His boxes were
tied in to prevent loss. These boxes were now piled on the shore, with
a large canvas thrown over them. This canvas, fastened at the top and
sloping to the ground, served him for a tent; his bed was underneath.
A pair of high-topped boots, placed bottom up over two sticks, stuck
in the sand beside the camp-fire, explained the different tracks we
had seen above.
Smith evidently was not much alarmed over his situation. About the
only thing that seemed to bother him was the fact that his smoking
tobacco had been wet several times. That evening we got out our
guide-book--Dellenbaugh's "A Canyon Voyage"--and tried to give him an
idea of what was ahead. The walls ahead grew higher, and closer
together; sometimes there was a shore on one side, sometimes on the
other, at one or two places there was no shore on either side, and the
rapids continued to get worse,--so we gathered from Dellenbaugh's
experience. Above this point there were several places where one could
climb out,--we had even seen signs of ancient trails in two side
canyons,--below here few such places existed.
Smith listened to all this attentively, then smiled and said "I guess
there will be some way through." After a short visit he returned to
his camp. We noticed that he slept on his gun,--to keep it dry, no
doubt, for it looked like rain.
Morning found us very sorry that we had not erected our tent, for it
rained nearly all night, but when once in our beds it was a question
which was preferable; to get out in the rain and put up our tent, or
remain in our comfortable beds.
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