have the best account of the ceremonies of the
+landing, does not mention it; but we find pictured in his pages the
+grave impressiveness of the hour; the form of Columbus, with a crimson
+robe over his armour, central and grand; and the humbleness of his
+followers in their contrition for the hours of their faint-heartedness.
+
+Columbus now enters in his journal his impressions of the island and its
+inhabitants. He says of the land that it bore green trees, was watered
+by many streams, and produced divers fruits. In another place he speaks
+of the island as flat, without lofty eminence, surrounded by reefs, with
+a lake in the interior.
+
+The courses and distances of his sailing both before and on leaving the
+island, as well as this description, are the best means we have of
+identifying the spot of this portentous landfall. The early maps may
+help in a subsidiary way, but with little precision.
+
+There is just enough uncertainty and contradiction respecting the data
+and arguments applied in the solution of this question, to render it
+probable that men will never quite agree which of the Bahamas it was
+upon which these startled and exultant Europeans first stepped. Though
+Las Casas reports the journal of Columbus unabridged for a period after
+the landfall, he unfortunately condenses it for some time previous.
+There is apparently no chance of finding geographical conditions that in
+every respect will agree with this record of Columbus, and we must
+content ourselves with what offers the fewest disagreements. An obvious
+method, if we could depend on Columbus's dead reckoning, would be to see
+for what island the actual distance from the Canaries would be nearest
+to his computed run; but currents and errors of the eye necessarily
+throw this sort of computation out of the question, and Captain G. A.
+Fox, who has tried it, finds that Cat Island is three hundred and
+seventeen, the Grand Turk six hundred and twenty-four nautical miles,
+and the other supposable points at intermediate distances out of the way
+as compared with his computation of the distance run by Columbus, three
+thousand four hundred and fifty-eight of such miles.
+
+The reader will remember the Bahama group as a range of islands, islets,
+and rocks, said to be some three thousand in number, running southeast
+from a point part way up the Florida coast, and approaching at the other
+end the coast of Hispaniola. In the latitude of the lower point of
+Florida, and five degrees east of it, is the island of San Salvador or
+Cat Island, which is the most northerly of those claimed to have been
+the landfall of Columbus. Proceeding down the group, we encounter
+Watling's, Samana, Acklin (with the Plana Cays), Mariguana, and the
+Grand Turk,--all of which have their advocates. The three methods of
+identification which have been followed are, first, by plotting the
+outward track; second, by plotting the track between the landfall and
+Cuba, both forward and backward; third, by applying the descriptions,
+particularly Columbus's, of the island first seen. In this last test,
+Harrisse prefers to apply the description of Las Casas, which is
+borrowed in part from that of the _Historie_, and he reconciles
+Columbus's apparent discrepancy when he says in one place that the
+island was "pretty large," and in another "small," by supposing that he
+may have applied these opposite terms, the lesser to the Plana Cays, as
+first seen, and the other to the Crooked Group, or Acklin Island, lying
+just westerly, on which he may have landed. Harrisse is the only one who
+makes this identification; and he finds some confirmation in later maps,
+which show thereabout an island, Triango or Triangulo, a name said by
+Las Casas to have been applied to Guanahani at a later day. There is no
+known map earlier than 1540 bearing this alternative name of Triango.
+
+San Salvador seems to have been the island selected by the earliest of
+modern inquirers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and it has
+had the support of Irving and Humboldt in later times. Captain Alexander
+Slidell Mackenzie of the United States navy worked out the problem for
+Irving. It is much larger than any of the other islands, and could
+hardly have been called by Columbus in any alternative way a "small"
+island, while it does not answer Columbus's description of being level,
+having on it an eminence of four hundred feet, and no interior lagoon,
+as his Guanahani demands. The French canonizers stand by the old
+traditions, and find it meet to say that "the English Protestants not
+finding the name of San Salvador fine enough have substituted for it
+that of Cat, and in their hydrographical atlases the Island of the Holy
+Saviour is nobly called Cat Island."
+
+The weight of modern testimony seems to favour Watling's Island, and it
+so far answers Columbus's description that about one-third of its
+interior is water, corresponding to his "large lagoon." Munoz first
+suggested it in 1793; but the arguments in its favour were first spread
+out by Captain Becher of the royal navy in 1856, and he seems to have
+induced Oscar Peschel in 1858 to adopt the same views in his history of
+the range of modern discovery. Major, the map custodian of the British
+Museum, who had previously followed Navarrete in favouring the Grand
+Turk, again addressed himself to the problem in 1870, and fell into line
+with the adherents of Watling's. No other considerable advocacy of this
+island, if we except the testimony of Gerard Stein in 1883, in a book on
+voyages of discovery, appeared till Lieutenant J. B. Murdoch, an officer
+of the American navy, made a very careful examination of the subject in
+the _Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute_ in 1884, which is
+accepted by Charles A. Schott in the _Bulletin of the United States
+Coast Survey_. Murdoch was the first to plot in a backward way the track
+between Guanahani and Cuba, and he finds more points of resemblance in
+Columbus's description with Watling's than with any other. The latest
+adherent is the eminent geographer, Clements R. Markham, in the bulletin
+of the Italian Geographical Society in 1889. Perhaps no cartographical
+argument has been so effective as that of Major in comparing modern
+charts with the map of Herrera, in which the latter lays Guanahani down.
+
+An elaborate attempt to identity Samana as the landfall was made by the
+late Captain Gustavus Vasa Fox, in an appendix to the _Report of the
+United States Coast Survey_ for 1880. Varnhagen, in 1864, selected
+Mariguana, and defended his choice in a paper. This island fails to
+satisfy the physical conditions in being without interior water. Such a
+qualification, however, belongs to the Grand Turk Island, which was
+advocated first by Navarrete in 1826, whose views have since been
+supported by George Gibbs, and for a while by Major.
+
+It is rather curious to note that Caleb Cushing, who undertook to
+examine this question in the _North American Review_, under the guidance
+of Navarrete's theory, tried the same backward method which has been
+later applied to the problem, but with quite different results from
+those reached by more recent investigators. He says, "By setting out
+from Nipe which is the point where Columbus struck Cuba and proceeding
+in a retrograde direction along his course, we may surely trace his
+path, and shall be convinced that Guanahani is no other than Turk's
+Island."
+
+[Illustration: THE LANDFALL OF COLUMBUS, 1492. [After Ruge.]
+
+_Key:_
+ -- -- according to Munoz and Becher. ---- Irving and Humboldt.
+ -+-+ Varnhagen --.--. Navarrete.
+]
+
+
+
+
+LEWIS AND CLARKE REACH THE PACIFIC OCEAN
+
+ [In 1804-6 Captains Lewis and Clarke, by order of the
+ Government of the United States, commanded an expedition to
+ the sources of the Missouri, thence across the Rocky
+ Mountains and down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean.
+ Chapter IV., which follows, is taken from the second volume
+ of the History of the Expedition, published by Harper &
+ Brothers, New York, 1842. The matter of the original journal
+ is indicated by inverted commas, and where portions of it
+ embracing minute and uninteresting particulars, have been
+ omitted, the leading facts have been briefly stated by the
+ editor, Archibald McVickar, in his own words, so that the
+ connection of the narrative is preserved unbroken and nothing
+ of importance is lost to the reader. The History of the
+ Expedition, edited, with notes by Elliott Coues, was
+ published in 1893 in four volumes by Francis P. Harper, New
+ York. This edition surpasses every other in its excellence:
+ it has passed out of print, but may be found in many public
+ libraries. In 1901 Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, published
+ "Lewis and Clark," by Wm. R. Lighton: within one hundred and
+ fifty-nine small pages the story of the famous expedition is
+ admirably condensed. Good portraits of Lewis and Clark form
+ the frontispiece.]
+
+
+"_November 2, 1805._ We now examined the rapid below more particularly,
+and the danger appearing to be too great for the loaded canoes, all
+those who could not swim were sent with the baggage by land. The canoes
+then passed safely down and were reloaded. At the foot of the rapid we
+took a meridian altitude and found our latitude to be 59 deg. 45' 45"."
+
+This rapid forms the last of the descents of the Columbia; and
+immediately below it the river widens, and tidewater commences. Shortly
+after starting they passed an island three miles in length and to which,
+from that plant being seen on it in great abundance, they gave the name
+of Strawberry Island. Directly beyond were three small islands, and in
+the meadow to the right, at some distance from the hills in the
+background was a single perpendicular rock, which they judged to be no
+less than eight hundred feet high and four hundred yards at the base,
+which they called Beacon Rock. A little farther on they found the river
+a mile in breadth, and double this breadth four miles beyond. After
+making twenty-nine miles from the foot of the Great Shoot, they halted
+for the night at a point where the river was two and a half miles wide.
+The character of the country they had passed through during the day was
+very different from that they had lately been accustomed to, the hills
+being thickly covered with timber, chiefly of the pine species. The tide
+rose at their encampment about nine inches, and they saw great numbers
+of water-fowl, such as swan, geese, ducks of various kinds, gulls, etc.
+
+The next day, _November 3d_, they set off in company with some Indians
+who had joined them the evening before. At the distance of three miles
+they passed a river on the left, to which, from the quantity of sand it
+bears along with it, they gave the name of Quicksand River. So great,
+indeed, was the quantity it had discharged into the Columbia, that the
+river was compressed to the width of half a mile, and the whole force of
+the current thrown against the right shore. Opposite this was a large
+creek, which they called Seal River. The mountain which they had
+supposed to be the Mount Hood of Vancouver, now bore S. 85 deg. E., about
+forty-seven miles distant. About three miles farther on they passed the
+lower mouth of Quicksand River, opposite to which was another large
+creek, and near it the head of an island three miles and a half in
+extent; and half a mile beyond it was another island, which they called
+Diamond Island, opposite to which they encamped, having made but
+thirteen miles' distance. Here they met with some Indians ascending the
+river, who stated that they had seen three vessels at its mouth.
+
+"Below Quicksand River," says the Journal, "the country is low, rich,
+and thickly wooded on each side of the Columbia; the islands have less
+timber, and on them are numerous ponds, near which were vast quantities
+of fowl, such as swan, geese, brant, cranes, storks, white-gulls,
+cormorants, and plover. The river is wide and contains a great number of
+sea-otters. In the evening the hunters brought in game for a sumptuous
+supper."
+
+In continuing their descent the next day, they found Diamond Island to
+be six miles in length and three broad; and near its termination were
+two other islands. "Just below the last of these," proceeds the
+narrative, "we landed on the left bank of the river, at a village of
+twenty-five houses, all of which were thatched with straw, and built of
+bark except one, which was about fifty feet long and constructed of
+boards, in the form of those higher up the river, from which it
+differed, however, in being completely above ground, and covered with
+broad, split boards. This village contained about two hundred men of the
+Skilloot nation, who seemed well provided with canoes, of which there
+were at least fifty-two, and some of them very large, drawn up in front
+of the village. On landing, we found an Indian from above, who had left
+us this morning, and who now invited us into a lodge of which he
+appeared to be part owner. Here he treated us with a root, round in
+shape and about the size of a small Irish potato, which they call
+_wappatoo_: it is the common arrow-head or _sagittifolia_ so much
+cultivated by the Chinese, and, when roasted in the embers till it
+becomes soft, has an agreeable taste, and is a very good substitute for
+bread. After purchasing some of this root we resumed our journey, and at
+seven miles' distance came to the head of a large island near the left
+bank. On the right shore was a fine open prairie for about a mile, back
+of which the country rises, and is well supplied with timber, such as
+white oak, pine of different kinds, wild crab, and several species of
+undergrowth, while along the borders of the river there were only a few
+cottonwood and ash trees. In this prairie were also signs of deer and
+elk.
+
+"When we landed for dinner a number of Indians came down, for the
+purpose, as we supposed, of paying us a friendly visit, as they had put
+on their finest dresses. In addition to their usual covering, they had
+scarlet and blue blankets, sailor's jackets and trowsers, shirts, and
+hats. They had all of them either war-axes, spears, and bows and arrows,
+or muskets and pistols, with tin powder-flasks. We smoked with them, and
+endeavoured to show them every attention, but soon found them very
+assuming and disagreeable companions. While we were eating, they stole
+the pipe with which they were smoking, and a great coat of one of the
+men. We immediately searched them all, and found the coat stuffed under
+the root of a tree near where they were sitting; but the pipe we could
+not recover. Finding us discontented with them, and determined not to
+suffer any imposition, they showed their displeasure in the only way
+they dared, by returning in ill humour to their village. We then
+proceeded, and soon met two canoes, with twelve men of the same Skilloot
+nation, who were on their way from below. The larger of the canoes was
+ornamented with the figures of a bear in the bow and a man in the stern,
+both nearly as large as life, both made of painted wood, and very neatly
+fastened to the boat. In the same canoe were two Indians gaudily
+dressed, and with round hats. This circumstance induced us to give the
+name of Image Canoe to the large island, the lower end of which we were
+now passing, at the distance of nine miles from its head. We had seen
+two smaller islands to the right, and three more near its lower
+extremity." ... "The river was now about a mile and a half in width,
+with a gentle current, and the bottoms extensive and low, but not
+subject to be overflowed. Three miles below Image Canoe Island we came
+to four large houses on the left side; here we had a full view of the
+mountain which we had first seen from the Muscleshell Rapid on the 19th
+of October, and which we now found to be, in fact, the Mount St. Helen
+of Vancouver. It bore north 25 deg. east, about ninety miles distant, rose
+in the form of a sugar loaf to a very great height, and was covered with
+snow. A mile lower we passed a single house on the left, and another on
+the right. The Indians had now learned so much of us that their
+curiosity was without any mixture of fear, and their visits became very
+frequent and troublesome. We therefore continued on till after night, in
+hopes of getting rid of them; but, after passing a village on each side,
+which, on account of the lateness of the hour, we could only see
+indistinctly, we found there was no escaping from their importunities.
+We accordingly landed at the distance of seven miles below Image Canoe
+Island, and encamped near a single house on the right, having made
+during the day twenty-nine miles.
+
+"The Skilloots that we passed to-day speak a language somewhat different
+from that of the Echeloots or Chilluckittequaws near the long narrows.
+Their dress, however, is similar, except that the Skilloots possess more
+articles procured from the white traders; and there is this farther
+difference between them, that the Skilloots, both males and females,
+have the head flattened. Their principal food is fish, _wappatoo_ roots,
+and some elk and deer, in killing which, with arrows they seem to be
+very expert; for during the short time we remained at the village three
+deer were brought in. We also observed there a tame _blaireau_
+[badger]."
+
+"As soon as we landed we were visited by two canoes loaded with Indians,
+from whom we purchased a few roots. The grounds along the river
+continued low and rich, and among the shrubs were large quantities of
+vines resembling the raspberry. On the right the low grounds were
+terminated at the distance of five miles by a range of high hills
+covered with tall timber, and running southeast and northwest. The game,
+as usual, was very abundant; and, among other birds, we observed some
+white geese, with a part of their wings black."
+
+Early the next morning they resumed their voyage, passing several
+islands in the course of the day, the river alternately widening and
+contracting, and the hills sometimes retiring from, and at others
+approaching, its banks. They stopped for the night at the distance of
+thirty-two miles from their last encampment. "Before landing," proceeds
+the Journal, "we met two canoes, the largest of which had at the bow the
+image of a bear, and that of a man on the stern: there were twenty-six
+Indians on board, but they proceeded upwards, and we were left, for the
+first time since we reached the waters of the Columbia, without any of
+the natives with us during the night. Besides other game, we killed a
+grouse much larger than the common kind, and observed along the shore a
+number of striped snakes. The river is here deep, and about a mile and a
+half in width. Here, too, the ridge of low mountains, running northwest
+and southeast, crosses the river and forms the western boundary of the
+plain through which we had just passed. This great plain or valley
+begins above the mouth of Quicksand River, and is about sixty miles long
+in a straight line, while on the right and left it extends to a great
+distance; it is a fertile and delightful country, shaded by thick groves
+of tall timber, and watered by small ponds on both sides of the river.
+The soil is rich and capable of any species of culture; but in the
+present condition of the Indians, its chief production is the _wappatoo_
+root, which grows spontaneously and exclusively in this region.
+Sheltered as it is on both sides, the temperature is much milder than
+that of the surrounding country; for even at this season of the year we
+observed but very little appearance of frost. It is inhabited by
+numerous tribes of Indians, who either reside in it permanently, or
+visits its waters in quest of fish and _wappatoo_ roots. We gave it the
+name of the Columbia Valley."
+
+"_November 6._ The morning was cool and rainy. We proceeded at an early
+hour between high hills on both sides of the river, till at the distance
+of four miles we came to two tents of Indians in a small plain on the
+left, where the hills on the right recede a few miles, and a long,
+narrow inland stretches along the right shore. Behind this island is the
+mouth of a large river, a hundred and fifty yards wide, called by the
+Indians Coweliske. We halted on the island for dinner, but the redwood
+and green briers were so interwoven with the pine, alder, ash, a species
+of beech, and other trees, that the woods formed a thicket which our
+hunters could not penetrate. Below the mouth of the Coweliske a very
+remarkable knob rises from the water's edge to the height of eighty
+feet, being two hundred paces round the base; and as it is in a low part
+of the island, and at some distance from the high grounds, its
+appearance is very singular. On setting out after dinner we overtook two
+canoes going down to trade. One of the Indians, who spoke a few words of
+English, mentioned that the principal person who traded with them was a
+Mr. Haley; and he showed us a bow of iron and several other things,
+which he said he had given him. Nine miles below Coweliske River is a
+creek on the same side; and between them three smaller islands, one on
+the left shore, the other about the middle of the river, and a third
+near, the lower end of the long, narrow island, and opposite a high
+cliff of black rocks on the left, sixteen miles from our last night's
+encampment. Here we were overtaken by some Indians from the two tents we
+had passed in the morning, from whom we purchased _wappatoo_ roots,
+salmon, trout, and two beaver-skins, for which last we gave five small
+fish-hooks."
+
+Here the mountains which had been high and rugged on the left, retired
+from the river, as had the hills on the right, since leaving the
+Coweliske, and a beautiful plain was spread out before them. They met
+with several islands on their way, and having at the distance of five
+miles come to the termination of the plain, they proceeded for eight
+miles through a hilly country, and encamped for the night after having
+made twenty-nine miles.
+
+"_November 7._ The morning," proceeds the narrative, "was rainy, and the
+fog so thick that we could not see across the river. We observed,
+however, opposite to our camp, the upper point of an island, between
+which and the steep hills on the right we proceeded for five miles.
+Three miles lower was the beginning of an island, separated from the
+right shore by a narrow channel: down this we proceeded under the
+direction of some Indians whom we had just met going up the river, and
+who returned in order to show us their village. It consisted of four
+houses only, situated on this channel, behind several marshy islands
+formed by two small creeks. On our arrival they gave us some fish, and
+we afterwards purchased _wappatoo_ roots, fish, three dogs, and two
+otter-skins, for which we gave fish-hooks chiefly, that being an article
+which they are very anxious to obtain.
+
+"These people seemed to be of a different nation from those we had just
+passed: they were low in stature, ill-shaped, and all had their heads
+flattened. They called themselves Wahkiacum, and their language differed
+from that of the tribes above, with whom they trade for _wappatoo_
+roots. The houses, too, were built in a different style, being raised
+entirely above ground, with the eaves about five feet high, and the door
+at the corner. Near the end opposite to the door was a single fireplace,
+round which were the beds, raised four feet from the floor of earth;
+over the fire were hung fresh fish, and when dried they are stowed away
+with the _wappatoo_ roots under the beds. The dress of the men was like
+that of the people above; but the women were clad in a peculiar manner,
+the robe not reaching lower than the hip, and the body being covered in
+cold weather by a sort of corset of fur, curiously plaited, and
+reaching from the arms to the hip: added to this was a sort of
+petticoat, or, rather, tissue of white cedar bark, bruised or broken
+into small strands and woven into a girdle by several cords of the same
+material. Being tied round the middle, these strands hang down as low as
+the knee in front and to the middle of the leg behind: sometimes the
+tissue consists of strings of silk-grass, twisted and knotted at the
+end.
+
+"After remaining with them about an hour, we proceeded down the channel
+with an Indian dressed in a sailor's jacket for our pilot; and, on
+reaching the main channel, were visited by some Indians, who have a
+temporary residence on a marshy island, Tenasillihee, in the middle of
+the river, where there are great numbers of water-fowl. Here the
+mountainous country again approaches the river on the left, and a higher
+saddle mountain is perceived towards the southwest. At a distance of
+twenty miles from our camp we halted at a village of Wahkiacums,
+consisting of seven ill-looking houses, built in the same form with
+those above, and situated at the foot of the high hills on the right,
+behind two small marshy islands. We merely stopped to purchase some food
+and two beaver skins, and then proceeded. Opposite to these islands the
+hills on the left retire, and the river widens into a kind of bay,
+crowded with low islands, subject to be overflowed occasionally by the
+tide. We had not gone far from this village when, the fog suddenly
+clearing away, we were at last presented with a glorious sight of the
+ocean--that ocean, the object of all our labours, the reward of all our
+anxieties. This animating sight exhilarated the spirits of all the
+party, who were still more delighted on hearing the distant roar of the
+breakers. We went on with great cheerfulness along the high mountainous
+country which bordered the right bank: the shore, however, was so bold
+and rocky that we could not, until a distance of fourteen miles from the
+last village, find any spot fit for an encampment. Having made during
+the day thirty-four miles, we now spread our mats on the ground, and
+passed the night in the rain. Here we were joined by our small canoe,
+which had been separated from us during the fog this morning. Two
+Indians from the last village also accompanied us to the camp; but
+having detected them in stealing a knife, they were sent off.
+
+"_November 8._ It rained this morning; and, having changed our clothing,
+which had been wet by yesterday's rain, we set out at nine o'clock.
+Immediately opposite our camp was a pillar rock, at the distance of a
+mile in the river, about twenty feet in diameter and fifty in height,
+and towards the southwest some high mountains, one of which was covered
+with snow at the top. We proceeded past several low islands in the bend
+or bay of the river to the left, which were here five or six miles
+wide. On the right side we passed an old village, and then, at the
+distance of three miles, entered an inlet or niche, about six miles
+across, and making a deep bend of nearly five miles into the hills on
+the right shore, where it receives the waters of several creeks. We
+coasted along this inlet, which, from its little depth, we called
+Shallow Bay, and at the bottom of it stopped to dine, near the remains
+of an old village, from which, however, we kept at a cautious distance,
+as, like all these places, it was occupied by a plentiful stock of
+fleas. At this place we observed a number of fowl, among which we killed
+a goose and two ducks exactly resembling in appearance and flavour the
+canvas-back duck of the Susquehanna. After dinner we took advantage of
+the returning tide to go about three miles to a point on the right,
+eight miles distant from our camp; but here the water ran so high and
+washed about our canoe so much that several of the men became seasick.
