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Russell and Monett Start. Accordingly, Russell and Monett pushed ahead
and put in many days prospecting along the shores of Glen Canyon.
After forty-three days of waiting at Lee's Ferry, Russell and Monett
decided that if they were to complete the trip before their now
rapidly decreasing supply of provisions was exhausted, they must
start on without Loper, for whom they had waited more than twice the
time agreed on. Friday, December 13, had no terrors for the intrepid
pair, and on the morning of that day they started on down the river,
with the sixty-six miles of Marble Canyon in front of them, an
introduction to the two hundred and seventeen miles of the Grand
Canyon below. Their Remarkable Nerve. In telling of this stage of the journey,
Russell seemed to lose sight entirely of the remarkable nerve both
men showed in starting down through what is admittedly the wildest
stretch of continuous bad water in the whole river. And that, too,
without the third companion, who at the outset had been considered
absolutely indispensable to the success of the party. Instead, he
emphasized rather his belief that Loper had elected to face no more
dangers, and had voluntarily remained behind at Hite.
First Seven Days Passed in Safety. In seven days they had passed the
length of the roaring stream, in its descent through perpendicular
walls of marble, reaching up to an average height of two thousand
five hundred feet, and had come through the worst rapids to that point
without damage to either boat. At one stage there are fifty-seven
falls of from sixteen to twenty feet in a distance of nineteen miles,
according to Stanton's records, in which was kept an accurate count
of all the rapids in the river. Enter the Grand Canyon. They entered the Grand Canyon December 20.
For the first fifteen miles below the entrance of the Little Colorado,
and the beginning of the big Canyon, they found comparatively quiet
water. But from this point, on to the beginning of the first granite
gorge, their way was threatened with the worst falls they had met
thus far. The good luck which had attended them from the start,
however, still prevailed, and they managed to shoot their way safely
down over the almost continuous cataracts for five long days. Christma
found them only fifteen miles above Bright Angel. In describing the
manner of their celebration, Russell remarked casually that they
certainly "hung their stockings"--to dry. From beginning to end of
their journey, the adventurers were obliged to depend entirely for
fuel on such driftwood as they could find lodged in eddies and on the
rocky shores. More than one night they spent in clothes soaked
through with the icy water of the Colorado, with no fire to warm
them. Their Christmas camp, however, was on a narrow strip of sand,
with a greater supply of driftwood at hand than they had found at any
point along the river.
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