After my battle, in which, as
far as personal effort went, I had lost, and after my providential
escape, that one rapid appeared to be the largest of the entire
series.
It is difficult to describe the rapids with the foot-rule standard,
and give an idea of their power. One unfamiliar with "white water"
usually associates a twelve-foot descent or a ten-foot wave with a
similar wave on the ocean. There is no comparison. The waters of the
ocean rise and fall, the waves travel, the water itself, except in
breakers, is comparatively still. In bad rapids the water is whirled
through at the rate of ten or twelve miles an hour, in some cases much
swifter; the surface is broken by streams shooting up from every
submerged rock; the weight of the river is behind it, and the waves,
instead of tumbling forward, quite as often break upstream. Such
waves, less than six feet high, are often dangers to be shunned. After
being overturned in them we learned their tremendous power, a power we
would never have associated with any water, before such an experience,
short of a waterfall.
There is a certain amount of danger in the canyons,--plenty of it.
Still, in most cases, with care and forethought, much of it can be
avoided. We think we are safe in saying that half of the parties who
have attempted a passage through these canyons have met with
fatalities. Most of these have occurred in Cataract Canyon, not
because it is any worse than other sections,--certainly no worse than
the Grand Canyon,--but because it is easily entered from the quiet,
alluring water of the lower Green River.
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