Brown then left to go East in order to perfect his arrangements for this attempt to survey a railway route through the dangerous canyons.

The boat party continued down Grand River to the head of the canyon, twenty-four miles, and then more slowly descended over rougher water, averaging five or six miles a day.

At a distance of forty-three miles from the start the rapids grew very bad, and at one place they were forced to make a portage for twelve miles.

At the end of one hundred miles they came to the little Mormon settlement of Moab.

From here to the Junction of the Grand and Green was a distance of sixty miles, and the water was the same as it is just above the Junction, in the canyons of the Green, Stillwater, and Labyrinth, that is, comparatively smooth and offering no obstacles except a rather swift current.