+It was therefore judged imprudent to proceed in the present state of the
+weather, and we landed at the point. Our situation here was extremely
+uncomfortable: the high hills jutted in so closely that there was not
+room for us to lie level, nor to secure our baggage from the tide, and
+the water of the river was too salty to be used; but the waves
+increasing so much that we could not move from the spot with safety, we
+fixed ourselves on the beach left by the ebb-tide, and, raising the
+baggage on poles, passed a disagreeable night, the rain during the day
+having wet us completely, as, indeed, we had been for some time past.
+
+"_November 9._ Fortunately, the tide did not rise as high as our camp
+during the night; but, being accompanied by high winds from the south,
+the canoes, which we could not place beyond its reach, were filled with
+water and saved with much difficulty: our position was exceedingly
+disagreeable; but, as it was impossible to move from it, we waited for a
+change of weather. It rained, however, during the whole day, and at two
+o'clock in the afternoon the flood-tide came in, accompanied by a high
+wind from the south, which at about four o'clock shifted to the
+southwest, and blew almost a gale directly from the sea. Immense waves
+now broke over the place where we were and large trees, some of them
+five or six feet through, which had been lodged on the point, drifted
+over our camp, so that the utmost vigilance of every man could scarcely
+save the canoes from being crushed to pieces. We remained in the water
+and were drenched with rain during the rest of the day, our only
+sustenance being some dried fish and the rain water which we caught.
+Yet, though wet and cold, and some of then sick from using salt water,
+the men were cheerful and full of anxiety to see more of the ocean. The
+rain continued all night and the following morning.
+
+"_November 10_, the wind lulling and the waves not being so high, we
+loaded our canoes and proceeded. The mountains on the right are here
+high, covered with timber, chiefly pine, and descend with a bold and
+rocky shore to the water. We went through a deep niche and several
+inlets on the right, while on the opposite side was a large bay, above
+which the hills are close on the river. At the distance of ten miles the
+wind rose from the northwest, and the waves became so high that we were
+forced to return two miles for a place where we could unload with
+safety. Here we landed at the mouth of a small run, and, having placed
+our baggage on a pile of drifted logs, waited until low water. The river
+then appearing more calm, we started again; but, after going a mile,
+found the waters too turbulent for our canoes, and were obliged to put
+to shore. Here we landed the baggage, and, having placed it on a rock
+above the reach of the tide, encamped on some drift logs, which formed
+the only place where we could lie, the hills rising steep over our heads
+to the height of five hundred feet. All our baggage, as well as
+ourselves, was thoroughly wet with rain, which did not cease during the
+day; it continued, indeed, violently through the night, in the course of
+which the tide reached the logs on which we lay, and set them afloat.
+
+"_November 11._ The wind was still high from the southwest, and drove
+the waves against the shore with great fury; the rain, too, fell in
+torrents, and not only drenched us to the skin, but loosened the stones
+on the hillsides, so that they came rolling down upon us. In this
+comfortless condition we remained all day, wet and cold, and with
+nothing but dried fish to satisfy our hunger; the canoes at the mercy of
+the waves at one place, the baggage in another, and the men scattered on
+floating logs, or sheltering themselves in the crevices of the rocks and
+hillsides. A hunter was despatched in the hope of finding some game; but
+the hills were so steep, and so covered with undergrowth and fallen
+timber, that he could not proceed, and was forced to return. About
+twelve o'clock we were visited by five Indians in a canoe. They came
+from the opposite side of the river, above where we were, and their
+language much resembled that of the Wahkiacums: they calling themselves
+Cathlamahs. In person they were small, ill-made, and badly clothed;
+though one of them had on a sailor's jacket and pantaloons, which, as he
+explained by signs, he had received from the whites below the point. We
+purchased from them thirteen red charr, a fish which we found very
+excellent. After some time they went on board their boat and crossed the
+river, which is here five miles wide, through a very heavy sea.
+
+"_November 12._ About three o'clock a tremendous gale of wind arose,
+accompanied with lightning, thunder, and hail; at six it lightened up
+for a short time, but a violent rain soon began and lasted through the
+day. During the storm one of our boats, secured by being sunk with great
+quantities of stone, got loose, but, drifting against a rock, was
+recovered without having received much injury. Our situation now became
+much more dangerous, for the waves were driven with fury against the
+rocks and trees, which till now had afforded us refuge: we therefore
+took advantage of the low tide, and moved about half a mile round a
+point to a small brook, which we had not observed before on account of
+the thick bushes and driftwood which concealed its mouth. Here we were
+more safe, but still cold and wet; our clothes and bedding rotten as
+well as wet, our baggage at a distance, and the canoes, our only means
+of escape from this place, at the mercy of the waves. Still, we
+continued to enjoy good health, and even had the luxury of feasting on
+some salmon and three salmon trout which we caught in the brook. Three
+of the men attempted to go round a point in our small Indian canoe, but
+the high waves rendered her quite unmanageable, these boats requiring
+the seamanship of the natives to make them live in so rough a sea.
+
+"_November 13._ During the night we had short intervals of fair weather,
+but it began to rain in the morning and continued through the day. In
+order to obtain a view of the country below, Captain Clarke followed the
+course of the brook, and with much fatigue, and after walking three
+miles, ascended the first spur of the mountains. The whole lower country
+he found covered with almost impenetrable thickets of small pine, with
+which is mixed a species of plant resembling arrow-wood, twelve or
+fifteen feet high, with thorny stems, almost interwoven with each other,
+and scattered among the fern and fallen timber: there is also a red
+berry, somewhat like the Solomon's seal, which is called by the natives
+_solme_, and used as an article of diet. This thick growth rendered
+travelling almost impossible, and it was rendered still more fatiguing
+by the abruptness of the mountain, which was so steep as to oblige him
+to draw himself up by means of the bushes. The timber on the hills is
+chiefly of a large, tall species of pine, many of the trees eight or ten
+feet in diameter at the stump, and rising sometimes more than one
+hundred feet in height. The hail which fell two nights before was still
+to be seen on the mountains; there was no game, and no marks of any,
+except some old tracks of elk. The cloudy weather prevented his seeing
+to any distance, and he therefore returned to camp and sent three men in
+an Indian canoe to try if they could double the point and find some
+safer harbour for our boats. At every flood-tide the sea broke in great
+swells against the rocks and drifted the trees against our
+establishment, so as to render it very insecure.
+
+"_November 14._ It had rained without intermission during the night and
+continued to through the day; the wind, too, was very high, and one of
+our canoes much injured by being driven against the rocks. Five Indians
+from below came to us in a canoe, and three of them landed, and informed
+us that they had seen the men sent down yesterday. Fortunately, at this
+moment one of the men arrived, and told us that these very Indians had
+stolen his gig and basket; we therefore ordered the two women, who
+remained in the canoe, to restore them; but this they refused to do till
+we threatened to shoot them, when they gave back the articles, and we
+commanded them to leave us. They were of the Wahkiacum nation. The man
+now informed us that they had gone round the point as far as the high
+sea would suffer them in the canoe, and then landed; that in the night
+he had separated from his companions, who had proceeded farther down;
+and that, at no great distance from where we were, was a beautiful sand
+beach and a good harbour. Captain Lewis determined to examine more
+minutely the lower part of the bay, and, embarking in one of the large
+canoes, was put on shore at the point, whence he proceeded by land with
+four men, and the canoe returned nearly filled with water.
+
+"_November 15._ It continued raining all night, but in the morning the
+weather became calm and fair. We began, therefore, to prepare for
+setting out; but before we were ready a high wind sprang up from the
+southeast, and obliged us to remain. The sun shone until one o'clock,
+and we were thus enabled to dry our bedding and examine our baggage. The
+rain, which had continued for the last ten days without any interval of
+more than two hours, had completely wet all our merchandise, spoiled
+some of our fish, destroyed the robes, and rotted nearly one-half of our
+few remaining articles of clothing, particularly the leather dresses.
+About three o'clock the wind fell, and we instantly loaded the canoes,
+and left the miserable spot to which we had been confined the last six
+days. On turning the point we came to the sand beach, through which runs
+a small stream from the hills, at the mouth of which was an ancient
+village of thirty-six houses, without any inhabitants at the time except
+fleas. Here we met Shannon, who had been sent back to us by Captain
+Lewis. The day Shannon left us in the canoe, he and Willard proceeded on
+till they met a party of twenty Indians, who, not having heard of us,
+did not know who they were; but they behaved with great civility--so
+great, indeed, and seemed so anxious that our men should accompany them
+towards the sea, that their suspicions were aroused, and they declined
+going. The Indians, however, would not leave them; and the men, becoming
+confirmed in their suspicions, and fearful, if they went into the woods
+to sleep, that they would be cut to pieces in the night, thought it best
+to remain with the Indians: they therefore made a fire, and after
+talking with them to a late hour, laid down with their rifles under
+their heads. When they awoke they found that the Indians had stolen and
+concealed their arms; and having demanded them in vain, Shannon seized a
+club, and was about assaulting one of the Indians whom he suspected to
+be the thief, when another of them began to load his fowling-piece with
+the intention of shooting him. He therefore stopped, and explained to
+them by signs, that if they did not give up the guns, a large party
+would come down the river before the sun rose to a certain height, and
+put every one of them to death. Fortunately, Captain Lewis and his party
+appeared at this very time, and the terrified Indians immediately
+brought the guns, and five of them came in with Shannon. To these men we
+declared that, if ever any of their nation stole anything from us, he
+would be instantly shot. They resided to the north of this place, and
+spoke a language different from that of the people higher up the river.
+It was now apparent that the sea was at all times too rough for us to
+proceed farther down the bay by water: we therefore landed, and, having
+chosen the best spot we could, made our camp of boards from the old
+village. We were now comfortably situated; and, being visited by four
+Wahkiacums with _wappatoo_ roots, were enabled to make an agreeable
+addition to our food.
+
+"_November 16._ The morning was clear and pleasant. We therefore put out
+all our baggage to dry, and sent several of our party to hunt. Our camp
+was in full view of the ocean, on the bay laid down by Vancouver, which
+we distinguished by the name of Haley's Bay, from a trader who visits
+the Indians here, and is a great favourite among them. The meridian
+altitude of this day gave 46 deg. 19' 11.7" as our latitude. The wind was
+strong from the southwest, and the waves were very high, yet the Indians
+were passing up and down the bay in canoes, and several of them encamped
+near us. We smoked with them, but, after our recent experience of their
+thievish disposition, treated them with caution...."
+
+"The hunters brought in two deer, a crane, some geese and ducks, and
+several brant, three of which were white, except a part of the wing,
+which was black, and they were much larger than the gray brant.
+
+"_November 17._ A fair, cool morning, and easterly wind. The tide rises
+at this place eight feet six inches.
+
+"About one o'clock Captain Lewis returned, after having coasted down
+Haley's Bay to Cape Disappointment, and some distance to the north,
+along the seacoast. He was followed by several Chinnooks, among whom
+were the principal chief and his family. They made us a present of a
+boiled root very much like the common licorice in taste and size, called
+_culwhamo_; and in return we gave them articles of double its value. We
+now learned, however, the danger of accepting anything from them, since
+nothing given in payment, even though ten times more valuable, would
+satisfy them. We were chiefly occupied in hunting, and were able to
+procure three deer, four brant, and two ducks; and also saw some signs
+of elk. Captain Clarke now prepared for an excursion down the bay, and
+accordingly started.
+
+"_November 18_, at daylight, accompanied by eleven men, he proceeded
+along the beach one mile to a point of rocks about forty feet high,
+where the hills retired, leaving a wide beach and a number of ponds
+covered with water-fowl, between which and the mountain there was a
+narrow bottom covered with alder and small balsam trees. Seven miles
+from the rocks was the entrance from the creek, or rather drain from the
+pond and hills, where was a cabin of Chinnooks. The cabin contained some
+children and four women. They were taken across the creek in a canoe by
+two squaws, to each of whom they gave a fish-hook, and then, coasting
+along the bay, passed at two miles the low bluff of a small hill, below
+which were, the ruins of some old huts, and close to it the remains of a
+whale. The country was low, open, and marshy, interspersed with some
+high pine and with a thick undergrowth. Five miles from the creek, they
+came to a stream, forty yards wide at low water, which they called
+Chinnook River. The hills up this river and towards the bay were not
+high, but very thickly covered with large pine of several species."
+
+Proceeding along the shore, they came to a deep bend, appearing to
+afford a good harbour, and here the natives told them that European
+vessels usually anchored. About two miles farther on they reached Cape
+Disappointment, "an elevated circular knob," says the Journal, "rising
+with a steep ascent one hundred and fifty or one hundred and sixty feet
+above the water, formed like the whole shore of the bay, as well as of
+the seacoast, and covered with thick timber on the inner side, but open
+and grassy on the exposure next the sea. From this cape a high point of
+land bears south 20 deg. west, about twenty-five miles distant. In the range
+between these two eminences is the opposite point of the bay, a very low
+ground, which has been variously called Cape Rond by Le Perouse, and
+Point Adams by Vancouver. The water, for a great distance off the mouth
+of the river, appears very shallow, and within the mouth, nearest to
+Point Adams, is a large sand-bar, almost covered at high tide...."
+
+"_November 19._ In the evening it began to rain, and continued until
+eleven o'clock. Two hunters were sent out in the morning to kill
+something for breakfast, and the rest of the party, after drying their
+blankets, soon followed. At three miles they overtook the hunters, and
+breakfasted on a small deer which they had been fortunate enough to
+kill. This, like all those that we saw on the coast, was much darker
+than our common deer. Their bodies, too, are deeper, their legs
+shorter, and their eyes larger. The branches of the horns are similar,
+but the upper part of the tail is black, from the root to the end, and
+they do not leap, but jump like a sheep frightened.
+
+"Continuing along five miles farther, they reached a point of high land,
+below which a sandy point extended in a direction north 19 deg. west to
+another high point twenty miles distant. To this they gave the name of
+Point Lewis. They proceeded four miles farther along the sandy beach to
+a small pine tree, on which Captain Clarke marked his name, with the
+year and day, and then set out to return to the camp, where they arrived
+the following day, having met a large party of Chinnooks coming from it.
+
+"_November 21._ The morning was cloudy, and from noon till night it
+rained. The wind, too, was high from the southeast, and the sea so rough
+that the water reached our camp. Most of the Chinnooks returned home,
+but we were visited in the course of the day by people of different
+bands in the neighbourhood, among whom were the Chiltz, a nation
+residing on the seacoast near Point Lewis, and the Clatsops, who live
+immediately opposite, on the south side of the Columbia. A chief from
+the grand rapid also came to see us, and we gave him a medal. To each of
+our visitors we made a present of a small piece of riband, and purchased
+some cranberries, and some articles of their manufacture, such as mats
+and household furniture, for all of which we paid high prices."
+
+
+
+
+THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI
+
+BRIGADIER-GENERAL ZEBULON M. PIKE
+
+ [During the years 1805, 1806, and 1807 Brigadier-General Pike
+ commanded, by order of the Government of the United States,
+ an expedition to the sources of the Mississippi, through the
+ western part of Louisiana, to the sources of the Arkansas,
+ Kansas, La Platte and Pierre Juan rivers. The extracts which
+ follow are taken from his narrative published in
+ Philadelphia, 1810. An excellent edition, edited with copious
+ notes by Elliott Coues, was published in three volumes by
+ Francis P. Harper, New York, 1895.]
+
+
+_January 1, 1806._ Passed six very elegant bark canoes on the bank of
+the river, which had been laid up by the Chipeways; also a camp which we
+had conceived to have been evacuated about ten days. My interpreter came
+after me in a great hurry, conjuring me not to go so far ahead, and
+assured me that the Chipeways, encountering me without an interpreter,
+party, or flag, would certainly kill me. But, notwithstanding this, I
+went on several miles farther than usual, in order to make any
+discoveries that were to be made; conceiving the savages not so
+barbarous or ferocious as to fire on two men (I had one with me) who
+were apparently coming into their country, trusting to their generosity;
+and knowing, that if we met only two or three we were equal to them, I
+having my gun and pistols and he his buckshot. Made some extra presents
+for New Year's day.
+
+_January 2._ Fine, warm day. Discovered fresh signs of Indians. Just as
+we were encamping at night, my sentinel informed us that some Indians
+were coming at full speed upon our trail or track. I ordered my men to
+stand by their guns carefully. They were immediately at my camp, and
+saluted the flag by a discharge of three pieces, when four Chipeways,
+one Englishman, and a Frenchman of the North West Company presented
+themselves. They informed us that some women having discovered our trail
+gave the alarm, and not knowing but it was their enemies had departed to
+make a discovery. They had heard of us, and revered our flag. Mr. Grant,
+the Englishman, had only arrived the day before from Lake de Sable, from
+which he marched in one day and a half. I presented the Indians with
+half a deer, which they received thankfully, for they had discovered our
+fires some days ago, and believing them to be Sioux fires, they dared
+not leave their camp. They returned home, but Mr. Grant remained all
+night.
+
+_January 3._ My party marched early, but I returned with Mr. Grant to
+his establishment on the Red Cedar Lake, having one corporal with
+me.... After explaining to a Chipeway warrior, called Curly Head, the
+object of my voyage, and receiving his answer that he would remain
+tranquil until my return, we ate a good breakfast for the country,
+departed and overtook my sleds just at dusk. Killed one porcupine.
+Distance sixteen miles.
+
+_January 4._ We made twenty-eight points in the river; broad, good
+bottom, and of the usual timber. In the night I was awakened by the cry
+of the sentinel, calling repeatedly to the men; at length he
+vociferated, "Will you let the lieutenant be burned to death?" This
+immediately aroused me; at first I seized my arms, but looking round, I
+saw my tents in flames. The men flew to my assistance, and we tore them
+down, but not until they were entirely ruined. This, with the loss of my
+leggins, moccasins, and socks, which I had hung up to dry, was no
+trivial misfortune in such a country and on such a voyage. But I had
+reason to thank God that the powder, three small casks of which I had in
+my tent, did not take fire; if it had, I must certainly have lost all my
+baggage, if not my life.
+
+_January 5._ Mr. Grant promised to overtake me yesterday, but has not
+yet arrived. I conceived it would be necessary to attend his motions
+with careful observation. Distance twenty-seven miles.
+
+_January 6._ Bradley and myself walked up thirty-one points in hopes to
+discover Lake de Sable; but finding a near cut of twenty yards for ten
+miles, and being fearful the sleds would miss it, we returned
+twenty-three points before we found our camp. They had made only eight
+points. Met two Frenchmen of the North West Company with about one
+hundred and eighty pounds on each of their backs, with rackets
+[snowshoes] on; they informed me that Mr. Grant had gone on with the
+Frenchmen. Snow fell all day, and was three feet deep. Spent a miserable
+night.
+
+_January 7._ Made but eleven miles, and was then obliged to send ahead
+and make fires every three miles; notwithstanding which, the cold was so
+intense that some of the men had their noses, others their fingers, and
+others their toes, frozen, before they felt the cold sensibly. Very
+severe day's march.
+
+_January 8._ Conceiving I was at no great distance from Sandy Lake, I
+left my sleds and with Corporal Bradley took my departure for that
+place, intending to send him back the same evening. We walked on very
+briskly until near night, when we met a young Indian, one of those who
+had visited my camp near Red Cedar Lake. I endeavoured to explain to him
+that it was my wish to go to Lake de Sable that evening. He returned
+with me until we came to a trail that led across the woods; this he
+signified was a near course. I went this course with him, and shortly
+after found myself at a Chipeway encampment, to which I believed the
+friendly savage had enticed me with the expectation that I would tarry
+all night, knowing that it was too late for us to make the lake in good
+season. But upon our refusing to stay, he put us in the right road. We
+arrived at the place where the track left the Mississippi at dusk, when
+we traversed about two leagues of a wilderness without any very great
+difficulty, and at length struck the shore of Lake de Sable, over a
+branch of which lay our course. The snow having covered the trail made
+by the Frenchmen who had passed before us with the rackets, I was
+fearful of losing ourselves on the lake; the consequences of which can
+only be conceived by those who have been exposed on a lake or naked
+plain, in a dreary night of January, in latitude 47 deg., and the
+thermometer below zero. Thinking that we could observe the bank of the
+other shore, we kept a straight course, and some time after discovered
+lights, and on our arrival were not a little surprised to find a large
+stockade. The gate being open, we entered and proceeded to the quarters
+of Mr. Grant, where we were treated with the utmost hospitality.
+
+_January 9._ Sent away the corporal early, in order that our men should
+receive assurances of our safety and success. He carried with him, a
+small keg of spirits, a present from Mr. Grant. The establishment of
+this place was formed twelve years since by the North West Company, and
+was formerly under the charge of Mr. Charles Brusky. It has attained at
+present such regularity as to permit the superintendent to live
+tolerably comfortably. They have horses they procure from Red River from
+the Indians; they raise plenty of potatoes, catch pike, suckers,
+pickerel, and white fish in abundance. They have also beaver, deer, and
+moose; but the provision they chiefly depend upon is wild oats, of
+which they purchase great quantities from the savages, giving at the
+rate of about one dollar and a half a bushel. But flour, pork, and salt
+are almost interdicted to persons not principals in the trade. Flour
+sells at half a dollar, salt at a dollar, pork at eighty cents, sugar at
+fifty cents, and tea at four dollars and a half a pound. The sugar is
+obtained from the Indians, and is made from the maple tree.
+
+_January 10._ Mr. Grant accompanied me to the Mississippi, to mark the
+place for my boats to leave the river. This was the first time I marched
+on rackets [snowshoes]. I took the course of the Lake River, from its
+mouth to the lake. Mr. Grant fell through the ice with his rackets on,
+and could not have got out without assistance.
+
+_January 11._ Remained all day within quarters.
+
+_January 12._ Went out and met my men about sixteen miles. A tree had
+fallen on one of them and hurt him very much, which induced me to
+dismiss a sled and put the loading on the others.
+
+_January 13._ After encountering much difficulty we arrived at the
+establishment of the North West Company on Lake de Sable a little before
+night. The ice being very bad on the Lake River, owing to the many
+springs and marshes, one sled fell through. My men had an excellent room
+furnished them, and were presented with potatoes and spirits. Mr. Grant
+had gone to an Indian lodge to receive his credits.
