But the arrangements were completed before Stanton was engaged.

All the men were surprised, disappointed, dismayed, at the character of the boats Brown had provided for this dangerous enterprise, and Stanton said his heart sank at the first sight of them.

They were entirely inadequate, built of cedar instead of oak, only fifteen feet long and three feet wide, and weighed but one hundred and fifty pounds each.

They would have been beautiful for an ordinary river, but for the raging, plunging, tumultuous Colorado their name was suicide.

Then not a life-preserver had been brought.