Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1916-01-06
Town. NORTH DAKOTA, Eh'RsDAY, JANUARY 6, 1915.

,RTH DAKOTA, THURSDAY, JANU.
their start from G4en River City on
May "a. Two Of the boats were
decked, forming water-tight COM
partments.
Now, after three months Of labori-
GUS battle with rapids and waterfalls
and the still more laborious explora-
tion of innumeraple side canyons,
they had reached with scant provis-
ions, the suprdmd test of strength
and courage.
What falls there are," says his
diary, I'VE knOH NIT; what rocks be-
set the channel, VI know not; what
walls rise on tho riFer, we know not.
All, well, we may conjecture many
things. The menft talk as cheerfully
as ever; jests ate bandiedf about
freely this morning; but to me the
cheer is somber and the jests are
CHASTITY"
The following lay comes the first
of many tests. Tie diary goes on:
First of Many Upsets.
ABOUT i q ClY;h we near b STcd u
roar ahead and approach it very
cautiously. The found grows louder
and louder as W. run, and at last
we find ourselves hbove a long, brok-
en- fall, with led9s and pinnacles of
rock obstructing the river. There is
a descent of perhaps IS or 80 feet
in a third of MITE, and the rushing
waters break intoIgreat waves on the
rocks and dash themselves into a
mad, white foam We can land just
above, but thereI is no foothold on
either side by which We can make a
portage.
1T is nearly a thousand feet to the
top of the granite, so it will be i'm
possible to carry our boats around
though we can climb to the summit
up a side gulch, and, passing along
a mile or two, tan descend to the
river. This we find on examination;
but such q portaSe would be imprac-
ticable for US, and we must run the
rapid or abandon the river. There
is no hesitation. We step into our
boats, push OF, and away we go, first
on smooth but swift water, then we
strike CLASSY wave, and ride to its
top, down again into the trough, ul
again on a higher wave, and down
and up on waves higher and still
higher, until we strike one just as II
curls back, and q breaker rolls over
our little boat.
"Still, on we sped, shooting past
projecting rocks, till the little boat
is caught in q whirlpool and spun
around several times. At last we
pull out again into the stream.
Hurled back from rock, now or
this side, now on that, we are carried
into an eddy, in which we struggle
for few minutes, and are then ou'
again, the breakers still rolling ove1
u.s." ~
How Bright Angel Was Named.
The many thousands who have de
scended the Bright Angel Trail "a
the Grand Canyon viii be intereste;
in this entry date of August 16:
"The little affluent which we hav'
discovered here is clear, beautiful
creek-or river, as it would b.
termed in this western country where
streams are not abundant. We hav'
named one stream away above il
honor of the great chief of the 'Bat
Angels and, as this is in beautiful
contrast to that, we conclude to nam'
it Bright Angel"
Deserters Never Returned.
The diary recounts continual sue
cession of exciting battles with fate
Meantime, in repeated upsets, one o
their boats is lost and most of thei
flour destroyed. They are down tt
a few days. rations, principally o
dried apples.
On August % three of the part!
left them, preferring to take thei
chances of climbing the almost per
pendicular walls and finding thei
way to some settlement.
These men were never heard o
again.
And the very next day the party
after a most exciting passage over :
series of rocky cascades, swept ou
of the Grand Canyon in safety.
He repeated the passage, for sci
entific research, two years later ant
then he used a boat into which HI
was strapped. Several times thi'
boat rolled over in the rapids ant
once nearly drowned him.