+
+_January 14._ Crossed the lake to the north side, that I might take an
+observation; found the latitude 46 deg. 9' 20" N. Surveyed that part of the
+lake. Mr. Grant returned from the Indian lodges. His party brought a
+quantity of furs and eleven beaver carcasses.
+
+_January 15._ Mr. Grant and myself made the tour of the lake with two
+men whom I had for attendants. Found it to be much larger than could be
+imagined at a view. My men sawed stocks for the sleds, which I found it
+necessary to construct after the manner of the country. On our march,
+met an Indian coming into the fort; his countenance expressed no little
+astonishment when I told him who I was and whence I came, for the people
+of this country acknowledge that the savages hold the Americans in
+greater veneration than any other white people. They say of us, when
+alluding to warlike achievements, that "we are neither Frenchmen nor
+Englishmen, but white Indians."
+
+_January 16._ Laid down Lake de Sable. A young Indian whom I had engaged
+to go as a guide to Lake Sang Sue arrived from the woods.
+
+_January 17._ Employed in making sleds after the manner of the country.
+They are made of a single plank turned up at one end like a fiddle head,
+and the baggage is lashed on in bags and sacks. Two other Indians
+arrived from the woods. Engaged in writing.
+
+_January 18._ Busy in preparing my baggage for my departure for Leech
+Lake and Reading.
+
+_January 19._ Employed as yesterday. Two men of the North West Company
+arrived from the Fond du Lac Superior with letters; one of which was
+from their establishment in Athapuscow, and had been since last May on
+the route. While at this post I ate roasted beavers, dressed in every
+respect as a pig is usually dressed with us; it was excellent. I could
+not discern the least taste of Des Bois. I also ate boiled moose's head,
+which when well boiled I consider equal to the tail of the beaver; in
+taste and substance they are much alike.
+
+_January 20._ The men, with their sleds, took their departure about two
+o'clock. Shortly after I followed them. We encamped at the portage
+between the Mississippi and Leech Lake River. Snow fell in the night.
+
+_January 21._ Snowed in the morning, but crossed about 9 o'clock. I had
+gone on a few points when I was overtaken by Mr. Grant, who informed me
+that the sleds could not get along in consequence of water being on the
+ice; he sent his men forward; we returned and met the sleds, which had
+scarcely advanced one mile. We unloaded them, sent eight men back to the
+post, with whatever might be denominated extra articles, but in the
+hurry sent my salt and ink. Mr. Grant encamped with me and marched early
+in the morning.
+
+_January 22._ Made a pretty good day's journey. My Indian came up about
+noon. Distance twenty miles.
+
+_January 23._ Marched about eighteen miles. Forgot my thermometer,
+having hung it on a tree. Sent Boley back five miles for it. My young
+Indian and myself killed eight partridges; took him to live with me.
+
+_January 24._ At our encampment this night Mr. Grant had encamped on the
+night of the same day he left me; it was three days' march for us. It
+was late before the men came up.
+
+_January 25._ Travelled almost all day through the lands and found them
+much better than usual. Boley lost the Sioux pipe-stem which I had
+carried along for the purpose of making peace with the Chipeways; I sent
+him back for it; he did not return until eleven o'clock at night. It was
+very warm; thawing all day. Distance forty-four points.
+
+_January 26._ I left my party in order to proceed to a house, or lodge,
+of Mr. Grant's on the Mississippi, where he was to tarry until I
+overtook him. Took with me an Indian, Boley, and some trifling
+provision; the Indian and myself marched so fast that we left Boley on
+the route, about eight miles from the lodge. Met Mr. Grant's men, on
+their return to Lake de Sable, having evacuated the house this morning,
+and Mr. Grant having marched for Leech Lake. The Indian and I arrived
+before sundown. Passed the night very uncomfortably, having nothing to
+eat, not much wood, nor any blankets. The Indian slept sound. I cursed
+his insensibility, being obliged to content myself over a few coals all
+night. Boley did not arrive. In the night the Indian mentioned something
+about his son.
+
+_January 27._ My Indian rose early, mended his moccasins, then expressed
+by signs something about his son and the Englishmen we met yesterday.
+Conceiving that he wished to send some message to his family, I suffered
+him to depart. After his departure I felt the curse of solitude,
+although he was truly no company. Boley arrived about ten o'clock. He
+said that he had followed us until some time in the night, when,
+believing that he could overtake us, he stopped and made a fire, but
+having no axe to cut wood he was near freezing. He met the Indians, who
+made him signs to go on. I spent the day in putting my gun in order, and
+mended my moccasins. Provided plenty of wood, still found it cold, with
+but one blanket.
+
+_January 28._ Left our encampment at a good hour; unable to find any
+trail, passed through one of the most dismal cypress swamps I ever saw
+and struck the Mississippi at a small lake. Observed Mr. Grant's tracks
+going through it; found his mark of a cut-off (agreed on between us);
+took it, and proceeded very well until we came to a small lake, where
+the trail was entirely hid, but after some search on the other side,
+found it, when we passed through a dismal swamp, on the other side of
+which we found a large lake, at which I was entirely at a loss, no
+trail to be seen. Struck for a point about three miles off, where we
+found a Chipeway lodge of one man and five children, and one old woman.
+They received us with every mark that distinguished their barbarity,
+such as setting their dogs on us, trying to thrust their hands into our
+pockets, and so on, but we convinced them that we were not afraid, and
+let them know that we were Chewockomen (Americans), when they used us
+more civilly. After we had arranged a camp as well as possible I went
+into the lodge; they presented me with a plate of dried meat. I ordered
+Miller to bring about two gills of liquor, which made us all good
+friends. The old squaw gave me more meat, and offered me tobacco, which,
+not using, I did not take. I gave her an order upon my corporal for one
+knife and half a carrot of tobacco. Heaven clothes the lilies and feeds
+the raven, and the same Almighty Providence protects and preserves these
+creatures. After I had gone out to my fire, the old man came out and
+proposed to trade beaver skins for whiskey; meeting with a refusal he
+left me; when presently the old woman came out with a beaver skin, she
+also being refused, he again returned to the charge with a quantity of
+dried meat (this or any other I should have been glad to have had) when
+I gave him a peremptory refusal; then all further application ceased. It
+really appeared that with one quart of whiskey I might have bought all
+they were possessed of. Night remarkably cold, was obliged to sit up
+nearly the whole of it. Suffered much with cold and from want of sleep.
+
+_January 31._ Took my clothes into the Indian's lodge to dress, and was
+received very coolly, but by giving him a dram (unasked), and his wife a
+little salt, I received from them directions for my route. Passed the
+lake or morass, and opened on meadows (through which the Mississippi
+winds its course) of nearly fifteen miles in length. Took a straight
+course through them to the head, when I found we had missed the river;
+made a turn of about two miles and regained it. Passed a fork which I
+supposed to be Lake Winipie, making the course northwest; the branch we
+took was on Leech Lake branch, course southwest and west. Passed a very
+large meadow or prairie, course west, the Mississippi only fifteen yards
+wide. Encamped about one mile below the traverse of the meadow. Saw a
+very large animal, which from its leaps I supposed to be a panther; but
+if so, it was twice as large as those on the lower Mississippi. He
+evinced some disposition to approach. I lay down (Miller being in the
+rear) in order to entice him to come near, but he would not. The night
+remarkably cold. Some spirits, which I had in a small keg, congealed to
+the consistency of honey.
+
+_February 1._ Left our camp pretty early. Passed a continuous train of
+prairie, and arrived at Lake Sang Sue at half-past two o'clock. I will
+not attempt to describe my feelings on the accomplishment of my voyage,
+for this is the main source of the Mississippi. The Lake Winipie branch
+is navigable from thence to Red Cedar Lake for the distance of five
+leagues, which is the extremity of the navigation. Crossed the lake
+twelve miles to the establishment of the North West Company, where we
+arrived about three o'clock; found all the gates locked, but upon
+knocking were admitted and received with marked attention and
+hospitality by Mr. Hugh McGillis. Had a good dish of coffee, biscuit,
+butter and cheese for supper.
+
+_February 2._ Remained all day within doors. In the evening sent an
+invitation to Mr. Anderson, who was an agent of Dickson, and also for
+some young Indians at his house, to come over and breakfast in the
+morning.
+
+_February 3._ Spent the day in reading Volney's "Egypt," proposing some
+queries to Mr. Anderson, and preparing my young men to return with a
+supply of provisions to my party.
+
+_February 4._ Miller departed this morning. Mr. Anderson returned to his
+quarters. My legs and ankles were so much swelled that I was not able to
+wear my own clothes, and was obliged to borrow some from Mr. McGillis.
+
+_February 5._ One of Mr. McGillis's clerks had been sent to some Indian
+lodges, and expected to return in four days, but had now been absent
+nine. Mr. Grant was despatched, in order to find out what had become of
+him.
+
+_February 6._ My men arrived at the fort about four o'clock. Mr.
+McGillis asked if I had any objection to his hoisting their flag in
+compliment to ours. I made none, as I had not yet explained to him my
+ideas. In making a traverse of the lake some of my men had their ears,
+some their noses, and others their chins frozen.
+
+_February 7._ Remained within doors, my limbs being still very much
+swelled. Addressed a letter to Mr. McGillis on the subject of the North
+West Company's trade in this quarter.
+
+_February 8._ Took the latitude and found it to be 47 deg. 16' 13". Shot
+with our rifles.
+
+_February 9._ M. McGillis and myself paid a visit to Mr. Anderson, an
+agent of Mr. Dickson, of the lower Mississippi, who resided at the west
+end of the lake. Found him eligibly situated as to trade, but his houses
+bad. I rode in a cariole, for one person, constructed in the following
+manner: Boards planed smooth, turned up in front about two feet, coming
+to a point; about two and a half feet wide behind, on which is fixed a
+box covered with dressed skins painted; this box is open at the top, but
+covered in front about two-thirds of the length. The horse is fastened
+between the shafts. The rider wraps himself up in a buffalo robe, sits
+flat down, having a cushion to lean his back against. Thus accoutred
+with a fur cap, and so on, he may bid defiance to the wind and weather.
+Upon our return we found that some of the Indians had already returned
+from the hunting camps; also Monsieur Roussand, the gentleman supposed
+to have been killed by the Indians. His arrival with Mr. Grant diffused
+a general satisfaction through the fort.
+
+_February 10._ Hoisted the American flag in the fort. Reading
+"Shenstone," etc.
+
+_February 11._ The Sweet, Buck, Burnt, and others arrived, all chiefs of
+note, but the former in particular, a venerable old man. From him I
+learned that the Sioux occupied this ground when, to use his own phrase,
+"He was made a man and began to hunt; that they occupied it the year
+that the French missionaries were killed at the river Pacagama." The
+Indians flocked in.
+
+_February 12._ Bradley and myself with Mr. McGillis' and two of his men
+left Leech Lake at 10 o'clock, and arrived at the house of Red Cedar
+Lake at sunset, a distance of thirty miles. My ankles were very much
+swelled, and I was very lame. From the entrance of the Mississippi to
+the strait is called six miles, a southwest course. Thence to the south
+end, south thirty, east four miles. The bay at the entrance extends
+nearly east and west six miles. About two and a half from the north side
+to a large point. This, may be called the upper source of the
+Mississippi, being fifteen miles above little Lake Winipie, and the
+extent of canoe navigation only two leagues to some of the Hudson's Bay
+waters.
+
+
+
+
+MANILA IN 1842
+
+LIEUTENANT CHARLES WILKES
+
+ [During 1838-42 Lieutenant Wilkes commanded an exploring
+ expedition which was the first ever despatched for scientific
+ research by the United States. The instructions given by
+ Congress to the Commander said:--"The expedition is not for
+ conquest, but discovery. Its objects are all peaceful; they
+ are to extend the empire of commerce and science; to diminish
+ the hazards of the ocean, and point out to future navigators
+ a course by which they may avoid dangers and find safety."
+ The narrative of the expedition was published in five volumes
+ in Philadelphia, 1845. The extracts which follow are from
+ Vol. V., chapter VIII. From 1844 to 1874 the Government of
+ the United States published twenty-eight volumes reciting in
+ detail the scientific results of the expedition.]
+
+
+At daylight, on the 13th of January, 1842, we were again under way, with
+a light air, and at nine o'clock reached the roadstead, where we
+anchored in six fathoms of water, with good holding ground.
+
+A number of vessels were lying in the roads, among which were several
+Americans loading with hemp. There was also a large English East
+Indiaman, manned by Lascars, whose noise rendered her more like a
+floating Bedlam than anything else to which I can liken it.
+
+The view of the city and country around Manila partakes both of a
+Spanish and an Oriental character. The sombre and heavy-looking
+churches with their awkward towers; the long lines of batteries mounted
+with heavy cannon; the massive houses, with ranges of balconies; and the
+light and airy cottages, elevated on posts, situated in the luxuriant
+groves of tropical trees,--all excite desire to become better acquainted
+with the country.
+
+Manila is situated on an extensive plain, gradually swelling into
+distant hills, beyond which, again, mountains rise in the background, to
+the height of several thousand feet. The latter are apparently clothed
+with vegetation to their summits. The city is in strong contrast to this
+luxuriant scenery, bearing evident marks of decay, particularly in the
+churches, whose steeples and tile roofs have a dilapidated look. The
+site of the city does not appear to have been well chosen, it having
+apparently been selected entirely for the convenience of commerce, and
+the communication that the outlet of the lake affords for the batteaux
+[freight boats] that transport the produce from the shores of the Laguna
+de Bay to the city.
+
+There are many arms or branches to this stream, which have been
+converted into canals; and almost any part of Manila may now be reached
+in a banca [small passage boat].
+
+The canal is generally filled with coasting vessels, batteaux from the
+lake, and lighters for the discharge of the vessels lying in the roads.
+The bay of Manila is safe, excepting during the change of the monsoons,
+when it is subject to the typhoons of the China seas, within whose
+range it lies. These blow at times with much force, and cause great
+damage. Foreign vessels have, however, kept this anchorage, and rode out
+these storms in safety; but native as well as Spanish vessels seek at
+these times the port of Cavite, about three leagues to the southwest, at
+the entrance of the bay, which is perfectly secure. Here the government
+dockyard is situated, and this harbour is consequently the resort of the
+few gunboats and galleys that are stationed here.
+
+The entrance to the canal or river Pasig is three hundred feet wide, and
+is enclosed between two well-constructed piers, which extend for some
+distance into the bay. On the end of one of these is the light-house,
+and on the other a guard-house. The walls of these piers are about four
+feet above ordinary high water, and include the natural channel of the
+river, whose current sets out with some force, particularly when the ebb
+is making in the bay.
+
+The suburbs, or Binondo quarter, contain more inhabitants than the city
+itself, and is the commercial town. They have all the stir and life
+incident to a large population actively engaged in trade, and in this
+respect the contrast with the city proper is great.
+
+The city of Manila is built in the form of a large segment of a circle,
+having the chord of the segment on the river: the whole is strongly
+fortified with walls and ditches. The houses are substantially built
+after the fashion of the mother country. Within the walls are the
+governor's palace, custom-house, treasury, admiralty, several churches,
+convents, and charitable institutions, a university, and the barracks
+for the troops; it also contain some public squares, on one of which is
+a bronze statute of Charles IV.
+
+The city is properly deemed the court residence of these islands; and
+all those attached to the government, or who wish to be considered as of
+the higher circle, reside here; but foreigners are not permitted to do
+so. The houses in the city are generally of stone, plastered, and white
+or yellow washed on the outside. They are only two stories high, and in
+consequence cover a large space, being built around a patio or
+courtyard.
+
+The ground floors are occupied as storehouses, stables, and for porters'
+lodges. The second story is devoted to the dining halls and sleeping
+apartments, kitchens, bath-rooms, etc. The bed-rooms have the windows
+down to the floor, opening on wide balconies, with blinds or shutters.
+These blinds are constructed with sliding frames, having small squares
+of two inches filled in with a thin semi-transparent shell, a species of
+Placuna; the fronts of some of the houses have a large number of these
+small lights, where the females of the family may enjoy themselves
+unperceived.
+
+After entering the canal, we very soon found ourselves among a motley
+and strange population. On landing, the attention is drawn to the vast
+number of small stalls and shops with which the streets are lined on
+each side, and to the crowds of people passing to and fro, all intent
+upon their several occupations. The artisans in Manila are almost wholly
+Chinese; and all trades are local, so that in each quarter of the
+Binondo suburb the privilege of exclusive occupancy is claimed by some
+particular kinds of shops. In passing up the Escolta (which is the
+longest and main street in this district), the cabinet-makers, seen
+busily at work in their shops, are first met with; next to these come
+the tinkers and blacksmiths; then the shoemakers, clothiers,
+fishmongers, haberdashers, etc. These are flanked by outdoor
+occupations; and in each quarter are numerous cooks frying cakes,
+stewing, etc., in movable kitchens; while here and there are to be seen
+betel-nut sellers, either moving about to obtain customers, or taking a
+stand in some great thoroughfare. The moving throng, composed of
+carriers, waiters, messengers, etc., pass quietly and without any noise:
+they are generally seen with the Chinese umbrella, painted of many
+colours, screening themselves from the sun. The whole population wear
+slippers, and move along with a slip-shod gait.
+
+The Chinese are apparently far more numerous than the Malays, and the
+two races differ as much in character as in appearance: one is all
+activity, while the other is disposed to avoid all exertion. They
+preserve their distinctive character throughout, mixing but very little
+with each other, and are removed as far as possible in their civilities;
+the former, from their industry and perseverance, have almost
+monopolized all the lucrative employments among the lower orders,
+excepting the selling of fish and betel-nut, and articles manufactured
+in the provinces....
+
+Of all her foreign possessions, the Philippines have cost Spain the
+least blood and labour. The honour of their discovery belongs to
+Magalhaens, whose name is associated with the straits at the southern
+extremity of the American continent, but which has no memorial in these
+islands. Now that the glory which he gained by being the first to
+penetrate from the Atlantic to the Pacific has been in some measure
+obliterated by the disuse of those straits by navigators, it would seem
+due to his memory that some spot among these islands should be set apart
+to commemorate the name of him who made them known to Europe. This would
+be but common justice to the discoverer of a region which has been a
+source of so much honour and profit to the Spanish nation, who opened
+the vast expanse of the Pacific to the fleets of Europe, and who died
+fighting to secure the benefits of his enterprise to his king and
+country.
+
+Few portions of the globe seem to be so much the seat of internal fires,
+or to exhibit the effects of volcanic action so strongly as the
+Philippines. During our visit, it was not known that any of the
+volcanoes were in action; but many of them were smoking, particularly
+that in the district of Albay, called Isaroc. Its latest eruption was in
+the year 1839; but this did little damage compared with that of 1814,
+which covered several villages, and the country for a great distance
+around, with ashes. This mountain is situated to the southeast of Manila
+one hundred and fifty miles, and is said to be a perfect cone, with a
+crater at its apex.
+
+It does not appear that the islands are much affected by earthquakes,
+although some have occasionally occurred that have done damage to the
+churches at Manila.
+
+The coal found in the Philippines is deemed of value; it has a strong
+resemblance to the bituminous coal of our own country, possesses a
+bright lustre, and appears very free from all woody texture when
+fractured. It is found associated with sandstone, which contains many
+fossils. Lead and copper are reported as being very abundant; gypsum and
+limestone occur in some districts. From this it will be seen that these
+islands have everything in the mineral way to constitute them desirable
+possessions.
+
+With such mineral resources and a soil capable of producing the most
+varied vegetation of the tropics, a liberal policy is all that the
+country lacks. The products of the Philippine Islands consist of sugar,
+coffee, hemp, indigo, rice, tortoise-shell, hides, ebony, saffron-wood,
+sulphur, cotton, cordage, silk, pepper, cocoa, wax, and many other
+articles. In their agricultural operations the people are industrious,
+although much labour is lost by the use of defective implements. The
+plow, of a very simple construction, has been adopted from the Chinese;
+it has no coulter, the share is flat, and being turned partly to one
+side, answers, in a certain degree the purpose of a mould-board. This
+rude implement is sufficient for the rich soils, where the tillage
+depends chiefly upon the harrow, in constructing which a thorny species
+of bamboo is used. The harrow is formed of five or six pieces of this
+material, on which the thorns are left, firmly fastened together. It
+answers its purpose well, and is seldom out of order. A wrought-iron
+harrow, that was introduced by the Jesuits, is used for clearing the
+ground more effectually, and more particularly for the purpose of
+extirpating a troublesome grass, that is known by the name of cogon (a
+species of Andropogon), of which it is very difficult to rid the fields.
+The bolo or long-knife, a basket, a hoe, complete the implements, and
+answer all the purposes of our spades, etc.
+
+The buffalo was used until within a few years exclusively in their
+agricultural operations, and they have lately taken to the use of the
+ox; but horses are never used. The buffalo, from the slowness of his
+motions, and his exceeding restlessness under the heat of the climate,
+is ill adapted to agricultural labour; but the natives are very partial
+to them, notwithstanding they occasion them much labour and trouble in
+bathing them during the great heat. This is absolutely necessary, or the
+animal becomes so fretful as to be unfit for use. If it were not for
+this, the buffalo would, notwithstanding his slow pace, be most
+effective in agricultural operations; he requires little food, and that
+of the coarsest kind; his strength surpasses that of the stoutest ox,
+and he is admirably adapted for the rice or paddy fields. They are very
+docile when used by the natives, and even children can manage them; but
+it said they have a great antipathy to the whites and all strangers. The
+usual mode of guiding them is by a small cord attached to the cartilage
+of the nose. The yoke rests on the neck before the shoulders, and is of
+simple construction. To this is attached whatever it may be necessary to
+draw, either by traces, shafts, or other fastenings. Frequently these
+animals may be seen with large bundles of bamboo lashed to them on each
+side. Buffaloes are to be met with on the lake with no more than their
+noses and eyes out of the water, and are not visible until they are
+approached within a few feet, when they cause alarm to the passengers by
+raising their large forms close to the boat. It is said that they resort
+to the lake to feed on a favourite grass that grows on its bottom in
+shallow water, and which they dive for. Their flesh is not eaten,
+except that of the young ones, for it is tough and tasteless. The milk
+is nutritious, and of a character between that of the goat and cow.
