Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1873-03-11
Discoveries in Western ArA,er-
lea.

Five years ago lin 1869 a great
Nver gatAerinssits waters for a thous-
and miles among the deep gOrges and
Snow-clad SUBMITS of the Rocky
Mountains plunged into the Grand
Canon" of the Colorado. and was,lost
for five hundred miles, till, as was sup.
posed, it was found within hundred
or two miles OF the Gulf of California.
For half century the nation had
owned the mountains in which it had
its origin. and for nearly half that
time the head Of the gulf into which
it poured its waters but the desert
wastes through which it ran were as
much a mystery as the sources of the
Nile. Mountain trappers and Indian
scouts had followed down the Greene
and the Grand rivers to where they
unite and form the Colorado of the
West; Fremont and Gunnison had
crossed chem at various points; Lieu
tenant Ives hadexplored the Colorado
from the Gulf of California up into q
marvellous canon, but all between
was alike unknown TO science. Vast
and sterile as the central regions of
America confeSsedly are, the igno-
rance which prevailed so long in re-
gard to this vast river where by no
IueanG creditable to our Wanted en- =
terprise. Prompted by a determine
ton to solve this mystery, Major
Powell. a professor in the Illinois Nor.
NAL University. obtained from Con-
gress in the winter Of l867-'6S an APP
preparation in the shape of transporter
ton and Fashions for small party,
with whom he proposed to follow the
Colorado down to the Gulf of CaIifor>
MIA.
In the spring Of Sos he crossed the
Berthoud Pass Of the Rocky Noun
tains. west ofGeorgetown, and follow
ed down the Grand river to South.
western Colorado. where most of his
party went into winter quarters -
Major Powell returned to this city,
had four beats built of peculiar con-
Struction and great strength, and ear
~ in the spring of 1869 he had them
transported by the Union Pacific rail-
way to Green ri,cr. There they were
launched, and he commenced his
long and dangerous voyage down the
Green, principal branch of the Col
orado, TO the Gulf Of California. The
description of the canon of the Green
through the Uintab Mountains. fully
detailed at the time in our columns
by Major POWELL himself, adding a
new and wonderful chapter to our
knowledge of the topography of the
country. In due time the tiny fleet,
with its brave crew, arrived at the
head of the Grand Canon of the COL
orado and plunged into its mysterious
recesses. After months of toll and
dangers without number; after the
loss of some of the boats while shoot
ing the rapids, and many hambreadth
escapes for drowning. Major Powell
and his party reached the section Of
the river explored by Lieutenant Ives,
and TO their lasting honor the Grand
Canon of the Colorado is no longer a
mystery. Its cascades and its cata-
ractS. its axful gorges. some of them
more than 5000 feet "a mile and a
,,uarter) deep; its geology, and many
curious facts in regard to the extinct
races who once sought refuge from
their savage foes among its beetling
cragS. are all knoTn to the readers of
the newspapers.
But the most wonderful discoveries
made within the last five years are the
peysers at the head.waters of the Vel
lowstope. They win ever be ranked
among the wonders of the wCrld.-
From childhood we have all seen pici-
ures of the great geysers in Iceland
They are still in all our school geos-
raphies, The voyage thither is so
long and expensive. the journey milan
for fifty or one hundred miles so dam
perous aud difficult, and, withal, Ice,
llnd is so near the north pole. that
rrobably not one in million "ho had
ff,1s,, pTCF