miles. It is hence somewhat unfortunate that there is a prevalent idea,
in some way, that an essential part of the grandeur of the Grand Cañon
is the narrowness of its defile.

As Major Powell expresses it, there are rather a series of cañons, than
one huge one. Wherever the river has cut its way through the sandstones,
marbles and granites of the Kaibab Mountains, beautiful and
awe-inspiring pictures are seen, while above there are domes and peaks,
some of red sandstone and some of snowy whiteness. Cataract Cañon alone
is forty-one miles long, and has seventy-five cataracts and rapids, of
which fifty-seven are within a space of nineteen miles. A journey along
the bank of a river with a waterfall every twenty feet, on the average,
is no joke, and only the hardiest men have been able to accomplish it.
In the spring of 1889, the survey party of a projected railroad from
Grand Junction to the Gulf of California, made this journey, and from
its published description more actual information can be gleaned
concerning the cañon itself than almost any mere verbal description.

The surveyors had to carry with them, on their backs, for a great
portion of the way, the limited supplies of food they took with them,
because it was frequently impossible to get the boats along at all. When
the boats were used, several were upset, and everything was uncertainty
as to the bill of fare that would be presented at the next meal, even if
there was to be a meal at all. Mr. Frank M. Brown, president of the
railroad company, lost his life in one of the whirlpools. He was in a
boat, a little ahead of the others, and seemed to be cheerful and
hopeful. He shouted to his comrades in the rear to come on with their
boats, and that he was all right. A moment later, his friends were
astonished to see the boat gone, and their leader swimming around and
around in a whirlpool, trying hard to reach smooth water.