+
+Rice is, perhaps, of their agricultural products, the article upon which
+the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands most depend for food and
+profit; of this they have several different varieties, which the natives
+distinguish by their size and the shape of the grain: the birnambang,
+lamuyo, malagequit, bontot-cabayo, dumali, quinanda, bolohan, and tangi.
+The three first are aquatic, the five latter upland varieties. They each
+have their peculiar uses. The dumali is the early variety; it ripens in
+three months from planting, from which circumstance it derives its name;
+it is raised exclusively on the uplands. Although much esteemed, it is
+not extensively cultivated, as the birds and insects destroy a large
+part of the crop.
+
+The malagequit is very much prized, and used for making sweet and fancy
+dishes; it becomes exceedingly glutinous, for which reason it is used in
+making whitewash, which it is said to cause to become of a brilliant
+white, and to withstand the weather. This variety is not, however,
+believed to be wholesome. There is also a variety of this last species
+which is used as food for horses, and supposed to be a remedy and
+preventive against worms.
+
+The rice grounds or fields are laid out in squares, and surrounded by
+embankments, to retain the water of the rains or streams. After the
+rains have fallen in sufficient quantities to saturate the ground, a
+seed-bed is generally planted in one corner of the field, in which the
+rice is sown broadcast, about the month of June. The heavy rains take
+place in August, when the fields are ploughed, and are soon filled with
+water. The young plants are about this time taken from the seed-bed,
+their tops and roots trimmed, and then planted in the field by making
+holes in the ground with the fingers and placing four or five sprouts in
+each of them; in this tedious labor the poor women are employed, whilst
+the males are lounging in their houses or in the shade of the trees.
+
+The harvest for the aquatic rice begins in December. It is reaped with
+small sickles, peculiar to the country, called yatap; to the back of
+these a small stick is fastened, by which they are held, and the stalk
+is forced upon it and cut. The spikes of rice are cut with this
+implement, one by one. In this operation, men, women and children, all
+take part.
+
+The upland rice requires much more care and labour in its cultivation.
+The land must be ploughed three or four times, and all the turf and
+lumps well broken up by the harrow.
+
+During its growth it requires to be weeded two or three times, to keep
+the weeds from choking the crop. The seed is sown broadcast in May. This
+kind of rice is harvested in November, and to collect the crop is still
+more tedious than in the other case, for it is always gathered earlier
+and never reaped, in consequence of the grain not adhering to the ear.
+If it were gathered in any other way, the loss by transportation on the
+backs of buffaloes and horses, without any covering to the sheaf, would
+be so great as to dissipate a great portion of the crop.
+
+After the rice is harvested, there are different modes of treating it.
+Some of the proprietors take it home, where it is thrown into heaps, and
+left until it is desirable to separate it from the straw, when it is
+trodden out by men and women with their bare feet. For this operation
+they usually receive a fifth part of the rice.
+
+Others stack it in a wet and green state, which subjects it to heat,
+from which cause the grain contracts a dark colour and an unpleasant
+taste and smell. The natives, however, impute these defects to the
+wetness of the season.
+
+The crop of both the low and upland rice is usually from thirty to fifty
+for one: this on old land; but on that which is newly cleared, or which
+has never been cultivated, the yield is far beyond this. In some soils
+of the latter description, it is said that for a chupa (seven cubic
+inches) planted the yield has been a caban. The former is the
+two-hundred-and-eighth part of the latter. This is not the only
+advantage gained in planting rice lands, but the saving of labour is
+equally great; for all that is required is to make a hole with the
+fingers and place three or four grains in it. The upland rice requires
+but little water, and is never irrigated.
+
+The cultivator in the Philippine Islands is always enabled to secure
+plenty of manure; for vegetation is so luxuriant that by pulling the
+weeds and laying them with earth a good stock is quickly obtained with
+which to cover his fields. Thus, although the growth is so rank as to
+cause him labour, yet in this hot climate its decay is equally rapid,
+which tends to make his labours more successful.
+
+Among the important productions of these islands, I have mentioned hemp,
+although the article called Manila hemp must not be understood to be
+derived from the plant which produces the common hemp (_Canabis_), being
+obtained from a species of plantain (_Musa textilis_), called in the
+Philippines "abaca." This is a native of these islands, and was formerly
+believed to be found only on Mindanao; but this is not the case, for it
+is cultivated on the south part of Luzon and all the islands south of
+it. It grows on high ground, in rich soil, and is propagated by seeds.
+It resembles the other plants of the tribe of plantains, but its fruit
+is much smaller, although edible. The fibre is derived from the stem,
+and the plant attains the height of fifteen or twenty feet. The usual
+mode of preparing the hemp is to cut off the stem near the ground,
+before the time or just when the fruit is ripe. The stem is then eight
+or ten feet long below the leaves, where it is again cut. The outer
+coating of the herbaceous stem is then stripped off, until the fibres or
+cellular parts are seen, when it undergoes the process of rotting, and
+after being well dried in houses and sheds, is prepared for market by
+assorting it, a task which is performed by the women and children. That
+which is intended for cloth is soaked for an hour or two in weak
+lime-water prepared from sea-shells, again dried, and put up in bundles.
+From all the districts in which it grows, it is sent to Manila, which is
+the only port whence it can legally be exported. It arrives in large
+bundles, and is packed there by means of a screw-press in compact bales,
+for shipping, secured by rattan, each weighing two piculs. [A picul is
+about 140 pounds.]
+
+The best Manila hemp ought to be white, dry, and of a long and fine
+fibre. This is known at Manila by the name of lupis; the second quality
+they call bandala.
+
+That which is brought to the United States is principally manufactured
+in or near Boston, and is the cordage known as "white rope." The cordage
+manufactured at Manila is, however, very superior to the rope made with
+us, although the hemp is of the inferior kind. A large quantity is also
+manufactured into mats.
+
+In the opinion of our botanist, it is not probable that the plant could
+be introduced with success into our country, for in the Philippines it
+is not found north of latitude 14 deg. N.
+
+The coffee-plant is well adapted to these islands. A few plants were
+introduced into the gardens of Manila about fifty years ago, since which
+time it has been spread all over the island, as is supposed, by the
+civet-cats, which, after swallowing the seeds, carry them to a distance
+before they are voided.
+
+The coffee of commerce is obtained here from the wild plant, and is of
+an excellent quality. Upwards of three thousand five hundred piculs are
+now exported, of which one-sixth goes to the United States.
+
+The sugar-cane thrives well here. It is planted after the French
+fashion, by sticking the piece diagonally into the ground. Some, finding
+the cane has suffered in times of drought, have adopted other modes. It
+comes to perfection in a year, and they seldom have two crops from the
+same piece of land, unless the season is very favourable.
+
+There are many kinds of cane cultivated, but that grown in the valley of
+Pampanga is thought to be the best. It is a small, red variety, from
+four to five feet high, and not thicker than the thumb. The manufacture
+of the sugar is rudely conducted; and the whole business, I was told,
+was in the hands of a few capitalists, who, by making advances, secure
+the whole crop from those who are employed to bring it to market. It is
+generally brought in moulds of the usual conical shape, called pilones,
+which are delivered to the purchaser from November to June, and contain
+each about one hundred and fifty pounds. On their receipt they are
+placed in large storehouses, where the familiar operation of claying is
+performed. The estimate for the quantity of sugar from these pilones
+after this process is about one hundred pounds; it depends upon the care
+taken in the process.
+
+Of cotton they raise a considerable quantity, and principally of the
+yellow nankeen. In the province of Ylocos it is cultivated most
+extensively. The mode of cleaning it of its seed is very rude, by means
+of a hand-mill, and the expense of cleaning a picul (one hundred and
+forty pounds) is from five to seven dollars. There have, as far as I
+have understood, been no endeavours to introduce any cotton-gins from
+our country.
+
+It will be merely necessary to give the prices at which labourers are
+paid to show how the compensation is in comparison with that in our
+country. In the vicinity of Manila, twelve and a half cents per day is
+the usual wages; this in the provinces falls to six and nine cents. A
+man with two buffaloes is paid about thirty cents. The amount of labour
+performed by the latter in a day would be the ploughing of a soane,
+about two-tenths of an acre. The most profitable way of employing
+labourers is by the task, when, it is said, the natives work well, and
+are industrious.
+
+The manner in which the sugar and other produce is brought to market at
+Manila is peculiar, and deserves to be mentioned. In some of the
+villages the chief men unite to build a vessel, generally a pirogue, in
+which they embark their produce, under the conduct of a few persons, who
+go to navigate it, and dispose of the cargo. In due time they make their
+voyage, and when the accounts are settled, the returns are distributed
+to each according to his share. Festivities are then held, the saints
+thanked for their kindness, and blessings invoked for another year.
+After this is over, the vessel is taken carefully to pieces, and
+distributed among the owners, to be preserved for the next season.
+
+The profits in the crops, according to estimates, vary from sixty to one
+hundred per cent.; but it was thought, as a general average, that this
+was, notwithstanding the great productiveness of the soil, far beyond
+the usual profits accruing from agricultural operations. In some
+provinces this estimate would hold good, and probably be exceeded.
+
+Indigo would probably be a lucrative crop, for that raised here is said
+to be of a quality equal to the best, and the crop is not subject to so
+many uncertainties as in India: the capital and attention required in
+vats, etc., prevent it from being raised in any quantities. Among the
+productions, the bamboo and rattan ought to claim a particular notice
+from their great utility: they enter into almost everything. Of the
+former their houses are built, including frames, floors, sides, and
+roof; fences are made of the same material, as well as every article of
+general household use, including baskets for oil and water. The rattan
+is a general substitute for ropes of all descriptions, and the two
+combined are used in constructing rafts for crossing ferries.
+
+The crops frequently suffer from the ravages of the locusts, which sweep
+all before them. Fortunately for the poorer classes, their attacks take
+place after the rice has been harvested; but the cane is sometimes
+entirely cut off. The authorities of Manila, in the vain hope of
+stopping their devastations, employ persons to gather them and throw
+them into the sea. I understood on one occasion they had spent eighty
+thousand dollars in this way, but all to little purpose. It is said that
+the crops rarely suffer from droughts, but on the contrary the rains are
+thought to fall too often and to flood the rice fields; these, however,
+yield a novel crop, and are very advantageous to the poor, viz.: a great
+quantity of fish, which are called dalag, and are a species of Blunnius;
+they are so plentiful that they are caught with baskets; these fish
+weigh from a half to two pounds, and some are said to be eighteen inches
+long; but this is not all; they are said, after a deep inundation, to
+be found even in the vaults of churches.
+
+The Philippines are divided into thirty-one provinces, sixteen of which
+are on the island of Luzon, and the remainder comprise the other islands
+of the group and the Ladrones.
+
+The population of the whole group is above three millions, including all
+tribes of natives, mestizoes, and whites. The latter-named class are but
+few in number, not exceeding three thousand. The mestizoes were supposed
+to be about fifteen or twenty thousand; they are distinguished as
+Spanish and Indian mestizoes. The Chinese have of late years increased
+to a large number, and it is said that there are forty thousand of them
+in and around Manila alone. One-half of the whole population belongs to
+Luzon. The island next to it in number of inhabitants is Panay, which
+contains about three hundred and thirty thousand. Then come Zebu,
+Mindanao, Leyte, Samar, and Negros, varying from the above numbers down
+to fifty thousand. The population is increasing, and it is thought that
+it doubles itself in seventy years. This rate of increase appears
+probable, from a comparison of the present population with the estimate
+made at the beginning of the present century, which shows a growth in
+forty years of about one million four hundred thousand.
+
+The native population is composed of a number of distinct tribes, the
+principal of which in Luzon are Pangarihan, Ylocos, Cagayan, Tagala,
+and Pampangan.
+
+The Irogotes, who dwell in the mountains, are the only natives who have
+not been subjected by the Spaniards. The other tribes have become
+identified with their rulers in religion, and it is thought that by this
+circumstance alone has Spain been able to maintain the ascendency, with
+so small a number, over such a numerous, intelligent, and energetic race
+as they are represented to be. This is, however, more easily accounted
+for, from the Spaniards fostering and keeping alive the jealousy and
+hatred that existed at the time of the discovery between the different
+tribes.
+
+It seems almost incredible that Spain should have so long persisted in
+the policy of allowing no more than one galleon to pass annually between
+her colonies, and equally so that the nations of Europe should have been
+so long deceived in regard to the riches and wealth that Spain was
+monopolizing in the Philippines. The capture of Manila, in 1762, by the
+English, first gave a clear idea of the value of this remote and
+little-known appendage of the empire.
+
+The Philippines, considered in their capacity for commerce, are
+certainly among the most favoured portions of the globe, and there is
+but one circumstance that tends in the least degree to lessen their
+apparent advantage; this is the prevalence of typhoons in the China
+seas, which are occasionally felt with force to the north of latitude
+10 deg. N. South of that parallel they have never been known to prevail, and
+seldom so far; but from their unfailing occurrence yearly in some part
+of the China seas, they are looked for with more or less dread, and
+cause each season a temporary interruption in all the trade that passes
+along the coast of these islands.
+
+The army is now composed entirely of native troops, who number about six
+thousand men, and the regiments are never suffered to serve in the
+provinces in which they are recruited, but those from the north are sent
+to the south, and vice versa. There they are employed to keep a
+continual watch on each other; and, speaking different dialects, they
+never become identified.
+
+They are, indeed, never allowed to remain long enough in one region to
+imbibe any feelings in unison with those of its inhabitants. The
+hostility is so great among the regiments that mutinies have occurred,
+and contests arisen which have produced even bloodshed, which it was
+entirely out of the power of the officers to prevent. In cases of this
+kind, summary punishment is resorted to.
+
+Although the Spaniards, as far as is known abroad, live in peace and
+quiet, this is far from being the case; for rebellion and revolts among
+the troops and tribes are not unfrequent in the provinces. During the
+time of our visit one of these took place, but it was impossible to
+learn anything concerning it that could be relied upon, for all
+conversation respecting such occurrences is interdicted by the
+government. The difficulty to which I refer was said to have originated
+from the preaching of a fanatic priest, who inflamed them to such a
+degree that they overthrew the troops and became temporarily masters of
+the country. Prompt measures were immediately taken, and orders issued
+to give the rebels no quarter; the regiments most hostile to those in
+the revolt were ordered to the spot; they spared no one; the priest and
+his companions were taken, put to death, and according to report, in a
+manner so cruel as to be a disgrace to the records of the nineteenth
+century. Although I should hope the accounts I heard of these
+transactions were incorrect, yet the detestation these acts were held in
+would give some colour to the statements.
+
+The few gazettes that are published at Manila are entirely under the
+control of the government; and a resident of that city must make up his
+mind to remain in ignorance of the things that are passing around him,
+or believe just what the authorities will allow to be told, whether
+truth or falsehood. The government of the Philippines is emphatically an
+iron rule; how long can it continue so is doubtful.
+
+The natives of the Philippines are industrious. They manufacture an
+amount of goods sufficient to supply their own wants, particularly from
+Panay and Ylocos. These, for the most part, consist of cotton and silks,
+and a peculiar article called pina. The latter is manufactured from a
+species of Bromelia (pine-apple), and comes principally from the island
+of Panay. The finest kinds of pina are exceedingly beautiful and surpass
+any other material in its evenness and beauty of texture. Its colour is
+yellowish, and the embroidery is fully equal to the material. It is much
+sought after by all strangers, and considered as one of the curiosities
+of this group. Various reports have been stated of the mode of its
+manufacture, and among others that it was woven under water, which I
+found, upon inquiry, to be quite erroneous. The web of the pina is so
+fine that they are obliged to prevent all currents of air from passing
+through the rooms where it is manufactured, for which purpose there are
+gauze screens in the windows. After the article is brought to Manila, it
+is then embroidered by girls; this last operation adds greatly to its
+value.
+
+The market is a never-failing place of amusement to a foreigner; for
+there a crowd of the common people is always to be seen, and their mode
+of conducting business may be observed. The canals here afford great
+facilities for bringing vegetables and produce to market in a fresh
+state. The vegetables are chiefly brought from the shores of the Laguna
+de Bay, through the river Pasig. The meat appeared inferior, and as in
+all Spanish places the art of butchering is not understood. The
+poultry, however, surpasses that of any other place I have seen,
+particularly in ducks, the breeding of which is pursued to a great
+extent. Establishments for breeding these birds are here carried on in a
+systematic manner, and are a great curiosity. They consist of many small
+enclosures, each about twenty feet by forty or fifty, made of bamboo,
+which are placed on the bank of the river, and partly covered with
+water. In one corner of the enclosure is a small house, where the eggs
+are hatched by artificial heat, produced by rice-chaff in a state of
+fermentation. It is not uncommon to see six or eight hundred ducklings
+all of the same age. There are several hundreds of these enclosures, and
+the number of ducks of all ages may be computed at millions. The manner
+in which they are schooled to take exercise, and to go in and out of the
+water, and to return to their house, almost exceeds belief. The keepers
+or tenders are of the Tagala tribe, who live near the enclosures, and
+have them at all times under their eye. The old birds are not suffered
+to approach the young, and all of one age are kept together. They are
+fed upon rice and a small species of shell-fish that is found in the
+river and is peculiar to it. From the extent of these establishments we
+inferred that ducks were the favourite article of food at Manila, and
+the consumption of them must be immense. The markets are well supplied
+with chickens, pigeons, young partridges, which are brought in alive,
+and turkeys. Among strange articles that we saw for sale were cakes of
+coagulated blood. The markets are well stocked with a variety of fish,
+taken both in the Laguna and bay of Manila, affording a supply of both
+the fresh and salt water species, and many smaller kinds that are dried
+and smoked. Vegetables are in great plenty, and consist of pumpkins,
+lettuce, onions, radishes, very long squashes, etc.; of fruits they have
+melons, chicos, durians, marbolas, and oranges.
+
+Fish are caught in weirs, by the hook, or in seines. The former are
+constructed of bamboo stakes, in the shallow water of the lake, at the
+point where it flows through the river Pasig. In the bay, and at the
+mouth of the river, the fish are taken in nets, suspended by the four
+corners from hoops attached to a crane, by which they are lowered into
+the water. The fishing-boats are little better than rafts, and are
+called saraboas.
+
+The usual passage-boat is termed banca, and is made of a single trunk.
+These are very much used by the inhabitants. They have a sort of awning
+to protect the passenger from the rays of the sun; and being light are
+easily rowed about, although they are exceedingly uncomfortable to sit
+in, from the lowness of the seats, and liable to overset if the weight
+is not placed near the bottom. The out-rigger has in all probability
+been dispensed with, owing to the impediment it offered to the
+navigation of their canals; these canals offer great facilities for the
+transportation of burdens; the banks of almost all of them are faced
+with granite. Where the streets cross them, there are substantial stone
+bridges, which are generally of no more than one arch, so as not to
+impede the navigation. The barges used for the transportation of produce
+resemble our canal-boats, and have sliding roofs to protect them from
+the rain.
+
+Water for the supply of vessels is brought off in large earthen jars. It
+is obtained from the river, and if care is not taken, the water will be
+impure; it ought to be filled beyond the city. Our supply was obtained
+five or six miles up the river by a lighter, in which were placed a
+number of water-casks. It proved excellent.
+
+The country around Manila, though no more than an extended plain for
+some miles, is one of great interest and beauty, and affords many
+agreeable rides on the roads to Santa Anna and Maraquino. Most of the
+country-seats are situated on the river Pasig; they may indeed be called
+palaces, from their extent and appearance. They are built upon a grand
+scale, and after the Italian style, with terraces, supported by strong
+abutments, decked with vases of plants. The grounds are ornamented with
+the luxuriant, lofty, and graceful trees of the tropics; these are
+tolerably well kept. Here and there fine large stone churches, with
+their towers and steeples, are to be seen, the whole giving the
+impression of a wealthy nobility and a happy and flourishing peasantry.
+
+
+
+
+THE ASCENT OF MOUNT TYNDALL.
+
+CLARENCE KING.
+
+ [In 1864 Professor Josiah Dwight Whitney, State Geologist of
+ California, sent a band of five explorers for a summer's
+ campaign in the high Sierras. Clarence King was assistant
+ geologist of the party; he recounted their researches and
+ adventures in "Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada,"
+ published in 1871 by J. R. Osgood & Co., Boston; three years
+ later the same firm issued an enlarged edition with maps.
+ "The Ascent of Mount Tyndall," the third chapter of the book,
+ is one of the most thrilling stories of adventure ever
+ written. Clarence King suggested and organized the United
+ States Geological Survey, and was its director 1878-81. He
+ died in 1901.]
+
+
+Morning dawned brightly upon our bivouac among a cluster of dark firs in
+the mountain corridor, opened by an ancient glacier of King's River in
+the heart of the Sierras. It dawned a trifle sooner than we could have
+wished, but Professor Brewer and Hoffman had breakfasted before sunrise,
+and were off with barometer and theodolite upon their shoulders,
+proposing to ascend our amphitheatre to its head and climb a great
+pyramidal peak which swelled up against the eastern sky, closing the
+view in that direction.
+
+We, who remained in camp, spent the day in overhauling campaign
+materials and preparing for a grand assault upon the summits. For a
+couple of hours we could descry our friends through the field-glasses,
+their minute black forms moving slowly on among piles of giant debris;
+now and then lost, again coming into view, and at last disappearing
+altogether.
+
+It was twilight of evening and almost eight o'clock when they came back
+to camp, Brewer leading the way, Hoffman following; and as they sat down
+by our fire without uttering a word we read upon their faces terrible
+fatigue.
+
+So we hastened to give them supper of coffee and soup, bread and
+venison, which resulted, after a time, in our getting in return the
+story of the day.
+
+For eight whole hours they had worked up over granite and snow, mounting
+ridge after ridge, till the summit was made about two o'clock.
+
+These snowy crests bounding our view at the eastward we had all along
+taken to be the summits of the Sierra, and Brewer had supposed himself
+to be climbing a dominant peak, from which he might look eastward over
+Owen's Valley and out upon leagues of desert. Instead of this a vast
+wall of mountains, lifted still higher than his peak, rose beyond a
+tremendous canon which lay like a trough between the two parallel ranks
+of peaks. Hoffman showed us on his sketch-book the profile of this new
+range, and I instantly recognized the peaks which I had seen from
+Mariposa, whose great white pile had led me to believe them the highest
+points of California.
