The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1869-05-27

lQEGUS VI 1CCb DC1OW Vic EOhNACA AeNN
of the adjacent country. These assures
have not been scooped out by the water
courses, but are apparently the result o.
some titanic CONFUSION OF nature, which
has rent the mountain asunder, and made
a highway for the river to pass through
lOf all these remarkable natural curiosi
ties none exceeds in extent or grandeur the
Igreat Canon of the Colorado, region as
little known to science as the interior OF
Africa, or the neighborhood of the North
IPle. According to the author of the
Switzerland of America" it is upward
of three hundred miles long, confined
within perpendicular walls Of rock, aver
aging three thousand feet in hight, up
which no one can climb down which no
one can 60, and between which, in the
river, rapids and falls and furious eddies
render the passage frightful, certainly
dangerous, possibly impossible. By the
Indians it is supposed to be the abode of
malignant spirits and demons, who gdes-
| troy all who penetrate within its recesses;
and among the border population there is
general conviction that who ever ven
| lures into it never comes out alive. The
Colorado river, one of the largest on the
Pacific coast, is formed by the junction OF,
the Green and the Grand rivers, the form
er running through Eastern Utah and the
latter through Western Colorado. It's
general course is southwesterly, chiefly
through the territory of Arizona, till it
empties into the Gulf of California. On
our best maps much of its route lisa blank
space; but a scientific party, mostly young
men from Illinois, headed by, Prof, Powell
is now on an exploring expedition, partly
to enlarge their knowledge and to recruit
their health, butmainly to solve the mys-
terry of the upper Colorado and its won
derful canon, by attempting to pass
through in boats or RATS; passage which
has as yet only been successfully accom-
plished by one man, whose adventures IN
the gorge, form one of the most fascinat-
ing stories of peril and hair breadth es-,
capes we ever remember reading. In the
autumn of 1867, four miners under Cap
tain Baker, were prospecting in South
western Colorado, near the Grand river,
just above where it joins the Green, when
they were attacked by Indians. Three
members of the party, including the Cap
tain, were killed; but two men, James
White and Henry Stroll, managed to es-.
cape to the river, here they made acotton
wood raft of three poles, ten feet long
and eight inches in diameter, tied togeth
er by larriat ropes. Upon this fra;l bark
they placed their provisions and arms,and
pushing off from the bank, foated down
the stream. Forty miles below the mouth
of Green river they reached the Begin
ming OF Grand Canyon, proceeded safely
along it till, on the fourth day of their
tourney, in passing some severe rapids,
both the voysgers were washed overheard.
Stroll was sucked down by whirlpool,
and was seen no more. White with great
difficulty, succeeded in regaining the raft.
From this point the stream rushed over
one long succession of rapids in which the
raft was violently dashed againstthe rocks
and sent whirllng around the eddies and
the solitary traveller could only retain
his positionsby tying himself firmly to
the poles. In one of these conclusions
the raft was broken up, but White held
on to the fragments till, reaching a shall
low eddy, he was able to lash them to,
gather again. The rifle and the stock OF
provisions were, however, irriyocably lost
After several days OF exposure to noontide
heat and nightly frosts, often drenched
by the frequent upsets andwithout par
ticle of food of any description, haggard,
emaciated, with reason almost gone, like
weird spectre emerging from the styx,
White reached Coville, in Arizona,
small settlement just, below the Canon.
This was on the 9Th day of Septemer,
fourteen days after starting on his peril
Gus voyage, in which he could not have
foated less than five hundred miles. s..