Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1869-10-08

I
bed IN series Of rapids, whirlpools, and
cataracts and as if the terrors of Nature
we're not enough, that the canon IVES the
abode Of evil spirits, and that no man cou'd
pass through IL and live. List year living
skeleton upon raft appeared at Callville,
/ Nevada, near the lower end Of the canon,
his hair and beard as white as snow, his
| limbs 20 weak that he could not stand, his
clothing nearly all torn of, his whule frame
bruised and blistered, and his reas N tolter.
ing. When restored by rest and nursing he
gave his name as James White, and repor-
ted that Indians had attacked his mining
party on the Upper Colorado; that he aud
tive companions bad taken to the raf; that
one Of his comrades had boen dro wned, be
had killed the other 10 a quarrel, and that
he had hJated for fourteen days through the
canon, almost without TO ID, bruised against
jutting rocks tf scores of waterfalls. and
escaping death by s, ries of miracles. But
his accounts OF the Canon were necessarily y
Inaccurate, and 1t is even doubtful whether
he passed through more than q small por-
ton of IL.
Last Spring, Col. J. W. Powell, Professor
of Geology in the S ate Normal University
oi Illinois, organized an expedition for the
thorough exploration of the unknown re-
gion. Col. Powell had already deserved
we'll OF the country through the war hs
WAS u brave and modest soldier, at the h al
OF an Illinois battery, and no left his risht
arm on the field of Shloah. To this new
enterprise, for which two years of genlogi
cal studies in the mountains had aft Jrded
good preparation, he CARR a soldiers zsal
aud dsring. Toe War Department furnish
ed rstiOps for bis party the Illinois Socie-
ty of Natural History, endowed by the
Slate, contributed the outfits the railroad
companies gave free transport alton, and
Col. Powell himself became responsible for
the wages of his nine men, who were ali
hardy and experienced mountaineers. On
the 2Iih of May these ten hdventurers, em-
barking in four little ioats at the Greene
River crossing of the Union Pacific Rail-
road, disappeared from civilization on their
perilOns urney. A few weeks later the
whole North West was startled by painful
and crcumstantial report, from one who
p blessed to have belonged TO the party,
that all except himself hal been lost at one
OF the first cascades. But just after the
l. ader's obituary had been widely publish
ed, there came q letter from him an nouucjng
that all were safe. The object of the vaga
bond who circulated tho faisehOod seems to
nave been to procure railway passes from
Utah TO his home in Illinois. For long
time there were no further tidings, but
finally, on the last Of August, seven of the
party emerged in safety from the lower end
of the gorge. Their three comrades were
missing. Believing that the passage of
peculiarly Formidable cascade inst before
them would DO certain death, these three
had attempted to leave the canon on foot,
an they were probably killed by Iud aus.
Col. Powell, who had returned to his
horne at Normal, ILL.,, now gives to the Tri.
Juns the outline of his experiences, in a
sketch which is singulsrly clear, concise,
and graphic. He trav.rsed nearly nine
hundred miles mor5 upon Green River,
making the whole canon system of the Col.
orado twelve hundred miles long. For al
most this entire distance the streams are in.
clostd d hy vertical rock wo'ls, from five han
dred { lhree thousand feet high. No Is
he scenery in the least monOtoi ou'. The
rocks are worn into every conceivable form,
an 4 present many Varieties ui color bro IN,
CHIC late, slat-, gray, white, pink, orange,
and purpl". The Ciuons of the c. loraiO-
he last portion Of our continent 10 be ex
plorrd BY civilized man--f0rm the most stu
pendous natural curiosity on he globe, and, ,
however inaccrssibl', must ere long attract
a cons ant AMI eager thrrng of visitors. Tue
descent of the Mississippi is six inches TO
the mile, aud that OF the Missouri twelve or
fourteen inches but the Co Orado, for the
entire distance trsversed, falls more than
Fix feet to the mile. Col. Prwell's party
passed over between three hundred and
tour hundred cIscades, ONE of them twenty
feet high. Again and again boats wyre up
set two were utterly lost, aud the explor-
ers often had to swim for their lives. They
came out with a part of their notes and
nearly all their Instruments lost, aud With
no provisions left except twenty pounds OF
water-soaked -four. The one-armed hero
who led them touches very lightly and
mpdestly upon their perils. We could
wi,h, too, that he had loli us more of ths
my sterious Muqui Indians who 81 lately
dwet in the Great Canon In houses perch
ed, | ke swallows mes 9, in little inches Of
OF the rocks, a thousand feet above the rv-
hr. But We trust that he will repeat his
story this Winter bef,ire many lecture asso.
Citations, and will then give it to the puclic
in a more complete aud permanent FORM
IL W N be valuable contribution to ph5 ST.
cal science and to American history, and
will form one of the most fascinating cap
ters in the whole record OF explorations, an'
cient and modem.