Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-12-05


the purpose, made it fast for the night.
Having no means of making fire, and
not being hungry enough to crave sup
per of raw -four, straight" or mixed
with water, they lay down fasting, and
soon were wrapped in deep and refresh.
ing slumbers.
At sunrise next morning they let 60
their hawser and resumed their voyage,
still preferring empty stomachs to such
food as they had. Still, as throughout
the previous days voyage, the river
flowed on smoothly between low and
verdure clad banks, but the velocity OF
its current was perceptibly increasing.
At length, toward noon, they came to
rapids swift and rocky, in descending
which they lost their carbines and their
little storsof four-their only provision
while tAeir revolvers were wet so as to
be unserviceable. Below these rapids
the banks were steep and rocky; but an
island of some extent afforded them q
convenient place to haul out for repairs,
while the screw-pod mezquit with which
it was partially covered furnished them
with scsnty but not altogether unpala-
table meal.
(Of mezquit, thorny bush which
grows in great abundance on the Colo
rado, and in many other portions of Cali
fornia, Arizona and Mexico, there are
two varieties-one producing beans in q
large pod resembling our ordinary garden
beans; while the other produces small
seeds, about the size of those of the
locust, enveloped in a small, spiral pod
from two to three inches in length, which
is feshy, and has pleasantly sweetish
taste. / have tasted them and found
them to be rather tough, but otherwise
palatable.) !.
Having passed the night at the island,
our voyagers set out in the morning with
their raft in better condition than before,
and with renewed hope of soon getting
to the end of their voyage, or at least OF
reaching a port. From the size and
depth of the stream, they argued that the
head of -Callville-must be
near. After they had aoated for few
hours, however, the sound of falling
water was borne to their ears, becoming
more and more distinct as they pro-
ceeded, until they we're satisfied that
they were approaching cataract. Mean
while, they had gradually and almost un-
consciously drifted into q canon with
high, preciptous walls, which confined
the river within narrower channel than
il had coursed in above. A hasty recon-
noisance convinced him that they could
not escape from the gorge by climbing
the walls, while the current was now so
swift that it was useless to think of at
tempting to turn back. White, however,
took the precaution of lashing himself to
the raft, and advised Strobe to do like
wise.
"No," replied the latter; Il am an
old Mississippi bostman, and can stick
to the raft wherever she goes, without
tying. 1t isn't much of fall, and there
is no danger in running it; but if man
is tied in such place, he might lose his
life before he could get loose. We had
better tie our revolvers, though; they're
wet now, and little more won't hurt
them. And we had better be rid of them"
On swept the raft with rapidly inereas-
ing speed; the voyagers, silent, stern,
with compressed lips and tense nerves,
boldly facing the peril which they were
now powerless to avoid. A moment they
were balanced upon the brink of the cat
aract-the next were plunged sheer
twelve feet into the seething waters
beneath. Emerging at length, White
found himself alone upon the raft, which
an eddy had caught in the rim of its vor-
tex and was slowly whirling around.
When be had partially recovered his self
possession, which had been seriously dis
turbed by the shock of the fall, he looked
around for his companion, and quickly
deserted him in mid-channel, some
twenty yards distant, buffeting the cur
rent with feeble and uncertain stroke.
Shouting to him some words Of enccur-
sgement, aud hastily freeing himselffrom
his lashings, White prepared to make
such efforts as he could to assist and save
his comrade; but almost Immediately
poor Strobe, half-strangled doubtless,
and bewildered by his frightful plunge
over the cataract, without cry or a
groan sank and rose no more.
The fate of either of his comrades
would have been a merciful one to White
in comparison to what befel him. Poor
fellow his troubles had hardly yet begun,
while theirs we're ended, at least for this
world. The death of Strobe fell upon
him with crushing weight. Sinking upon
the raft, which Aoated slowly around with
the eddy until it stranded upon the head
of a small island, he abandoned himself
for a brief period to oil the misery Of
despair But bis rugged and energetic
nature would not long succumb TO such
a feeling. Recovering himself, be began
to survey as calmly as he might his situ-
alton.
And now came back upon his memory
the stories he hsd heard from some old
prospecters while be lay in camp ai Salt
Lake--idle tales he bad deemed them
then, but now be could not resist the
conviction of their reality-of the terrible
Grand Canon; Of its great length. tre-
mendous depth and impossible walls;
Of the vain Efforts which had been made
to explore its fearful solitudea Looking
around upon the high, steep walls which
hemmed him in on either hand, aud
stretched away before, dark and f.oEa-
ing, far as the eye could reach, be no
longer doubted that be was in the yer.
liable Grand Canon, through which no
living human being had ever passed. he
thought Of endeavoring 20 return, but G
brief examination convinced hin that
would be impossible uniess be we're gifted
with wiurr he thought Of attempting
to scale the walls Of the canon, but
as bis eager eye wandered over their
dark Eat surfaces, where q lizard could
hardly gain a foothold, be abandoned the
AZ. a. "a, ,v,l1 - hr anfarfaino1 Thara