The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1869-07-30
The Canon Of the Colorado.

THE news, whether true or false, r0m
Major Powell and his party, who.
for more than two years, have been
engaged in preliminary arrangements
to explore the great canon of the
Colorado, and who hoped during the
present summer to accomplish il, will add
new interest to this important subject.
Many may suppose that the results TO be
obtained will not warrant the labor and
expense, not to speak of the dangers to be
incurred in exploring the hidden myste-
ries of this wonderful canon. But
geographical problems of far less interest
and importance have cost the world . far
greater.expenditure of effort to solve them,
and mankind will always both applaud
and reward those who increase the sum of
human knowledge. To add to that
knowledge is the controlling motive that
impelled Major Powell to risk every thing
in order to unveil the mysteries that sur
round one of the great rivers Of the conti-
nent in its course to the sea. Even if it
has cost him his life, this will not deter
other daring explorers from solving the
problem with which the name of Powell
is now most honorably and, perhaps, sadly
associated. The following Is the sun of
about all we know of the Colorado River
and its unexplored canon:
1t gathers its waters on the western
slope of the Rocky Mountains, on the
north, from point opposite the Yellow
stone, down through at least nine degrees
of latitude to point opposite the head
waters of the Red River, and drains an
equal space along the eastern rim Of the
Great Salt Lake basin. The mountains
which surround the vast valley which it
drains are the Rocky on the east, the Wind
River ON the north, and the Wasatch and
Uintah on the west /; and, a. they all rise
far up into the regions of perpetual snow,
they furnish the water for one of the
largest rivers Of the continent All its
principal tributaries, with the exception
of the Gila, the Little Colorado and the
San Juan, are gathered into its terrible
current before 1t dsshes into what the
frontiersmen call the Black Canon Of the
fall to the Gulf Of California. At Green
River Station, where the Union Pacific
Railway crosses the principal tributary
Of the Colombo, bearing at least as
much water - Rock River at Ster-
ling, the elevation above the ocean IL
about 5000 feet In the three or four hun
dred miles between this place and the en-
trance Of the canon the fall Is probably
not more than . thousand feet The river
runs with . steady current, and the only
considerable fall We ever heard Of IL that
in which Major Powell and his party may
have lost their hves. At the head Of ihe
canon, the river, according to all accounts,
rushes down an awful cataract, worse than
that below the bridge at Niagara Falls,
and through which old trsppers who have
been there roundly assert no boat or YES
sci could pass without certain destruction.
From this point the canon IL variously
estimated at from three TO i've hundred
miles long, and, if our estimate as TO the
descent Of the river between the crossing
of the railway and the head of the gorge
be correct, 1t must fall some i've thousand
feet or about mile, in its passage through
the canon Much of the way through the
canon Il is known TO run with very slug
gish current, and hence there must be
many fearful falls before the river reaches
the foot of Il near Callville
From all accounts Of these who have
seen the canon ct various pointA and
rom the reports Of the only two persops
who, Il iaoow claimed, ever went through
IL, 1t see1la TO be . hugo crack In the
esrth's cru5 about mile wide, with per.
pendicular walls, from two 70 Eve or SIX
thousand feet above the river, made BY
some terrible convulsion Of nature. The
whole country along the canon Ia volcanic
and utterly destituie OF vegetation Lat
eral canons brsnching ozt al right angles,
and requiring several days journey 70 60
round them, render II impossible for parties
n Nollow down the hauks Of the rivsP
could water b obtained from IL terrible
current, rushing between its walls nesrsy
Q mile below The explorer. Hence, the
plan Of Nssor Powell, - detailed to %
when hero IA May last was TO wait at the