CHAPTER IX.
A Canyon of Cataracts--The Imperial Chasm--Short Rations--A Split in the Party--Separation--Fate of the Howlands and Dunn--The Monster Vanquished.
Powell's winter of investigation had probably given him a good idea of what kind of rapids might be expected in the formations composing the canyons as far as the mouth of Grand River, but he now had confronting him water which for aught he could tell might indulge in plunges of a hundred feet or more at one time, between absolutely vertical walls.
And the aspect of the surroundings at the junction of the Green and the Grand is not reassuring.

It is a barren and dismal place, with no footing but a few sand-banks that are being constantly cut away and reformed by the whirling current, except on their higher levels where a few scrawny hackberry trees and weeds find room to continue a precarious existence.

To get out of or into this locality either by climbing the cliffs or by navigating the rivers is a difficult feat, and to trust oneself to the current blindly rushing down toward the sea is even worse, more especially so on the occasion of this first descent when all beyond was a complete blank.

But the party faced the future bravely and cheerfully.

They climbed out at two points on tours of inspection of the country above, while some took the opportunity to overhaul the supply of rations, which, having been so often wet, was seriously damaged.
The flour was musty and full of hard lumps.