+
+For a couple of months my friends had made me the target of plenty of
+pleasant banter about my "highest land," which they lost faith in as we
+climbed from Thomas's Mill,--I too becoming a trifle anxious about it;
+but now the truth had burst upon Brewer and Hoffman they could not find
+words to describe the terribleness and grandeur of the deep canon, nor
+for picturing those huge crags towering in line at the east. Their peak,
+as indicated by the barometer, was in the region of 13,400 feet, and a
+level across to the farther range showed its crests to be at least 1,500
+feet higher. They had spent hours upon the summit scanning the eastern
+horizon, and ranging downward into the labyrinth of gulfs below, and had
+come at last with reluctance to the belief that to cross this gorge and
+ascend the eastern wall of peaks was utterly impossible.
+
+Brewer and Hoffman were old climbers, and their verdict of impossible
+opposed me as I lay awake thinking about it; but early next morning I
+had made up my mind, and, taking Cotter aside, I asked him in an easy
+manner whether he would like to penetrate the Unknown Land with me at
+the risk of our necks, provided Brewer should consent. In frank,
+courageous tone he answered after his usual mode, "Why not?" Stout of
+limb, stronger yet in heart, of iron endurance, and a quiet, unexcited
+temperament, and, better yet, deeply devoted to me, I felt that Cotter
+was the one comrade I would choose to face death with, for I believed
+there was in his manhood no room for fear or shirk.
+
+It was a trying moment for Brewer when we found him and volunteered to
+attempt a campaign for the top of California, because he felt a certain
+fatherly responsibility over our youth, a natural desire that we should
+not deposit our triturated remains in some undiscoverable hole among the
+feldspathic granites; but, like a true disciple of science, this was at
+last overbalanced by his intense desire to know more of the unexplored
+region. He freely confessed that he believed the plan madness, and
+Hoffman, too, told us we might as well attempt to get on a cloud as to
+try the peak.
+
+As Brewer gradually yielded his consent, I saw by his conversation that
+there was a possibility of success; so we spent the rest of the day in
+making preparations.
+
+Our walking shoes were in excellent condition, the hobnails firm and
+new. We laid out a barometer, a compass, a pocket-level, a set of wet
+and dry thermometers, note-books, with bread, cooked beans, and venison
+enough to last a week, rolled them all in blankets, making two
+knapsack-shaped packs strapped firmly together with loops for the arms,
+which, by Brewer's estimate, weighed forty pounds apiece.
+
+Gardner declared he would accompany us to the summit of the first range
+to look over into the gulf we were to cross, and at last Brewer and
+Hoffman also concluded to go up with us.
+
+Quite too early for our profit we all betook ourselves to bed, vainly
+hoping to get a long refreshing sleep from which we should rise ready
+for our tramp.
+
+Never a man welcomed those first gray streaks in the east gladder than I
+did, unless it may be Cotter, who has in later years confessed that he
+did not go to sleep that night. Long before sunrise we had done our
+breakfast and were under way, Hoffman kindly bearing my pack, and Brewer
+Cotter's.
+
+Our way led due east up the amphitheatre and toward Mount Brewer, as we
+had named the great pyramidal peak.
+
+Awhile after leaving camp, slant sunlight streamed in among gilded
+pinnacles along the slope of Mount Brewer, touching here and there, in
+broad dashes of yellow, the gray walls, which rose sweeping up on either
+side like the sides of a ship.
+
+Our way along the valley's middle ascended over a number of huge steps,
+rounded and abrupt, at whose bases were pools of transparent snow-water
+edged with rude piles of erratic glacier blocks, scattered companies of
+alpine firs, of red bark and having cypress-like darkness of foliage,
+with fields of snow under sheltering cliffs, and bits of softest velvet
+meadow clouded with minute blue and white flowers.
+
+As we climbed, the gorge grew narrow and sharp, both sides wilder; and
+the spurs which projected from them, nearly overhanging the middle of
+the valley, towered above us with more and more severe sculpture. We
+frequently crossed deep fields of snow, and at last reached the level
+of the highest pines, where long slopes of debris swept down from either
+cliff, meeting in the middle. Over and among these immense blocks, often
+twenty and thirty feet high, we were obliged to climb, hearing far below
+us the subterranean gurgle of streams.
+
+Interlocking spurs nearly closed the gorge behind us; our last view was
+out a granite gateway formed of two nearly vertical precipices,
+sharp-edged, jutting buttress-like, and plunging down into a field of
+angular boulders which fill the valley bottom.
+
+The eye ranged out from this open gateway overlooking the great King's
+Canon with its moraine-terraced walls, the domes of granite upon Big
+Meadows, and the undulating stretch of forest which descends to the
+plain.
+
+The gorge turning southward, we rounded a sort of mountain promontory,
+which, closing the view behind us, shut us up in the bottom of a perfect
+basin. In front lay a placid lake reflecting the intense black-blue of
+the sky. Granite, stained with purple and red, sank into it upon one
+side, and a broad spotless field of snow came down to its margin on the
+other.
+
+From a pile of large granite blocks, forty or fifty feet up above the
+lake margin, we could look down fully a hundred feet through the
+transparent water to where boulders and pebbles were strewn upon the
+stone bottom. We had now reached the base of Mount Brewer and were
+skirting its southern spurs in a wide open corridor surrounded in all
+directions by lofty granite crags from two to four thousand feet high;
+above the limits of vegetation, rocks, lakes of deep heavenly blue, and
+white trackless snows were grouped closely about us. Two sounds, a sharp
+little cry of martens and occasional heavy crashes of falling rock,
+saluted us.
+
+Climbing became exceedingly difficult, light air--for we had already
+reached 12,500 feet--beginning to tell on our lungs to such an extent
+that my friend, who had taken turns with me in carrying my pack, was
+unable to do so any longer, and I adjusted it to my own shoulders for
+the rest of the day.
+
+After four hours of slow laborious work we made the base of the debris
+slope which rose about a thousand feet to a saddle pass in the western
+mountain wall, that range upon which Mount Brewer is so prominent a
+point. We were nearly an hour in toiling up this slope over an uncertain
+footing which gave way at almost every step. At last, when almost at the
+top, we paused to take breath, and then all walked out upon the crest,
+laid off our packs, and sat down together upon the summit of the ridge,
+and for a few minutes not a word was spoken.
+
+The Sierras are here two parallel summit ranges. We were upon the crest
+of the western range, and looked down into a gulf 5,000 feet deep,
+sinking from our feet in abrupt cliffs nearly or quite 2,000 feet, whose
+base plunged into a broad field of snow lying steep and smooth for a
+great distance, but broken near its foot by craggy steps often a
+thousand feet high.
+
+Vague blue haze obscured the lost depths, hiding details, giving a
+bottomless distance out of which, like the breath of wind, floated up a
+faint treble, vibrating upon the senses, yet never clearly heard.
+
+Rising on the other side, cliff above cliff, precipice piled upon
+precipice, rock over rock, up against sky, towered the most gigantic
+mountain-wall in America, culminating in a noble pile of gothic-finished
+granite and enamel-like snow. How grand and inviting looked its white
+form, its untrodden, unknown crest, so high and pure in the clear strong
+blue! I looked at it as one contemplating the purpose of his life; and
+for just one moment I would have rather liked to dodge that purpose, or
+to have waited, or to have found some excellent reason why I might not
+go; but all this quickly vanished, leaving a cheerful resolve to go
+ahead.
+
+From the two opposing mountain-walls singular, thin, knife-blade ridges
+of stone jutted out, dividing the sides of the gulf into a series of
+amphitheatres, each one a labyrinth of ice and rock. Piercing thick beds
+of snow, sprang up knobs and straight isolated spires of rock, mere
+obelisks curiously carved by frost, their rigid slender forms casting a
+blue, sharp shadow upon the snow. Embosomed in depressions of ice, or
+resting on broken ledges, were azure lakes, deeper in tone than the
+sky, which at this altitude, even at midday, has a violet duskiness.
+
+To the south, not more than eight miles, a wall of peaks stood across
+the gulf, dividing the King's, which flowed north at our feet, from the
+Kern River, that flowed down the trough in the opposite direction.
+
+I did not wonder that Brewer and Hoffman pronounced our undertaking
+impossible; but when I looked at Cotter there was such complete bravery
+in his eye that I asked him if he were ready to start. His old answer,
+"Why not?," left the initiative with me; so I told Professor Brewer that
+we would bid him good-bye. Our friends helped us on with our packs in
+silence, and as we shook hands there was not a dry eye in the party.
+Before he let go of my hand Professor Brewer asked me for my plan, and I
+had to own that I had but one, which was to reach the highest peak in
+the range.
+
+After looking in every direction I was obliged to confess that I saw as
+yet no practicable way. We bade them a "good-bye," receiving their "God
+bless you" in return, and started southward along the range to look for
+some possible cliff to descend. Brewer, Gardner, and Hoffman turned
+north to push upward to the summit of Mount Brewer, and complete their
+observations. We saw them whenever we halted, until at last, on the very
+summit, their microscopic forms were for the last time visible. With
+very great difficulty we climbed a peak which surmounted our wall just
+to the south of the pass, and, looking over the eastern brink, found
+that the precipice was still sheer and unbroken. In one place, where the
+snow lay against it to the very top, we went to its edge and
+contemplated the slide. About three thousand feet of unbroken white, at
+a fearfully steep angle, lay below us. We threw a stone over it and
+watched it bound until it was lost in the distance; after fearful leaps
+we could only detect it by the flashings of snow where it struck, and as
+these were in some instances three hundred feet apart, we decided not to
+launch our own valuable bodies, and the still more precious barometer,
+after it.
+
+There seemed but one possible way to reach our goal; that was to make
+our way along the summit of the cross ridge which projected between the
+two ranges. This divide sprang out from our Mount Brewer wall, about
+four miles to the south of us. To reach it we must climb up and down
+over the indented edge of the Mount Brewer wall. In attempting to do
+this we had a rather lively time scaling a sharp granite needle, where
+we found our course completely stopped by precipices four and five
+hundred feet in height. Ahead of us the summit continued to be broken
+into fantastic pinnacles, leaving us no hope of making our way along it;
+so we sought the most broken part of the eastern descent, and began to
+climb down. The heavy knapsacks, besides wearing our shoulders gradually
+into a black-and-blue state, overbalanced us terribly, and kept us in
+constant danger of pitching headlong. At last, taking them off, Cotter
+climbed down until he found a resting-place upon a cleft of rock, then I
+lowered them to him with our lasso, afterwards descending cautiously to
+his side, taking my turn in pioneering downward, receiving the freight
+of knapsacks as before. In this manner we consumed more that half the
+afternoon in descending a thousand feet of broken, precipitous slope;
+and it was almost sunset when we found ourselves upon fields of level
+snow which lay white and thick over the whole interior slope of the
+amphitheatre. The gorge below us seemed utterly impassable. At our backs
+the Mount Brewer wall either rose in sheer cliffs or in broken, rugged
+stairway, such as had offered us our descent. From this cruel dilemma
+the cross divide furnished the only hope, and the sole chance of scaling
+that was at its junction with the Mount Brewer wall. Toward this point
+we directed our course, marching wearily over stretches of dense frozen
+snow, and regions of debris, reaching about sunset the last alcove of
+the amphitheatre, just at the foot of the Mount Brewer wall. It was
+evidently impossible for us to attempt to climb it that evening, and we
+looked about the desolate recesses for a sheltered camping-spot. A high
+granite wall surrounded us upon three sides, recurring to the southward
+in long elliptical curves; no part of the summit being less than 2,000
+feet above us, the higher crags not infrequently reaching 3,000 feet. A
+single field of snow swept around the base of the rock, and covered the
+whole amphitheatre, except where a few spikes and rounded masses of
+granite rose through it, and where two frozen lakes, with their blue
+ice-disks, broke the monotonous surface. Through the white snow-gate of
+our amphitheatre, as through a frame, we looked eastward upon the summit
+group; not a tree, not a vestige of vegetation in sight,--sky, snow, and
+granite the only elements in this wild picture.
+
+After searching for a shelter we at last found a granite crevice near
+the margin of one of the frozen lakes,--a sort of shelf just large
+enough for Cotter and me,--where we hastened to make our bed, having
+first filled the canteen from a small stream that trickled over the ice,
+knowing that in a few moments the rapid chill would freeze it. We ate
+our supper of cold venison and bread, and whittled from the sides of the
+wooden barometer case shaving enough to warm water for a cup of
+miserably tepid tea, and then, packing our provisions and instruments
+away at the head of the shelf, rolled ourselves in our blankets and lay
+down to enjoy the view.
+
+After such fatiguing exercises the mind has an almost abnormal
+clearness: whether this is wholly from within, or due to the intensely
+vitalizing mountain air, I am not sure; probably both contribute to the
+state of exaltation in which all alpine climbers find themselves. The
+solid granite gave me a luxurious repose, and I lay on the edge of our
+little rock niche and watched the strange yet brilliant scene.
+
+All the snow of our recess lay in the shadow of the high granite wall to
+the west, but the Kern divide which curved around us from the southeast
+was in full light; its broken sky-line, battlemented and adorned with
+innumerable rough-hewn spires and pinnacles, was a mass of glowing
+orange intensely defined against the deep violet sky. At the open end of
+our horseshoe amphitheatre, to the east, its floor of snow rounded over
+in a smooth brink, overhanging precipices which sank 2,000 feet into the
+King's Canon. Across the gulf rose the whole procession of summit peaks,
+their lower half rooted in a deep sombre shadow cast by the western
+wall, the heights bathed in a warm purple haze, in which the irregular
+marbling of snow burned with a pure crimson light. A few fleecy clouds,
+dyed fiery orange, drifted slowly eastward across the narrow zone of sky
+which stretched from summit to summit like a roof. At times the sound of
+waterfalls, faint and mingled with echoes, floated up through the still
+air. The snow near by lay in cold ghastly shade, warmed here and there
+in strange flashes by light reflected downward from drifting clouds. The
+sombre waste about us; the deep violet vault overhead; those far
+summits, glowing with reflected rose; the deep impenetrable gloom which
+filled the gorge, and slowly and with vapour-like stealth climbed the
+mountain wall, extinguishing the red light, combined to produce an
+effect which may not be described; nor can I more than hint at the
+contrast between the brilliancy of the scene under full light, and the
+cold, death-like repose which followed when the wan cliffs and pallid
+snow were all overshadowed with ghostly gray.
+
+A sudden chill enveloped us. Stars in a moment crowded through the dark
+heaven, flashing with a frosty splendour. The snow congealed, the brooks
+ceased to flow, and, under the powerful sudden leverage of frost,
+immense blocks were dislodged all along the mountain summits and came
+thundering down the slopes, booming upon the ice, dashing wildly upon
+rocks. Under the lee of our shelf we felt quite safe, but neither Cotter
+nor I could help being startled, and jumping just a little, as these
+missiles, weighing often many tons, struck the ledge over our heads and
+whizzed down the gorge, their stroke resounding fainter and fainter,
+until at last only a confused echo reached us.
+
+The thermometer at nine o'clock marked twenty degrees above zero. We set
+the "minimum" and rolled ourselves together for the night. The longer I
+lay the less I liked that shelf of granite; it grew hard in time, and
+cold also, my bones seeming to approach actual contact with the chilled
+rock; moreover, I found that even so vigorous a circulation as mine was
+not enough to warm up the ledge to anything like a comfortable
+temperature. A single thickness of blanket is a better mattress than
+none, but the larger crystals of orthoclase, protruding plentifully,
+punched my back and caused me to revolve on a horizontal axis with
+precision and accuracy. How I loved Cotter! how I hugged him and got
+warm, while our backs gradually petrified, till we whirled over and
+thawed them out together! The slant of that bed was diagonal and
+excessive; down it we slid till the ice chilled us awake, and we crawled
+back and chocked ourselves up with bits of granite inserted under my
+ribs and shoulders. In this pleasant position we got dozing again, and
+there stole over me a most comfortable ease. The granite softened
+perceptibly. I was delightfully warm and sank into an industrious
+slumber which lasted with great soundness until four, when we arose and
+ate our breakfast of frozen venison.
+
+The thermometer stood at two above zero; everything was frozen tight
+except the canteen, which we had prudently kept between us all night.
+Stars still blazed brightly, and the moon, hidden from us by western
+cliffs, shone in pale reflection upon the rocky heights to the east,
+which rose, dimly white, up from the impenetrable shadows of the canon.
+Silence,--cold, ghastly dimness, in which loomed huge forms,--the biting
+frostiness of the air, wrought upon our feelings as we shouldered our
+packs and started with slow pace to climb up the "divide."
+
+Soon, to our dismay, we found the straps had so chafed our shoulders
+that the weight gave us great pain, and obliged us to pad them with our
+handkerchiefs and extra socks, which remedy did not wholly relieve us
+from the constant wearing pain of the heavy load.
+
+Directing our steps southward toward a niche in the wall which bounded
+us only half a mile distant, we travelled over a continuous snow-field
+frozen so densely as scarcely to yield at all to our tread, at the same
+time compressing enough to make that crisp frosty sound which we all
+used to enjoy even before we knew from the books that it had something
+to do with the severe name of regelation.
+
+As we advanced, the snow sloped more and more steeply up toward the
+crags, till by and by it became quite dangerous, causing us to cut steps
+with Cotter's large bowie-knife,--a slow, tedious operation, requiring
+patience of a pretty permanent kind. In this way we spent a quiet social
+hour or so. The sun had not yet reached us, being shut out by the high
+amphitheatre wall; but its cheerful light reflected downward from a
+number of higher crags, filling the recess with the brightness of day,
+and putting out of existence those shadows which so sombrely darkened
+the earlier hours. To look back when we stopped to rest was to realize
+our danger,--that smooth, swift slope of ice carrying the eye down a
+thousand feet to the margin of a frozen mirror of ice; ribs and needles
+of rocks piercing up through the snow, so closely grouped that, had we
+fallen, a miracle only might have saved us from being dashed. This led
+to rather deeper steps, and greater care that our burdens should be
+held more nearly over the centre of gravity, and a pleasant relief when
+we got to the top of the snow and sat down on a block of granite to
+breathe and look up in search of a way up the thousand-foot cliff of
+broken surface, among the lines of fracture and the galleries winding
+along the face.
+
+It would have disheartened us to gaze up the hard sheer front of
+precipices, and search among splintered projections, crevices, shelves,
+and snow patches for an inviting route, had we not been animated by a
+faith that the mountains could not defy us.
+
+Choosing what looked like the least impossible way, we started; but,
+finding it unsafe to work with packs on, resumed the yesterday's
+plan,--Cotter taking the lead, climbing about fifty feet ahead, and
+hoisting up the knapsacks and barometer as I tied them to the end of the
+lasso. Constantly closing up in hopeless difficulty before us, the way
+opened again and again to our gymnastics, till we stood together on a
+mere shelf, not more than two feet wide, which led diagonally up the
+smooth cliff. Edging along in careful steps, our backs flattened upon
+the granite, we moved slowly to a broad platform, where we stopped for
+breath.
+
+There was no foothold above us. Looking down over the course we had
+come, it seemed, and I really believe it was, an impossible descent for
+one can climb upward with safety where he cannot downward. To turn back
+was to give up in defeat; and, we sat at least half an hour, suggesting
+all possible routes to the summit, accepting none, and feeling
+disheartened. About thirty feet directly over our heads was another
+shelf, which, if we could reach, seemed to offer at least a temporary
+way upward. On its edge were two or three spikes of granite; whether
+firmly connected with the cliff, or merely blocks of debris, we could
+not tell from below. I said to Cotter, I thought of but one possible
+plan: it was to lasso one of these blocks, and to climb, sailor-fashion,
+hand over hand, up the rope. In the lasso I had perfect confidence, for
+I had seen more than one Spanish bull throw his whole weight against it
+without parting a strand. The shelf was so narrow that throwing the coil
+of rope was a very difficult undertaking. I tried three times, and
+Cotter spent five minutes vainly whirling the loop up at the granite
+spikes. At last I made a lucky throw, and it tightened upon one of the
+smaller protuberances. I drew the noose close, and very gradually threw
+my hundred and fifty pounds upon the rope; then Cotter joined me, and,
+for a moment, we both hung our united weight upon it. Whether the rock
+moved slightly or whether the lasso stretched a little we were unable to
+decide; but the trial must be made, and I began to climb slowly. The
+smooth precipice-face against which my body swung offered no foothold,
+and the whole climb had therefore to be done by the arms, an effort
+requiring all one's determination. When about half way up I was obliged
+to rest, and, curling my feet in the rope, managed to relieve my arms
+for a moment. In this position I could not resist the fascinating
+temptation of a survey downward.
+
+Straight down, nearly a thousand feet below, at the foot of the rocks,
+began the snow, whose steep, roof-like slope, exaggerated into an almost
+vertical angle, curved down in a long white field, broken far away by
+rocks and polished, round lakes of ice.
+
+Cotter looked up cheerfully and asked how I was making it; to which I
+answered that I had plenty of wind left. At that moment, when hanging
+between heaven and earth, it was a deep satisfaction to look down at the
+wide gulf of desolation beneath, and up to unknown dangers ahead, and
+feel my nerves cool and unshaken.
+
+A few pulls hand over hand brought me to the edge of the shelf, when,
+throwing my arm around the granite spike. I swung my body upon the shelf
+and lay down to rest, shouting to Cotter that I was all right, and that
+the prospects upward were capital. After a few moments' breathing I
+looked over the brink and directed my comrade to tie the barometer to
+the lower end of the lasso, which he did, and that precious instrument
+was hoisted to my station, and the lasso sent down twice for knapsacks,
+after which Cotter came up the rope in his very muscular way without
+once stopping to rest. We took our loads in our hands, swinging the
+barometer over my shoulder, and climbed up a shelf which led in a
+zig-zag direction upward and to the south, bringing us out at last upon
+the thin blade of a ridge which connected a short distance above the
+summit. It was formed of huge blocks, shattered, and ready, at a touch,
+to fall.
+
+So narrow and sharp was the upper slope, that we dared not walk, but got
+astride, and worked slowly along with our hands, pushing the knapsacks
+in advance, now and then holding our breath when loose masses rocked
+under our weight.
+
+Once upon the summit, a grand view burst upon us. Hastening to step upon
+the crest of the divide, which was never more than ten feet wide,
+frequently sharpened to a mere blade, we looked down upon the other
+side, and were astonished to find we had ascended the gentler slope, and
+that the rocks fell from our feet in almost vertical precipices for a
+thousand feet or more. A glance along the summit toward the highest
+group showed us that any advance in that direction was impossible, for
+the thin ridge was gashed down in notches three or four hundred feet
+deep, forming a procession of pillars, obelisks, and blocks piled upon
+each other, and looking terribly insecure.
