The body was never recovered. It is seldom that the Colorado
River gives up its dead. The heavy sands collect in the clothes, and a
body sinks much quicker than in ordinary water. Any object lodged on
the bottom is soon covered with a sand-bar. The foreman knew this, of
course; yet he wished us to keep a lookout for the body, which might,
by some chance, have caught on the shore, when the water receded. This
was as little as any one would do, and we gave him our promise to keep
a careful watch.
CHAPTER XVII
A NIGHT OF THRILLS
We declined the offer of a roof that night, preferring to sleep in the
open here, for the evening was quite warm. We went to work the next
morning when the whistle sounded at the dredge. Beyond caulking a few
leaks in the boats, little was done with them. The tin receptacles
holding our photographic plates and films were carefully coated with a
covering of melted paraffine; for almost anything might happen, in the
one hundred miles of rapid water that separated us from our home.
Lee's Ferry was an interesting place, both for its old and its new
associations. This had long been the home of John D. Lee, well known
for the part he took in the Mountain Meadow Massacre, and for which he
afterwards paid the death penalty. Here Lee had lived for many years,
making few visits to the small settlements to the north, but on one of
these visits he was captured. There were six or seven other buildings
near the large stone building where we took our meals, so arranged
that they made a short street, the upper row being built against a
cliff of rock and shale, the other row being placed halfway between
this row and the river.
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