His decision to make the trip alone, poorly equipped as he
was, seemed like suicide to us. He promised to write to us if he got
out, and with a final wave of the hand we left him on the shore.
The rapid just passed was possibly the scene of the disaster
discovered by the Stone expedition. They found a clumsy boat close to
the shore, jammed in a mass of rocks, smashed and abandoned. There
were tracks of three people in the sand, one track being a boy's. A
coat was left on the shore. The tracks disappeared up a box canyon.
Mr. Stone corresponded with the only settlements in all that region,
few in number, and far distant; but nothing was ever heard of them,
Two other parties have left Green River, Utah, within a year of this
find and disappeared in like manner. This seemed to be the usual
result of these attempts. In nearly every case they have started in
boats that are entirely unfitted for rough water, and, seemingly
without any knowledge of the real danger ahead, try to follow where
others, properly equipped, have gone through.
What a day of excitement that was! We always thought we needed a
certain amount of thrills to make life sufficiently interesting for
us. In a few hours' time, in the central portion of Cataract Canyon,
we experienced nearly enough thrills to last us a lifetime. In one or
two of the upper canyons we thought we were running rapids. Now we
were learning what rapids really were. No sooner were we through one
than another presented itself.
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