+
+We then deposited our knapsacks in a safe place, and, finding that it
+was already noon, determined to rest a little while and take a lunch at
+over 13,000 feet above the sea.
+
+West of us stretched the Mount Brewer wall with its succession of
+smooth precipices and amphitheatre ridges. To the north the great gorge
+of the King's River yawned down 5,000 feet. To the south, the valley of
+the Kern, opening in the opposite direction, was broader, less deep, but
+more filled with broken masses of granite. Clustered about the foot of
+the divide were a dozen alpine lakes; the higher ones blue sheets of
+ice, the lowest completely melted. Still lower in the depths of the two
+canons we could see groups of forest trees; but they were so dim and so
+distant as never to relieve the prevalent masses of rock and snow. Our
+divide cast its shadow for a mile down King's Canon in dark-blue profile
+upon the broad sheets of sunny snow, from whose brightness the hard
+splintered cliffs caught reflections and wore an aspect of joy.
+Thousands of rills poured from the melting snow, filling the air with a
+musical tinkle as of many accordant bells. The Kern Valley opened below
+us with its smooth oval outline, the work of extinct glaciers, whose
+form and extent were evident from worn cliff surface and rounded wall;
+snow-fields, relics of the former _neve_ [glacier snow] hung in white
+tapestries around its ancient birthplace; and, as far as we could see,
+the broad, corrugated valley, for a breadth of fully ten miles, shone
+with burnishings wherever its granite surface was not covered with
+lakelets or thickets of alpine vegetation.
+
+Through a deep cut in the Mount Brewer wall we gained our first view to
+the westward, and saw in the distance the wall of the South King's
+Canon, and the granite point which Cotter and I had climbed a fortnight
+before. But for the haze we might have seen the plain; for above its
+farther limit were several points of the Coast Ranges, isolated like
+islands in the sea.
+
+The view was so grand, the mountain colours so brilliant, immense
+snow-fields and blue alpine lakes so charming, that we almost forgot we
+were ever to move, and it was only after a swift hour of this delight
+that we began to consider our future course.
+
+The King's Canon, which headed against our wall, seemed
+untraversable,--no human being could climb along the divide; we had then
+but one hope of reaching the peak, and our greatest difficulty lay at
+the start. If we could climb down to the Kern side of the divide, and
+succeed in reaching the base of the precipices which fell from our feet,
+it really looked as if we might travel without difficulty among the
+rocks to the other side of the Kern Valley, and make our attempt upon
+the southward flank of the great peak. One look at the sublime white
+giant decided us. We looked down over the precipice, and at first could
+see no method of descent. Then we went back and looked at the road we
+had come up, to see if that were not possibly as bad; but the broken
+surface of the rocks was evidently much better climbing-ground than
+anything ahead of us. Cotter, with danger, edged his way along the wall
+to the east, and I to the west, to see if there might not be some
+favourable point; but we both returned with the belief that the
+precipice in front of us was as passable as any of it. Down it we must.
+
+After lying on our faces, looking over the brink ten or twenty minutes,
+I suggested that by lowering ourselves on the rope we might climb from
+crevice to crevice; but we saw no shelf large enough for ourselves and
+the knapsacks too. However, we were not going to give it up without a
+trial; and I made the rope fast around my breast and, looping the noose
+over a firm point of rock, let myself slide gradually down to a notch
+forty feet below. There was only room beside me for Cotter, so I had him
+send down the knapsacks first. I then tied these together by the straps
+with my silk handkerchiefs, and hung them as far to the left as I could
+reach without losing my balance, looping the handkerchiefs over a point
+of rock. Cotter then slid down the rope, and, with considerable
+difficulty, we whipped the noose off its resting-place above, and cut
+off our connection with the upper world.
+
+"We're in for it now, King," remarked my comrade, as he looked aloft,
+and then down; but our blood was up, and danger added only an
+exhilarating thrill to the nerves.
+
+The shelf was hardly more than two feet wide, and the granite so smooth
+that we could find no place to fasten the lasso for the next descent; so
+I determined to try the climb with only as little aid as possible. Tying
+it round my breast again, I gave the other end into Cotter's hands, and
+he, bracing his back against the cliff, found for himself as firm a
+foothold as he could, and promised to give me all the help in his power.
+I made up my mind to bear no weight unless it was absolutely necessary;
+and for the first ten feet I found cracks and protuberances enough to
+support me, making every square inch of surface do friction duty, and
+hugging myself against the rocks as tightly as I could. When within
+about eight feet of the next shelf, I twisted myself round upon the
+face, hanging by two rough blocks of protruding feldspar, and looked
+vainly for some further hand-hold; but the rock, besides being perfectly
+smooth, overhung slightly, and my legs dangled in the air. I saw that
+the next cleft was over three feet broad, and I thought, possibly, I
+might, by a quick slide, reach it in safety without endangering Cotter.
+I shouted to him to be very careful and let go in case I fell, loosened
+my hold upon the rope, and slid quickly down. My shoulder struck against
+the rock and threw me out of balance; for an instant I reeled over upon
+the verge, in danger of falling, but, in the excitement, I thrust out my
+hand and seized a small alpine gooseberry bush, the first piece of
+vegetation we had seen. Its roots were so firmly fixed in the crevice
+that it held my weight and saved me.
+
+I could no longer see Cotter, but I talked to him, and heard the two
+knapsacks come bumping along until they slid over the eaves above me,
+and swung down to my station, when I seized the lasso's end and braced
+myself as well as possible, intending, if he slipped, to haul in slack
+and help him as best I might. As he came slowly down from crack to
+crack, I heard his hobnailed shoes grating on the granite; presently
+they appeared dangling from the eaves above my head. I had gathered in
+the rope until it was taut, and then hurriedly told him to drop. He
+hesitated a moment and let go. Before he struck the rock I had him by
+the shoulder, and whirled him down upon his side, thus preventing his
+rolling overboard, which friendly action he took quite coolly.
+
+The third descent was not a difficult one, nor the fourth; but when we
+had climbed down about two hundred and fifty feet the rocks were so
+glacially polished and water-worn that it seemed impossible to get any
+farther. To our right was a crack penetrating the rock perhaps a foot
+deep, widening at the surface to three or four inches, which proved to
+be the only possible ladder. As the chances seemed rather desperate, we
+concluded to tie ourselves together, in order to share a common fate;
+and with a slack of thirty feet between us, and our knapsacks upon our
+backs, we climbed into the crevice, and began descending with our faces
+to the cliff. This had to be done with unusual caution, for the foothold
+was about as good as none, and our fingers slipped annoyingly on the
+smooth stone; besides the knapsacks and instruments kept a steady
+backward pull, tending to overbalance us. But we took pains to descend
+one at a time, and rest wherever the niches gave our feet a safe
+support. In this way we got down about eighty feet of smooth, nearly
+vertical wall, reaching the top of a rude granite stairway, which led to
+the snow; and here we sat down to rest, and found to our astonishment
+that we had been three hours from the summit.
+
+After breathing a half-minute we continued down, jumping from rock to
+rock, and, having by practice become very expert in balancing ourselves,
+sprang on, never resting long enough to lose equilibrium, and in this
+manner made a quick descent over rugged debris to the crest of a
+snow-field, which, for seven or eight hundred feet more, swept down in a
+smooth, even slope, of very high angle, to the borders of a frozen lake.
+
+Without untying the lasso which bound us together, we sprang upon the
+snow with a shout, and slid down splendidly, turning now and then a
+somersault, and shooting out like cannon-balls almost to the middle of
+the frozen lake; I upon my back, and Cotter feet first, in a swimming
+position. The ice cracked in all directions. It was only a thin,
+transparent film, through which we could see deep into the lake. Untying
+ourselves, we hurried ashore in different directions, lest our combined
+weight should be too great a strain upon any point.
+
+With curiosity and wonder we scanned every shelf and niche of the last
+descent. It seemed quite impossible that we could have come down there,
+and now it actually was beyond human power to get back again. But what
+cared we? "Sufficient unto the day"--We were bound for that still
+distant, though gradually nearing, summit; and we had come from a cold
+shadowed cliff into deliciously warm sunshine, and were jolly, shouting,
+singing songs, and calling out the companionship of a hundred echoes.
+Six miles away, with no grave danger, no great difficulty, between us,
+lay the base of our grand mountain. Upon its skirts we saw a little
+grove of pines, an ideal bivouac, and toward this we bent our course.
+
+After the continued climbing of the day, walking was a delicious rest,
+and forward we pressed with considerable speed, our hobnails giving us
+firm footing on the glittering glacial surface. Every fluting of the
+great valley was in itself a considerable canon, into which we
+descended, climbing down the scored rocks, and swinging from block to
+block, until we reached the level of the pines. Here, sheltered among
+loose rocks, began to appear little fields of alpine grass, pale yet
+sunny, soft under our feet, fragrantly jewelled with flowers of fairy
+delicacy, holding up amid thickly clustered blades chalices of turquoise
+and amethyst, white stars, and fiery little globes of red. Lakelets,
+small but innumerable, were held in glacial basins, the scorings and
+grooves of that old dragon's track ornamenting their smooth bottoms.
+
+One of these, a sheet of pure beryl hue, gave us as much pleasure from
+its lovely transparency, and because we lay down in the necklace of
+grass about it and smelled flowers, while tired muscles relaxed upon
+warm beds of verdure, and the pain in our burdened shoulders went away,
+leaving us delightfully comfortable.
+
+After the stern grandeur of granite and ice, and with the peaks and
+walls still in view, it was relief to find ourselves again in the region
+of life. I never felt for trees and flowers such a sense of intimate
+relationship and sympathy. When we had no longer excuse for resting, I
+invented the palpable subterfuge of measuring the altitude of the spot,
+since the few clumps of low, wide-boughed pines near by were the highest
+living trees. So we lay longer with less and less will to rise, and when
+resolution called us to our feet the getting up was sorely like Rip Van
+Winkle's in the third act.
+
+The deep glacial canon-flutings across which our march then lay proved
+to be great consumers of time; indeed it was sunset when we reached the
+eastern ascent, and began to toil up through scattered pines, and over
+trains of moraine [glacial] rocks, toward the great peak. Stars were
+already flashing brilliantly in the sky, and the low glowing arch in the
+west had almost vanished when we reached the upper trees, and threw down
+our knapsacks to camp. The forest grew on a sort of plateau-shelf with a
+precipitous front to the west,--a level surface which stretched
+eastward and back to the foot of our mountain, whose lower spurs
+reached within a mile of camp. Within the shelter lay a huge fallen log,
+like all these alpine woods one mass of resin, which flared up when we
+applied a match, illuminating the whole grove. By contrast with the
+darkness outside, we seemed to be in a vast, many-pillared hall. The
+stream close by afforded water for our blessed teapot; venison frizzled
+with mild, appetizing sound upon the ends of pine sticks; matchless
+beans allowed themselves to become seductively crisp upon our tin
+plates. That supper seemed to me then the quintessence of gastronomy,
+and I am sure Cotter and I must have said some very good after-dinner
+things, though I long ago forgot them all. Within the ring of warmth, on
+elastic beds of pine-needles, we curled up, and fell swiftly into a
+sound sleep.
+
+I woke up once in the night to look at my watch, and observed that the
+sky was overcast with a thin film of cirrus cloud to which the reflected
+moonlight lent the appearance of a glimmering tint, stretched from
+mountain to mountain over canons filled with impenetrable darkness, only
+the vaguely-lighted peaks and white snow-fields distinctly seen. I
+closed my eyes and slept soundly until Cotter awoke me at half-past
+three, when we arose, breakfasted by the light of our fire, which still
+blazed brilliantly, and, leaving our knapsacks, started for the mountain
+with only instruments, canteens, and luncheon.
+
+In the indistinct moonlight climbing was very difficult at first, for
+we had to thread our way along a plain which was literally covered with
+glacier boulders, and the innumerable brooks which we crossed were
+frozen solid. However, our march brought us to the base of the great
+mountain, which, rising high against the east, shut out the coming
+daylight, and kept us in profound shadow. From base to summit rose a
+series of broken crags, lifting themselves from a general slope of
+debris. Toward the left the angle seemed to be rather gentler, and the
+surface less ragged; and we hoped, by a long detour round the base, to
+make an easy climb up this gentler surface. So we toiled on for an hour
+over the rocks, reaching at last the bottom of the north slope. Here our
+work began in good earnest. The blocks were of enormous size, and in
+every stage of unstable equilibrium, frequently rolling over as we
+jumped upon them, making it necessary for us to take a second leap and
+land where we best could. To our relief we soon surmounted the largest
+blocks, reaching a smaller size, which served us as a sort of stairway.
+
+The advancing daylight revealed to us a very long, comparatively even
+snow-slope, whose surface was pierced by many knobs and granite heads,
+giving it the aspect of a nice-roofing fastened on with bolts of stone.
+It stretched in far perspective to the summit, where already the rose of
+sunrise reflected gloriously, kindling a fresh enthusiasm within us.
+
+Immense boulders were partly imbedded in the ice just above us, whose
+constant melting left them trembling on the edge of a fall. It
+communicated no very pleasant sensation to see above you these immense
+missiles hanging by a mere band, and knowing that, as soon as the sun
+rose, you would be exposed to a constant cannonade.
+
+The east side of the peak, which we could now partially see, was too
+precipitous to think of climbing. The slope toward our camp was too much
+broken into pinnacles and crags to offer us any hope, or to divert us
+from the single way, dead ahead, up slopes of ice and among fragments of
+granite. The sun rose upon us while we were climbing the lower part of
+this snow, and in less than half an hour, melting began to liberate huge
+blocks, which thundered down past us, gathering and growing into small
+avalanches below.
+
+We did not dare climb one above another, according to our ordinary mode,
+but kept about an equal level, a hundred feet apart, lest, dislodging
+the blocks, one should hurl them down upon the other.
+
+We climbed alternately up smooth faces of granite, clinging simply by
+the cracks and protruding crystals of feldspar, and then hewed steps up
+fearfully steep slopes of ice, zigzagging to the right and left to avoid
+the flying boulders. When midway up this slope we reached a place where
+the granite rose in perfectly smooth bluffs on either side of a
+gorge,--a narrow cut, or walled way, leading up to the flat summit of
+the cliff. This we scaled by cutting ice steps, only to find ourselves
+fronted again by a still higher wall. Ice sloped from its front at too
+steep an angle for us to follow, but had melted in contact with it,
+leaving a space three feet wide between the ice and the rock. We entered
+this crevice and climbed along its bottom, with a wall of rock rising a
+hundred feet above us on one side, and a thirty-foot face of ice on the
+other, through which light of an intense cobalt-blue penetrated.
+
+Reaching the upper end, we had to cut our footsteps upon the ice again,
+and, having braced our backs against the granite, climb up to the
+surface. We were now in a dangerous position: to fall into the crevice
+upon one side was to be wedged to death between rock and ice; to make a
+slip was to be shot down five hundred feet, and then hurled over the
+brink of a precipice. In the friendly seat which this wedge gave me, I
+stopped to take wet and dry observations with the thermometer,--this
+being an absolute preventive of a scare,--and to enjoy the view.
+
+The wall of our mountain sank abruptly to the left, opening for the
+first time an outlook to the eastward. Deep--it seemed almost
+vertically--beneath us we could see the blue waters of Owen's Lake,
+10,000 feet below. The summit peaks to the north were piled up in
+titanic confusion, their ridges overhanging the eastern slope with
+terrible abruptness. Clustered upon the shelves and plateaus below were
+several frozen lakes, and in all directions swept magnificent fields of
+snow. The summit was now not over five hundred feet distant, and we
+started on again with the exhilarating hope of success. But if Nature
+had intended to secure the summit from all assailants, she could not
+have planned her defences better; for the smooth granite wall which rose
+above the snow-slope continued, apparently, quite round the peak, and we
+looked in great anxiety to see if there was not one place where it might
+be climbed. It was all blank except in one place; quite near us the snow
+bridged across the crevice, and rose in a long point to the summit of
+the wall,--a great icicle-column frozen in a niche of the bluff,--its
+base about ten feet wide, narrowing to two feet at the top. We climbed
+to the base of this spire of ice, and, with the utmost care, began to
+cut our stairway. The material was an exceedingly compacted snow,
+passing into clear ice as it neared the rock. We climbed the first half
+of it with comparative ease; after that it was almost vertical, and so
+thin that we did not dare to cut the footsteps deep enough to make them
+absolutely safe. There was a constant dread lest out ladder should break
+off, and we be thrown either down the snow-slope or into the bottom of
+the crevasse. At last, in order to prevent myself from falling over
+backwards, I was obliged to thrust my hand into the crack between the
+ice and the wall, and the spire became so narrow that I could do this on
+both sides; so that the climb was made as upon a tree, cutting mere
+toe-holes and embracing the whole column of ice in my arms. At last I
+reached the top, and, with the greatest caution, wormed my body over
+the brink, and rolling out upon the smooth surface of the granite,
+looked over and watched Cotter make his climb. He came up steadily, with
+no sense of nervousness, until he got to the narrow part of the ice, and
+here he stopped and looked up with a forlorn face to me; but as he
+climbed up over the ledge the broad smile came back to his face, and he
+asked me if it had occurred to me that we had, by and by, to go down
+again.
+
+We had now an easy slope to the summit, and hurried up over rocks and
+ice, reaching the crest at exactly twelve o'clock. I rang my hammer upon
+the topmost rock; we grasped hands, and I reverently named the grand
+peak MOUNT TYNDALL.
+
+
+
+
+THE GRAND CANON OF THE COLORADO
+
+MAJOR JOHN WESLEY POWELL
+
+ [In 1869-72 Major John Wesley Powell was the chief of a party
+ which explored the Colorado River of the West and its
+ tributaries. The chapter subjoined is from his official
+ report, published by the Government Printing Office,
+ Washington, 1875. The substance of that report, with much
+ additional matter of great interest, appears in "The Canons
+ of the Colorado," by Major Powell, published by Flood &
+ Vincent, Meadville, Pa., 1895, with superb illustrations. For
+ fourteen years, beginning with 1880, Major Powell was
+ director of the United States Geological Survey; since 1879
+ he has been director of the United States Bureau of
+ Ethnology.]
+
+
+_August 13, 1869._ We are now ready to start on our way down the Great
+Unknown. Our boats, tied to a common stake, are chafing each other, as
+they are tossed by the fretful river. They ride high and buoyant, for
+their loads are lighter than we could desire. We have but a month's
+rations remaining. The flour has been resifted through the mosquito net
+sieve; the spoiled bacon has been dried, and the worst of it boiled; the
+few pounds of dried apples have been spread in the sun, and reshrunken
+to their normal bulk; the sugar has all melted, and gone on its way down
+the river; but we have a large sack of coffee. The lightening of the
+boats has this advantage: they will ride the waves better, and we shall
+have but little to carry when we make a portage.
+
+We are three-quarters of a mile in the depths of the earth, and the
+great river shrinks into insignificance, as it dashes its angry waves
+against the walls and cliffs, that rise to the world above; they are but
+puny ripples, and we but pigmies, running up and down the sands, or lost
+among the boulders.
+
+We have an unknown distance yet to run; an unknown river yet to explore.
+What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know
+not; what walls rise over the river, we know not. Ah, well! we may
+conjecture many things. The men talk as cheerfully as ever; jests are
+bandied out freely this morning; but to me the cheer is sombre and the
+jests are ghastly.
+
+With some eagerness, and some anxiety, and some misgiving, we enter the
+canon below, and are carried along by the swift water through walls
+which rise from its very edge. They have the same structure as we
+noticed yesterday--tiers of irregular shelves below, and, above these,
+steep slopes to the foot of marble cliffs. We run six miles in a little
+more than half an hour, and emerge into a more open portion of the
+canon, where high hills and ledges of rock intervene between the river
+and the distant walls. Just at the head of this open place the river
+runs across a dike; that is, a fissure in the rocks, open to depths
+below, has been filled with eruptive matter, and this, on cooling, was
+harder than the rocks through which the crevice was made, and, when
+these were washed away, the harder volcanic matter remained as a wall,
+and the river has cut a gateway through it several hundred feet high,
+and as many wide. As it crosses the wall, there is a fall below, and a
+bad rapid, filled with boulders of trap; so we stop to make a portage.
+Then on we go, gliding by hills and ledges, with distant walls in view;
+sweeping past sharp angles of rock; stopping at a few points to examine
+rapids, which we find can be run, until we have made another five miles,
+when we land for dinner.
+
+Then we let down with lines, over a long rapid, and start again. Once
+more the walls close in, and we find ourselves in a narrow gorge, the
+water again filling the channel, and very swift. With great care and
+constant watchfulness we proceed, making about four miles this
+afternoon, and camp in a cave.
+
+_August 14._ At daybreak we walk down the bank of the river, on a little
+sandy beach, to take a view of a new feature in the canon. Heretofore
+hard rocks have given us bad river; soft rocks, smooth water; and a
+series of rocks harder than any we have experienced sets in. The river
+enters the granite![1]
+
+We can see but a little way into the granite gorge, but it looks
+threatening.
+
+After breakfast we enter on the waves. At the very introduction, it
+inspires awe. The canon is narrower than we have ever before seen it;
+the water is swifter; there are but few broken rocks in the channel; but
+the walls are set, on either side, with pinnacles and crags; and sharp,
+angular buttresses, bristling with wind and wave-polished spires, extend
+far out into the river.
+
+Ledges of rock jut into the stream, their tops just below the surface,
+sometimes rising few or many feet above; and island ledges, and island
+pinnacles, and island towers break the swift course of the stream into
+chutes, and eddies, and whirlpools. We soon reach a place where a creek
+comes in from the left, and just below the channel is choked with
+boulders, which have washed down this lateral canon and formed a dam,
+over which there is a fall of thirty or forty feet; but on the boulders
+we can get foothold, and we make a portage.
+
+Three more such dams are found. Over one we make a portage; at the other
+two we find chutes, through which we can run.
+
+As we proceed, the granite rises higher, until nearly a thousand feet of
+the lower part of the walls are composed of this rock.
+
+About eleven o'clock we hear a great roar ahead, and approach it very
+cautiously. The sound grows louder and louder as we run, and at last we
+find ourselves above a long, broken fall, with ledges and pinnacles of
+rock obstructing the river. There is a descent of, perhaps, seventy-five
+or eighty feet in a third of a mile, and the rushing waters break into
+great waves on the rocks, and lash themselves into a mad, white, foam.
+We can land just above, but there is no foothold on either side by which
+we can make a portage. It is nearly a thousand feet to the top of the
+granite, so it will be impossible to carry our boats around, though we
+can climb to the summit up a side gulch, and, passing along a mile or
+two, can descend to the river. This we find on examination; but such a
+portage would be impracticable for us, and we must run the rapid, or
+abandon the river. There is no hesitation. We step into our boats, push
+off, and away we go, first on smooth but swift water, then we strike a
+glassy wave, and ride to its top, down again into the trough, up again
+on a higher wave, and down and up on waves higher and still higher,
+until we strike one just as it curls back, and a breaker rolls over our
+little boat. Still, on we speed, shooting past projecting rocks, till
+the little boat is caught in a whirlpool, and spun around several times.
+At last we pull out again into the stream, and now the other boats have
+passed us. The open compartment of the _Emma Dean_ is filled with water,
+and every breaker rolls over us. Hurled back from a rock, now on this
+side, now on that, we are carried into an eddy, in which we struggle for
+a few minutes, and are then out again, the breakers still rolling over
+us. Our boat is unmanageable, but she cannot sink, and we drift down
+another hundred yards, through breakers; how, we scarcely know. We find
+the other boats have turned into an eddy at the foot of the fall, and
+are waiting to catch us as we come, for the men have seen that our boat
+is swamped. They push out as we come near, and pull us in against the
+wall. We bail our boat, and on we go again.
+
+The walls, now, are more than a mile in height--a vertical distance
+difficult to appreciate. Stand on the south steps of the Treasury
+Building, in Washington, and look down Pennsylvania Avenue to the
+Capitol Park, and measure this distance overhead, and imagine cliffs to
+extend to that altitude, and you will understand what I mean; or, stand
+at Canal Street, in New York, and look up Broadway to Grace Church, and
+you have about the distance; or, stand at Lake Street Bridge in Chicago,
+and look down to the Central Depot, and you have it again.
+
+A thousand feet of this is up through granite crags, then steep slopes
+and perpendicular cliffs rise, one above another, to the summit. The
+gorge is black and narrow below, red and gray and flaring above, with
+crags and angular projections on the walls, which, cut in many places by
+side canons, seem to be a vast wilderness of rocks. Down in these grand,
+gloomy depths we glide, ever listening, for the mad waters keep up their
+roar; ever watching, ever peering ahead, for the narrow canon is
+winding, and the river is closed in so that we can see but a few
+hundred yards, and what there may be below we know not; but we listen
+for falls, and watch for rocks, or stop now and then, in the bay of a
+recess, to admire the gigantic scenery. And ever, as we go, there is
+some new pinnacle or tower, some crag or peak, some distant view of the
+upper plateau, some strange-shaped rock, or some deep, narrow side
+canon. Then we come to another broken fall, which appears more difficult
+than the one we ran this morning.
+
+A small creek comes in on the right, and the first fall of the water is
+over boulders, which have been carried down by this lateral stream. We
+land at its mouth, and stop for an hour or two to examine the fall. It
+seems possible to let down with lines, at least a part of the way, from
+point to point, along the right-hand wall. So we make a portage over the
+first rocks, and find footing on some boulders below. Then we let down
+one of the boats to the end of her line, when she reaches a corner of
+the projecting rock, to which one of the men clings, and steadies her,
+while I examine an eddy below. I think we can pass the other boats down
+by us, and catch them in the eddy. This is soon done and the men in the
+boats in the eddy pull us to their side. On the shore of this little
+eddy there is about two feet of gravel beach above the water. Standing
+on this beach, some of the men take the line of the little boat and let
+it drift down against another projecting angle. Here is a little shelf,
+on which a man from my boat climbs, and a shorter line is passed to him,
+and he fastens the boat to the side of the cliff. Then the second one
+is let down, bringing the line of the third. When the second boat is
+tied up, the two men standing on the beach above spring into the last
+boat, which is pulled up alongside of ours. Then we let down the boats,
+for twenty-five or thirty yards, by walking along the shelf, landing
+them again in the mouth of a side canon. Just below this there is
+another pile of boulders, over which we make another portage. From the
+foot of these rocks we can climb to another shelf, forty or fifty feet
+above the water.
+
+On this beach we camp for the night. We find a few sticks, which have
+lodged in the rocks. It is raining hard, and we have no shelter, but
+kindle a fire and have our supper. We sit on the rocks all night,
+wrapped in our ponchos, getting what sleep we can.
+
+_August 15._ This morning we find we can let down for three or four
+hundred yards, and it is managed in this way: We pass along the wall by
+climbing from projecting point to point, sometimes near the water's
+edge, at other places fifty or sixty feet above, and hold the boat with
+a line, while two men remain aboard, and prevent her from being dashed
+against the rocks, and keep the line from getting caught in the wall. In
+two hours we have brought them all down, as far as it is possible, in
+this way. A few yards below, the river strikes with great violence
+against a projecting rock, and our boats are pulled up in a little bay
+above. We must now manage to pull out of this, and clear the point
+below. The little boat is held by the bow obliquely up the stream. We
+jump in, and pull out only a few strokes, and sweep clear of the
+dangerous rock. The other boats follow in the same manner, and the rapid
+is passed.
+
+It is not easy to describe the labour of such navigation. We must
+prevent the waves from dashing the boats against the cliffs. Sometimes,
+where the river is swift, we must put a bight of rope about a rock, to
+prevent her being snatched from us by a wave; but where the plunge is
+too great, or the chute too swift, we must let her leap, and catch her
+below, or the undertow will drag her under the falling water, and she
+sinks. Where we wish to run her out a little way from shore, through a
+channel between rocks, we first throw in little sticks of driftwood, and
+watch their course, to see where we must steer, so that she will pass
+the channel in safety. And so we hold, and let go, and pull, and lift,
+and ward, among rocks, around rocks, and over rocks.
+
+And now we go on through this solemn, mysterious way. The river is very
+deep, the canon very narrow, and still obstructed, so that there is no
+steady flow of the stream; but the waters wheel, and roll, and boil, and
+we are scarcely able to determine where we can go. Now, the boat is
+carried to the right, perhaps close to the wall; again, she is shot into
+the stream, and perhaps is dragged over to the other side, where, caught
+in a whirlpool, she spins about. We can neither land nor run as we
+please. The boats are entirely unmanageable; no order in their running
+can be preserved; now one, now another, is ahead, each crew labouring
+for its own preservation. In such a place we come to another rapid. Two
+of the boats run it perforce. One succeeds in landing, but there is no
+foothold by which to make a portage, and she is pushed out again into
+the stream. The next minute a great reflex wave fills the open
+compartment; she is water-logged, and drifts unmanageable. Breaker after
+breaker roll over her, and one capsizes her. The men are thrown out; but
+they cling to the boat, and she drifts down some distance, alongside of
+us, and we are able to catch her. She is soon bailed out, and the men
+are aboard once more; but the oars are lost, so a pair from the _Emma
+Dean_ is spared. Then for two miles we find smooth water.
+
+Clouds are playing in the canon to-day. Sometimes they roll down in
+great masses, filling the gorge with gloom; sometimes they hang above,
+from wall to wall, and cover the canon with a roof of impending storm;
+and we can peer long distances up and down this canon corridor, with its
+cloud roof overhead, its walls of black granite, and its river bright
+with the sheen of broken waters. Then, a gust of wind sweeps down a side
+gulch, and, making a rift in the clouds, reveals the blue heavens, and a
+stream of sunlight pours in. Then, the clouds drift away into the
+distance, and hang around crags, and peaks, and pinnacles, and towers,
+and walls, and cover them with a mantle that lifts from time to time,
+and sets them all in sharp relief. Then, baby clouds creep out of side
+canons, glide around points, and creep back again into more distant
+gorges. Then, clouds, set in strata across the canon, with intervening
+vista views, to cliffs and rocks beyond. The clouds are children of the
+heavens, and when they play among the rocks they lift them to the region
+above.
+
+It rains! Rapidly little rills are formed above, and these soon grow
+into brooks, and the brooks grow into creeks, and tumble over the walls
+in innumerable cascades, adding their wild music to the roar of the
+river. When the rain ceases, the rills, brooks, and creeks run dry. The
+waters that fall during a rain on these steep rocks are gathered at once
+into the river; they could scarcely be poured in more suddenly if some
+vast spout ran from the clouds to the stream itself. When a storm bursts
+over the canon a side gulch is dangerous, for a sudden flood may come,
+and the inpouring water will raise the river, so as to hide the rocks
+before your eyes.
+
+Early in the afternoon we discover a stream, entering from the north, a
+clear, beautiful creek, coming down through a gorgeous red canon. We
+land, and camp on a sand beach, above its mouth, under a great,
+overspreading tree, with willow-shaped leaves.
+
+_August 16._ We must dry our rations again to-day, and make oars.
+
+The Colorado is never a clear stream, but for the past three or four
+days it has been raining much of the time, and the floods, which are
+poured over the walls, have brought down great quantities of mud, making
+it exceedingly turbid now. The little affluent, which we have discovered
+here, is a clear, beautiful creek, or river, as it would be termed in
+this Western country, where streams are not abundant. We have named one
+stream, away above, in honour of the great chief of the "Bad Angels,"
+and, as this is in beautiful contrast to that, we conclude to name it
+"Bright Angel."
+
+Early in the morning, the whole party starts up to explore the Bright
+Angel River, with the special purpose of seeking timber, from which to
+make oars. A couple of miles above, we find a large pine log, which has
+been floated down from the plateau, probably from an altitude of more
+than 6,000 feet, but not many miles back. On its way, it must have
+passed over many cataracts and falls, for it bears scars in evidence of
+the rough usage it has received. The men roll it on skids, and the work
+of sawing oars is commenced.
+
+This stream heads away back, under a line of abrupt cliffs, that
+terminates the plateau, and tumbles down more than 4,000 feet in the
+first mile or two of its course; then runs through a deep, narrow canon,
+until it reaches the river.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 30.--Mu-av Canon, a side gorge]
+
+Late in the afternoon I return, and go up a little gulch, just above
+this creek, and about two hundred yards from camp, and discover the
+ruins of two or three old houses, which were originally of stone, laid
+in mortar. Only the foundations are left, but irregular blocks, of which
+the houses were constructed, lie scattered about. In one room I find an
+old mealing stone, deeply worn, as if it had been much used. A great
+deal of pottery is strewn around, and old trails, which in some places
+are deeply worn into the rocks, are seen.
+
+It is ever a source of wonder to us why these ancient people sought such
+inaccessible places for their homes. They were, doubtless, an
+agricultural race, but there are no lands here of any considerable
+extent that they could have cultivated. To the west of Oraiby, one of
+the towns in the "Province of Tusayan," in Northern Arizona, the
+inhabitants have actually built little terraces along the face of the
+cliff, where a spring gushes out, and thus made their sites for gardens.
+It is possible that the ancient inhabitants of this place made their
+agricultural lands in the same way. But why should they seek such spots?
+Surely, the country was not so crowded with population as to demand the
+utilization of so barren a region. The only solution of the problem
+suggested is this: We know that, for a century or two after the
+settlement of Mexico, many expeditions were sent into the country, now
+comprised in Arizona and New Mexico, for the purpose of bringing the
+town-building people under the dominion of the Spanish Government. Many
+of their villages were destroyed, and the inhabitants fled to regions at
+that time unknown; and there are traditions among the people who
+inhabit the _pueblos_ that still remain that the canons were these
+unknown lands. Maybe these buildings were erected at that time; sure it
+is that they have a much more modern appearance than the ruins scattered
+over Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. Those old Spanish
+conquerors had a monstrous greed for gold, and a wonderful lust for
+saving souls. Treasures they must have if not on earth, why, then, in
+heaven; and when they failed to find heathen temples bedecked with
+silver, they propitiated Heaven by seizing the heathen themselves. There
+is yet extant a copy of a record, made by a heathen artist, to express
+his conception of the demands of the conquerors. In one part of the
+picture we have a lake, and near by stands a priest pouring water on the
+head of a native. On the other side, a poor Indian has a cord about his
+throat. Lines run from these two groups to a central figure, a man with
+beard and full Spanish panoply. The interpretation of the
+picture-writing is this: "Be baptized, as this saved heathen; or be
+hanged, as that damned heathen." Doubtless, some of these people
+preferred a third alternative, and, rather than be baptized or hanged,
+they chose to be imprisoned within these canon walls.
+
+_August 17._ Our rations are still spoiling; the bacon is so badly
+injured that we are compelled to throw it away. By accident, this
+morning, the saleratus is lost overboard. We have now only musty flour
+sufficient for ten days, a few dried apples, but plenty of coffee. We
+must make all haste possible. If we meet with difficulties, as we have
+done in the canon above, we may be compelled to give up the expedition,
+and try to reach the Mormon settlements to the north. Our hopes are that
+the worst places are passed, but our barometers are all so much injured
+as to be useless, so we have lost our reckoning in altitude, and know
+not how much descent the river has yet to make.
+
+The stream is still wild and rapid, and rolls through a narrow channel.
+We make but slow progress, often landing against a wall, and climbing
+around some point, where we can see the river below. Although very
+anxious to advance, we are determined to run with great caution, lest,
+by another accident, we lose all our supplies. How precious that little
+flour has become! We divide it among the boats, and carefully store it
+away, so that it can be lost only by the loss of the boat itself.
+
+We make ten miles and a half, and camp among the rocks on the right. We
+have had rain, from time to time, all day, and have been thoroughly
+drenched and chilled; but between showers the sun shines with great
+power, and the mercury in our thermometers stands at 115 deg., so that we
+have rapid changes from great extremes, which are very disagreeable. It
+is especially cold in the rain to-night. The little canvas we have is
+rotten and useless; the rubber ponchos, with which we started from Green
+River City, have all been lost; more than half the party is without
+hats, and not one of us has an entire suit of clothes, and we have not a
+blanket apiece. So we gather driftwood, and build a fire; but after
+supper the rain, coming down in torrents, extinguishes it, and we sit up
+all night on the rocks, shivering, and are more exhausted by the night's
+discomfort than by the day's toil.
+
+_August 18._ The day is employed in making portages, and we advance but
+two miles on our journey. Still it rains.
+
+While the men are at work making portages, I climb up the granite to its
+summit, and go away back over the rust-coloured sandstones and
+greenish-yellow shales to the foot of the marble wall. I climb so high
+that the men and boats are lost in the black depths below, and the
+dashing river is a rippling brook; and still there is more canon above
+than below. All about me are interesting geological records. The book is
+open, and I can read as I run. All about me are grand views, for the
+clouds are playing again in the gorges. But somehow I think of the nine
+days' rations, and the bad river, and the lesson of the rocks, and the
+glory of the scene is but half seen.
+
+I push on to an angle, where I hope to get a view of the country beyond,
+to see, if possible, what the prospect may be of our soon running
+through this plateau, or, at least, of meeting with some geological
+change that will let us out of the granite; but, arriving at the point,
+I can see below only a labyrinth of deep gorges.
+
+_August 19._ Rain again this morning. Still we are in our granite
+prison, and the time is occupied until noon in making a long, bad
+portage.
+
+After dinner, in running a rapid, the pioneer boat is upset by a wave.
+We are some distance in advance of the larger boats, the river is rough
+and swift, and we are unable to land, but cling to the boat, and are
+carried down stream over another rapid. The men in the boats above see
+our trouble, but they are caught in whirlpools, and are spinning about
+in eddies, and it seems a long time before they come to our relief. At
+last they do come; our boat is turned right side up, bailed out; the
+oars, which fortunately have floated along in company with us, are
+gathered up, and on we go, without even landing.
+
+Soon after the accident the clouds break away, and we have sunshine
+again.
+
+Soon we find a little beach, with just room enough to land. Here we
+camp, but there is no wood. Across the river, and a little way above, we
+see some driftwood lodged in the rocks. So we bring two boatloads over,
+build a huge fire, and spread everything to dry. It is the first
+cheerful night we have had for a week; a warm, drying fire in the midst
+of the camp and a few bright stars in our patch of heavens overhead.
+
+_August 20._ The characteristics of the canon change this morning. The
+river is broader, the walls more sloping, and composed of black slates,
+that stand on edge. These nearly vertical slates are washed out in
+places--that is, the softer beds are washed out between the harder,
+which are left standing. In this way curious little alcoves are formed,
+in which are quiet bays of water, but on a much smaller scale than the
+great bays and buttresses of Marble Canon.
+
+The river is still rapid, and we stop to let down with lines several
+times, but make greater progress as we run ten miles. We camp on the
+right bank. Here, on a terrace of trap, we discover another group of
+ruins. There was evidently quite a village on this rock. Again we find
+mealing stones, and much broken pottery, and up in a little natural
+shelf in the rock, back of the ruins, we find a globular basket, that
+would hold perhaps a third of a bushel. It is badly broken, and, as I
+attempt to take it up, it falls to pieces. There are many beautiful
+flint-chips, as if this had been the home of an old arrow-maker.
+
+_August 21._ We start early this morning, cheered by the prospect of a
+fine day, and encouraged, also, by the good run made yesterday. A
+quarter of a mile below camp the river turns abruptly to the left, and
+between camp and that point is very swift, running down in a long,
+broken chute, and piling up against the foot of the cliff, where it
+turns to the left. We try to pull across, so as to go down on the other
+side, but the waters are swift, and it seems impossible for us to escape
+the rock below; but, in pulling across, the bow of the boat is turned to
+the farther shore, so that we are swept broadside down, and are
+prevented, by the rebounding waters, from striking against the wall.
+There we toss about for a few seconds in these billows, and are carried
+past the danger. Below, the river turns again to the right, the canon is
+very narrow, and we see in advance but a short distance. The water, too,
+is very swift, and there is no landing-place. From around this curve
+there comes a mad roar, and down we are earned, with a dizzying
+velocity, to the head of another rapid. On either side, high over our
+heads, there are overhanging granite walls, and the sharp bends cut off
+our view, so that a few minutes will carry us into unknown waters. Away
+we go, on one long winding chute. I stand on deck, supporting myself
+with a strap, fastened on either side to the gunwale, and the boat
+glides rapidly, where the water is smooth, or, striking a wave, she
+leaps and bounds like a thing of life, and we have a wild, exhilarating
+ride for ten miles, which we make in less than an hour. The excitement
+is so great that we forget the danger, until we hear the roar of a great
+fall below; then we back on our oars, and are carried slowly towards its
+head, and succeed in landing just above, and find that we have to make
+another portage. At this we are engaged until some time after dinner.
+
+Just here we run out of the granite!
+
+Ten miles in less than half a day, and limestone walls below. Good cheer
+returns; we forget the storms, and the gloom, and cloud-covered canons,
+and the black granite, and the raging river, and push our boats from
+shore in great glee.
+
+Though we are out of the granite, the river is still swift, and we wheel
+about a point again to the right, and turn, so as to head back in the
+direction from which we come, and see the granite again, with its narrow
+gorge and black crags; but we meet with no more great falls or rapids.
+Still, we run cautiously, and stop, from time to time, to examine some
+places which look bad. Yet, we make ten miles this afternoon; twenty
+miles, in all, to-day.
+
+_August 22._ We come to rapids again, this morning, and are occupied
+several hours in passing them, letting the boats down, from rock to
+rock, with lines, for nearly half a mile, and then have to make a long
+portage. While the men are engaged in this, I climb the wall on the
+northeast, to a height of about 2,500 feet, where I can obtain a good
+view of a long stretch of canon below. Its course is to the southwest.
+The walls seem to rise very abruptly, for 2,500 or 3,000 feet, and then
+there is a gently sloping terrace, on each side, for two or three miles,
+and again we find cliffs, 1,500 or 2,000 feet high. From the brink of
+these the plateau stretches back to the north and south, for a long
+distance. Away down the canon, on the right wall, I can see a group of
+mountains, some of which appear to stand on the brink of the canon. The
+effect of the terrace is to give the appearance of a narrow, winding
+valley, with high walls on either side, and a deep, dark, meandering
+gorge down its middle. It is impossible, from this point of view, to
+determine whether we have granite at the bottom or not; but, from
+geological considerations, I conclude that we shall have marble walls
+below.
+
+After my return to the boats, we run another mile and camp for the
+night.
+
+We have made but little over seven miles to-day, and a part of our flour
+has been soaked in the river again.
+
+_August 23._ Our way to-day is again through marble walls. Now and then
+we pass, for a short distance, through patches of granite, like hills
+thrust up into the limestone. At one of these places we have to make
+another portage, and, taking advantage of the delay, I go up a little
+stream to the north, wading it all the way, sometimes having to take a
+plunge in to my neck; in other places being compelled to swim across
+little basins that have been excavated at the foot of the falls. Along
+its course are many cascades and springs, gushing out from the rocks on
+either side. Sometimes a cottonwood tree grows over the water. I come to
+one beautiful fall, of more than a hundred and fifty feet, and climb
+around it to the right, on the broken rocks. Still going up, I find the
+canon narrowing very much, being but fifteen or twenty feet wide; yet
+the walls rise on either side many hundreds of feet, perhaps thousands;
+I can hardly tell.
+
+In some places the stream has not excavated its channel down vertically
+through the rocks, but has cut obliquely, so that one wall overhangs the
+other. In other places it is cut vertically above and obliquely below,
+or obliquely above and vertically below, so that it is impossible to see
+out overhead. But I can go no farther. The time which I estimated it
+would take to make the portage has almost expired, and I start back on a
+round trot, wading in the creek where I must, and plunging through
+basins, and find the men waiting for me, and away we go on the river.
+
+Just after dinner we pass a stream on the right, which leaps into the
+Colorado by a direct fall of more than a hundred feet, forming a
+beautiful cascade. There is a bed of very hard rock above, thirty or
+forty feet in thickness, and much softer beds below. The hard beds above
+project many yards beyond the softer, which are washed out, forming a
+deep cave behind the fall, and the stream pours through a crevice above
+into a deep pool below. Around on the rocks, in the cave-like chamber,
+are set beautiful ferns, with delicate fronds and enamelled stalks. The
+little frondlets have their points turned down, to form spore cases. It
+has very much the appearance of the maiden's hair fern, but is much
+larger. This delicate foliage covers the rocks all about the fountain,
+and gives the chamber great beauty. But we have little time to spend in
+admiration, so on we go.
+
+We make fine progress this afternoon, carried along by a swift river,
+and shoot over the rapids, finding no serious obstructions.
+
+The canon walls, for 2,500 or 3,000 feet, are very regular, rising
+almost perpendicularly, but here and there set with narrow steps, and
+occasionally we can see away above the broad terrace, to distant cliffs.
+
+We camp to-night in a marble cave, and find, on looking at our
+reckoning, we have run twenty-two miles.
+
+_August 24._ The canon is wider to-day. The walls rise to a vertical
+height of nearly 3,000 feet. In many places the river runs under a
+cliff, in great curves, forming amphitheatres, half-dome shaped.
+
+Though the river is rapid, we meet with no serious obstructions, and run
+twenty miles. It is curious how anxious we are to make-up our reckoning
+every time we stop, now that our diet is confined to plenty of coffee,
+very little spoiled flour, and very few dried apples. It has come to be
+a race for a dinner. Still, we make such fine progress, all hands are in
+good cheer, but not a moment of daylight is lost.
+
+_August 25._ We make twelve miles this morning, when we come to
+monuments of lava, standing in the river; low rocks mostly, but some of
+them shafts more than a hundred feet high. Going on down, three or four
+miles, we find them increasing in number. Great quantities of cooled
+lava and many cinder cones are seen on either side; and then we come to
+an abrupt cataract. Just over the fall, on the right wall, a cinder
+cone, or extinct volcano, with a well-defined crater, stands on the very
+brink of the canon. This, doubtless, is the one we saw two or three
+days ago. From this volcano vast floods of lava have been poured into
+the river, and a stream of the molten rock has run up the canon, three
+or four miles, and down, we know not how far. Just where it poured over
+the canon wall is the fall. The whole north side, as far as we can see,
+is lined with the black basalt, and high up on the opposite wall are
+patches of the same material, resting on the benches, and filling old
+alcoves and caves, giving to the wall a spotted appearance.
+
+The rocks are broken in two, along a line which here crosses the river,
+and the beds, which we have seen coming down the canon for the last
+thirty miles, have dropped eight hundred feet, on the lower side of the
+line, forming what geologists call a fault. The volcanic cone stands
+directly over the fissure thus formed. On the side of the river
+opposite, mammoth springs burst out of this crevice, one or two hundred
+feet above the river, pouring in a stream quite equal in volume to the
+Colorado Chiquito.
+
+This stream seems to be loaded with carbonate of lime, and the water,
+evaporating, leaves an incrustation on the rocks; and this process has
+been continued for a long time, for extensive deposits are noticed, in
+which are basins, with bubbling springs. The water is salty.
+
+We have to make a portage here, which is completed in about three hours,
+and on we go.
+
+We have no difficulty as we float along, and I am able to observe the
+wonderful phenomena connected with this flood of lava. The canon was
+doubtless filled to a height of twelve or fifteen hundred feet, perhaps
+by more than one flood. This would dam the water back; and in cutting
+through this great lava bed, a new channel has been formed, sometimes on
+one side, sometimes on the other. The cooled lava, being of firmer
+texture than the rocks of which the walls are composed, remains in some
+places; in others a narrow channel has been cut, leaving a line of
+basalt on either side. It is possible that the lava cooled faster on the
+sides against the walls, and that the centre ran out; but of this we can
+only conjecture. There are other places, where almost the whole of the
+lava is gone, patches of it only being seen where it has caught on the
+walls. As we float down, we can see that it ran out into side canons. In
+some places this basalt has a fine, columnar structure, often in
+concentric prisms, and masses of these concentric columns have
+coalesced. In some places, where the flow occurred, the canon was
+probably at about the same depth as it is now, for we can see where the
+basalt has rolled out on the sands, and, what seems curious to me, the
+sands are not melted or metamorphosed to any appreciable extent. In
+places the bed of the river is of sandstone or limestone, in other
+places of lava, showing that it has all been cut out again where the
+sandstones and limestones appear; but there is a little yet left where
+the bed is of lava.
+
+What a conflict of water and fire there must have been here! Just
+imagine a river of molten rock, running down into a river of melted
+snow. What a seething and boiling of the waters; what clouds of steam
+rolled into the heavens!
+
+Thirty-five miles to-day. Hurrah!
+
+_August 26._ The canon walls are steadily becoming higher as we advance.
+They are still bold, and nearly vertical up to the terrace. We still see
+evidence of the eruption discovered yesterday, but the thickness of the
+basalt is decreasing, as we go down the stream; yet it has been
+reinforced at points by streams that have come from volcanoes standing
+on the terrace above, but which we cannot see from the river below.
+
+Since we left the Colorado Chiquito, we have seen no evidences that the
+tribe of Indians inhabiting the plateaus on either side ever come down
+to the river; but about eleven o'clock to-day we discover an Indian
+garden, at the foot of the wall on the right, just where a little
+stream, with a narrow flood plain, comes down through a side canon.
+Along the valley, the Indians have planted corn, using the water which
+burst out in springs at the foot of the cliff for irrigation. The corn
+is looking quite well, but is not sufficiently advanced to give us
+roasting ears; but there are some nice green squashes. We carry ten or a
+dozen of these on board our boats, and hurriedly leave, not willing to
+be caught in the robbery, yet excusing ourselves by pleading our great
+want. We run down a short distance to where we feel certain no Indians
+can follow; and what a kettle of squash sauce we make! True, we have no
+salt with which to season it, but it makes a fine addition to our
+unleavened bread and coffee. Never was fruit so sweet as those stolen
+squashes. After dinner we push on again, making fine time, finding many
+rapids, but none so bad that we cannot run them with safety, and when we
+stop, just at dusk, and foot up our reckoning, we find that; we have run
+thirty-five miles again.
+
+What a supper we make; unleavened bread, green squash sauce, and strong
+coffee. We have been for a few days on half-rations, but we have no
+stint of roast squash.
+
+A few days like this, and we are out of prison.
+
+_August 27._ This morning the river takes a more southerly direction.
+The dip of the rocks is to the north, and we are rapidly running into
+lower formations. Unless our course changes, we shall very soon run
+again into the granite. This gives us some anxiety. Now and then the
+river turns to the west, and excites hopes that are soon destroyed by
+another turn to the south. About nine o'clock we come to the dreaded
+rock. It is with no little misgiving that we see the river enter those
+black, hard walls. At its very entrance we have to make a portage; then
+we have to let down with lines past some ugly rocks. Then we run a mile
+or two farther, and then the rapids below can be seen.
+
+About eleven o'clock we come to a place where it seems much worse than
+any we have yet met in all its course. A little creek comes down from
+the left. We land first on the right, and clamber up over the granite
+pinnacles for a mile or two, but can see no way by which we can let
+down, and to run it would be sure destruction. After dinner we cross to
+examine it on the left. High above the river we can walk along on the
+top of the granite, which is broken off at the edge, and set with crags
+and pinnacles, so that it is very difficult to get a view of the river
+at all. In my eagerness to reach a point where I can see the roaring
+fall below, I go too far on the wall, and can neither advance nor
+retreat. I stand with one foot on a little projecting rock, and cling
+with my hand fixed in a little crevice. Finding I am caught here,
+suspended four hundred feet above the river, into which I should fall if
+my footing fails, I call for help. The men come, and pass me a line, but
+I cannot let go of the rock long enough to take hold of it. Then they
+bring two or three of the largest oars. All this takes time which seems
+very precious to me; but at last they arrive. The blade of one of the
+oars is pushed into a little crevice in the rock beyond me, in such a
+manner that they can hold me pressed against the wall. Then another is
+fixed in such a way that I can step on it, and thus I am extricated.
+
+Still another hour is spent in examining the river from this side, but
+no good view of it is obtained, so now we return to the side that was
+first examined, and the afternoon is spent in clambering among the crags
+and pinnacles, and carefully scanning the river again. We find that the
+lateral streams have washed boulders into the river, so as to form a dam
+over which the water makes a broken fall of eighteen or twenty feet;
+then there is a rapid, beset with rocks, for two or three hundred yards,
+while, on the other side, points of the wall project into the river.
+Then there is a second fall below; how great, we cannot tell. Then there
+is a rapid, filled with huge rocks, for one or two hundred yards. At the
+bottom of it, from the right wall, a great rock projects quite half-way
+across the river. It has a sloping surface extending upstream, and the
+water, coming down with all the momentum gained in the falls and rapids
+above, rolls up this inclined plane many feet and tumbles over to the
+left. I decide that it is possible to let down over the first fall, then
+run near the right cliff to a point just above the second, where we can
+pull out into a little chute, and, having run over that in safety, we
+must pull with all our power across the stream, to avoid the great rock
+below. On my return to the boat, I announce to the men that we are to
+run it in the morning. Then we cross the river, and go down into camp
+for the night on some rocks, in the mouth of the little side canon.
+
+After supper Captain Howland asks to have a talk with me. We walk up the
+little creek a short distance, and I soon find that his object is to
+remonstrate against my determination to proceed. He thinks that we had
+better abandon the river here. Talking with him, I learn that his
+brother, William Dunn, and himself have determined to go no farther in
+the boats. So we return to camp. Nothing is said to the other men.
+
+For the last two days our course has not been plotted. I sit down and do
+this now, for the purpose of finding where we are by dead reckoning. It
+is a clear night, and I take out the sextant to make observations for
+latitude, and find that the astronomic determination agrees very nearly
+with that of the plot--quite as closely as might be expected, from a
+meridian observation on a planet. In a direct line, we must be about
+forty-five miles from the mouth of the Rio Virgen. If we can reach that
+point, we know that there are settlements up that river about twenty
+miles. This forty-five miles, in a direct line, will probably be eighty
+or ninety in the meandering line of the river. But then we know that
+there is comparatively open country for many miles about the mouth of
+the Virgen, which is our point of destination.
+
+As soon as I determine all this, I spread my plot on the sand, and wake
+Howland, who is sleeping down by the river, and show him where I suppose
+we are, and where several Mormon settlements are situated.
+
+We have another short talk about the morrow, and he lies down again; but
+for me there is no sleep. All night long I pace up and down a little
+path, on a few yards of sand beach, along by the river. Is it wise to go
+on? I go to the boats again, to look at our rations. I feel satisfied
+that we can get over the danger immediately before us; what there may be
+below I know not. From our outlook yesterday, on the cliffs, the canon
+seemed to make another great bend to the south, and this, from our
+experience heretofore, means more and higher granite walls. I am not
+sure that we can climb out of the canon here, and, when at the top of
+the wall, I know enough of the country to be certain that it is a desert
+of rock and sand, between this and the nearest Mormon town, which, on
+the most direct line, must be seventy-five miles away. True, the late
+rains have been favourable to us, should we go out, for the
+probabilities are that we shall find water still standing in holes, and,
+at one time, I almost conclude to leave the river. But for years I have
+been contemplating this trip. To leave the exploration unfinished, to
+say that there is a part of the canon which I cannot explore, having
+already almost accomplished it, is more than I am willing to
+acknowledge, and I determine to go on.
+
+I wake my brother and tell him of Howland's determination, and he
+promises to stay with me; then I call up Hawkins, the cook, and he makes
+a like promise; then Sumner, and Bradley, and Hall, and they all agree
+to go on.
+
+_August 28._ At last daybreak comes, and we have breakfast, without a
+word being said about the future. The meal is as solemn as a funeral.
+After breakfast I ask the three men if they still think it best to leave
+us. The elder Howland thinks it is, and Dunn agrees with him. The
+younger Howland tries to persuade them to go on with the party, failing
+in which, he decides to go with his brother.
+
+Then we cross the river. The small boat is very much disabled, and
+unseaworthy. With the loss of hands, consequent on the departure of the
+three men, we shall not be able to run all of the boats, so I decide to
+leave my _Emma Dean_.
+
+Two rifles and a shotgun are given to the men who are going out. I ask
+them to help themselves to the rations, and take what they think to be a
+fair share. This they refuse to do, saying they have no fear but what
+they can get something to eat; but Billy, the cook, has a pan of
+biscuits prepared for dinner, and these he leaves on a rock.
+
+Before starting, we take our barometers, fossils, the minerals, and some
+ammunition from the boat and leave them on the rocks. We are going over
+this place as light as possible. The three men help us lift our boats
+over a rock twenty-five or thirty feet high, and let them down again
+over the first fall, and now we are all ready to start.
+
+The last thing before leaving, I write a letter to my wife, and give it
+to Howland. Sumner gives him his watch, directing that it be sent to his
+sister, should he not be heard from again. The records of the expedition
+have been kept in duplicate. One set of these is given to Howland, and
+now we are ready. For the last, time, they entreat us not to go on, and
+tell us that it is madness to set out in this place; that we can never
+get safely through it; and, further, that the river turns again to the
+south into the granite, and a few miles of such rapids and falls will
+exhaust our entire stock of rations, and then it will be too late to
+climb out. Some tears are shed; it is a rather solemn parting; each
+party thinks the other is taking the dangerous course.
+
+My old boat left, I go on board of the _Maid of the Canon_. The three
+men climb a crag, that overhangs the river, to watch us off. The _Maid
+of the Canon_ pushes out. We glide rapidly along the foot of the wall,
+just grazing one great rock, then pull out a little into the chute of
+the second fall, and plunge over it. The open compartment is filled when
+we strike the first wave below, but we cut through it, and then the men
+pull with all their power toward the left wall, and swing clear of the
+dangerous rock below all right. We are scarcely a minute in running it,
+and find that, although it looked bad from above, we have passed many
+places that were worse.
+
+The other boat follows with more difficulty. We land at the first
+practicable point below and fire our guns as a signal to the men above
+that we have come over in safety. Here we remain a couple of hours,
+hoping that they will take the smaller boat and follow us. We are behind
+a curve in the canon, and cannot see up to where we left them, and so we
+wait until their coming seems hopeless, and push on.
+
+And now we have a succession of rapids and falls until noon, all of
+which we run in safety. Just after dinner we come to another bad place.
+A little stream comes in from the left, and below there is a fall, and
+still below another fall. Above, the river tumbles down, over and among
+the rocks, in whirlpools and great waves, and the waters are lashed into
+mad, white foam. We run along the left, above this, and soon see that we
+cannot get down on this side, but it seems possible to let down on the
+other. We pull up stream again for two or three hundred yards and cross.
+Now there is a bed of basalt on this northern side of the canon with a
+bold escarpment, that seems to be a hundred feet high. We can climb it,
+and walk along its summit to a point where we are just at the head of
+the fall. Here the basalt is broken down again, so it seems to us, and I
+direct the men to take a line to the top of the cliff, and let the boats
+down along the wall. One man remains in the boat, to keep her clear of
+the rocks, and prevent her line from being caught on the projecting
+angles. I climb the cliff, and pass along to a point just over the fall,
+and descend by broken rocks, and find that the break of the fall is
+above the break of the wall, so that we cannot land; and that still
+below the river is very bad, find that there is no possibility of a
+portage. Without waiting further to examine and determine what shall be
+done, I hasten back to the top of the cliff, to stop the boats from
+coming down. When I arrive I find the men have let one of them down to
+the head of the fall. She is in swift water, and they are not able to
+pull her back; nor are they able to go on with the line, as it is not
+long enough to reach the higher part of the cliff, which is just before
+them; so they take a bight around a crag. I send two men back for the
+other line. The boat is in very swift water, and Bradley is standing in
+the open compartment, holding out his oar to prevent her from striking
+against the foot of the cliff. Now she shoots out into the stream, and
+up as far as the line will permit, and then, wheeling, drives headlong
+against the rock, then out and back again, now straining on the line,
+now striking against the rock. As soon as the second line is brought, we
+pass it down to him; but his attention is all taken up with his own
+situation, and he does not see that we are passing the line to him. I
+stand on a projecting rock, waving my hat to gain his attention, for my
+voice is drowned by the roaring of the falls. Just at this moment, I see
+him take his knife from its sheath, and step forward to cut the line. He
+has evidently decided that it is better to go over with the boat as it
+is, than to wait for her to be broken to pieces. As he leans over, the
+boat sheers again into the stream, the stem-post breaks away, and she is
+loose. With perfect composure Bradley seizes the great scull oar, places
+it in the stern rowlock, and pulls with all his power (and he is an
+athlete) to turn the bow of the boat downstream, for he wishes to go bow
+down, rather than to drift broadside on. One, two strokes he makes, and
+a third just as she goes over, and the boat is fairly turned, and she
+goes down almost beyond our sight, though we are more than a hundred
+feet above the river. Then she comes up again, on a great wave, and down
+and up, then around behind some great rocks, and is lost in the mad,
+white foam below. We stand frozen with fear, for we see no boat. Bradley
+is gone, so it seems. But now, away below, we see something coming out
+of the waves. It is evidently a boat. A moment more, and we see Bradley
+standing on deck, swinging his hat to show that he is all right. But he
+is in a whirlpool. We have the stem post of his boat attached to the
+line. How badly she may be disabled we know not. I direct Sumner and
+Powell to pass along the cliff, and see if they can reach him from
+below. Rhodes, Hall, and myself run to the other boat, jump aboard, push
+out, and away we go over the falls. A wave rolls over us, and our boat
+is unmanageable. Another great wave strikes us, the boat rolls over, and
+tumbles and tosses, I know not how. All I know is that Bradley is
+picking us up. We soon have all right again, and row to the cliff, and
+wait until Sumner and Powell can come. After a difficult climb they
+reach us. We run two or three miles farther, and turn again to the
+northwest, continuing until night, when we have run out of the granite
+once more.
+
+_August 29._ We start very early this morning. The river still
+continues swift, but we have no serious difficulty, and at twelve
+o'clock emerge from the Grand Canon of the Colorado.
+
+We are in a valley now, and low mountains are seen in the distance,
+coming to the river below. We recognize this as the Grand Wash.
+
+A few years ago a party of Mormons set out from St. George, Utah, taking
+with them a boat, and came down to the mouth of the Grand Wash, where
+they divided, a portion of the party crossing the river to explore the
+San Francisco Mountains. Three men--Hamblin, Miller, and Crosby--taking
+the boat, went on down the river to Callville, landing a few miles below
+the mouth of the Rio Virgen. We have their manuscript journal with us,
+and so the stream is comparatively well known.
+
+To-night we camp on the left bank in a mesquit thicket.
+
+The relief from danger and the joy of success are great. When he who has
+been chained by wounds to a hospital cot, until his canvas tent seems
+like a dungeon cell, until the groans of those who lie about, tortured
+with probe and knife, are piled up, a weight of horror on his ears that
+he cannot throw off, cannot forget, and until the stench of festering
+wounds and anaesthetic drugs has filled the air with its loathsome
+burthen, at last goes into the open field, what a world he sees! How
+beautiful the sky; how bright the sunshine; what "floods of delirious
+music" pour from the throats of birds; how sweet the fragrance of earth
+and tree, and blossom! The first hour of convalescent freedom seems rich
+recompense for all--pain, gloom, terror.
+
+Something like this are the feelings we experience to-night. Ever before
+us has been an unknown danger, heavier than immediate peril. Every
+waking hour passed in the Grand Canon has been one of toil. We have
+watched with deep solicitude the steady disappearance of our scant
+supply of rations, and from time to time have seen the river snatch a
+portion of the little left, while we were ahungered. And danger and toil
+were endured in those gloomy depths, where ofttimes the clouds hid the
+sky by day, and but a narrow zone of stars could be seen at night. Only
+during the few hours of deep sleep, consequent on hard labour, has the
+roar of the waters been hushed. Now the danger is over; now the toil has
+ceased; now the gloom has disappeared; now the firmament is bounded only
+by the horizon; and what a vast expanse of constellations can be seen!
+
+The river rolls by us in silent majesty; the quiet of the camp is sweet;
+our joy is almost ecstasy. We sit till long after midnight, talking of
+the Grand Canon, talking of home, but chiefly talking of the three men
+who left us. Are they wandering in those depths, unable to find a way
+out? are they searching over the desert lands above for water? or are
+they nearing the settlements?
+
+_August 30._ We run two or three short, low canons to-day, and on
+emerging from one, we discover a band of Indians in the valley below.
+They see us, and scamper away in most eager haste, to hide among the
+rocks. Although we land, and call for them to return, not an Indian can
+be seen.
+
+Two or three miles farther down, in turning a short bend in the river,
+we come upon another camp. So near are we before they can see us that I
+can shout to them, and, being able to speak a little of their language,
+I tell them we are friends; but they flee to the rocks, except a man, a
+woman, and two children. We land, and talk with them. They are without
+lodges, but have built little shelters of boughs, under which they
+wallow in the sand. The man is dressed in a hat; the woman in a string
+of beads only. At first they are evidently much terrified; but when I
+talk to them in their own language, and tell them we are friends, and
+inquire after people in the Mormon towns, they are soon reassured, and
+beg for tobacco. Of this precious article we have none to spare. Sumner
+looks around in the boat for something to give them, and finds a little
+piece of coloured soap, which they receive as a valuable present, rather
+as a thing of beauty than as a useful commodity, however. They are
+either unwilling or unable to tell us anything about the Indians or
+white people, and so we push off, for we must lose no time.
+
+We camp at noon under the right bank. And now, as we push out, we are
+in great expectancy, for we hope every minute to discover the mouth of
+the Rio Virgen.
+
+Soon one of the men exclaims: "Yonder's an Indian in the river." Looking
+for a few minutes, we certainly do see two or three persons. The men
+bend to their oars, and pull toward them. Approaching, we see that there
+are three white men and an Indian hauling a seine, and then we discover
+that it is just at the mouth of the long-sought river.
+
+As we come near, the men seem far less surprised to see us than we do to
+see them. They evidently know who we are, and, on talking with them,
+they tell us that we have been reported lost long ago, and that some
+weeks before, a messenger had been sent from Salt Lake City, with
+instructions for them to watch for any fragments or relics of our party
+that might drift down the stream.
+
+Our new-found friends, Mr. Asa and his two sons, tell us that they are
+pioneers of a town that is to be built on the bank.
+
+Eighteen or twenty miles up the valley of the Rio Virgen there are two
+Mormon towns, St. Joseph and St. Thomas. To-night we despatch an Indian
+to the last mentioned place, to bring any letters that may be there for
+us.
+
+Our arrival here is very opportune. When we look over our store of
+supplies, we find about ten pounds of flour, fifteen pounds of dried
+apples, but seventy or eighty pounds of coffee.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Geologists would call these rocks metamorphic crystalline schists,
+with dikes and beds of granite, but we will use the popular name for the
+whole series--granite.
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
+
+Obvious printer's errors, including punctuation have been silently
+corrected. Hyphenated and accented words have been standardized.
+
+Page 18--"Peter Martyr tell us..." changed to "Peter
+Martyr tells us..."
+
+Page 69--satisfacton changed to satisfaction.
+
+Page 99--oppossed changed to opposed.
+
+Page 101--nihgt changed to night.
+
+Page 127--connonade changed to cannonade.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Masterpieces of Science:
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