Joseph Henry

the most significant words in this statement are old enough for they show that even before powell had explored the colorado he had somehow come to understand that a large muddy river must rapidly acquire a graded course even though at the bottom of a deep canyon still enclosed by high walls Powell returned from the West by rail to Chicago in the spring of 1869 to get boats for the expedition.

It was organized as a geographical and geological survey, supported by an appropriation from Congress, and placed under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, of which the then Secretary, Joseph Henry, advised that the collection of ethnological data should be made a leading feature of the journey.

the party consisted of ten men they embarked may twenty fourth eighteen sixty nine in four boats where the union pacific railroad crosses the green river in southwestern wyoming followed green river through deep gorges in the uinta mountains to its junction in open country with the grand river below which point the name colorado is given then continued down the colorado through its profound canyons and the plateaus of southeastern utah and northern arizona to the open country near the nevada line on august twenty ninth singularly enough no sufficient account of this adventurous journey was published until several years afterward although it attracted much notice at the time a few brief summaries regarding the canyon and the adjacent region are buried in the congressional documents of the early seventies but powell did not at first intend to publish any full report of what he had done and seen his famous volume exploration of the colorado river of the west eighteen seventy five one of the best narratives of adventure anywhere to be found was not written until four or five years after the event and then only on the insistence of representative later president garfield as powell tells in eighteen ninety five in the preface to his popular book the canyons of the colorado in addition to his report of eighteen seventy five several articles were contributed to popular science monthly and to scribner's magazine for that year the country traversed was of exceptional interest and his articles awakened widespread attention his official report treated the journey in a singularly free and unconventional manner for powell reproduced his original diary keeping the narrative in the present tense as when written in the canyon with the result of giving a vivacity to his story unusual in government publications yet one may read it without learning that the author had lost his right forearm the climax of the journey is reached when after the party had made nearly all the dangerous distance in a little less than three months three of the men insist that further progress is too perilous and that the river must be abandoned they seek a way out by climbing up to the plateau surface the others persist in following the river and that very afternoon come upon a group of the most dangerous falls in the whole journey it is interesting to note that these falls do not constitute an exception to powell's expectation that the river must have already graded its course in the uplifted rocks of the plateaus for the obstruction which here caused the falls was formed in an exceptional manner by flows of lava that had in altogether unpredictable fashion cascaded down from the volcanoes of the uinkaret plateau on the north so recently that they have not yet been cleared away by the river as these falls are approached from up stream there is no possibility of seeing their face and choosing the least dangerous point for descent the walls are too steep for a portage along the bank so one of the men bradley approaches the brink of the fall in a boat held by a tow-line from the cliffs the current soon becomes so strong that the boat cannot be drawn back bradley promptly cuts the line and plunges over the falls whirling in waves and foam sinking out of sight rising again safe on board and waving his hat powell then tells his own manner of descent with two of his men we run to the other boat jump aboard push out and away we go over the falls a wave rolls over us and our boat is unmanageable another great wave strikes us the boat rolls over and tumbles and tosses i know not how all i know is that bradley is picking us up we soon have all right again and row to the cliff and wait until sumner and w h powell can come along the wall after a difficult climb they reach us we run two or three miles farther and turn again to the northwest continuing until night when we have run out of the granite once more an early start is made the next morning the river still continues swift but we have no serious difficulty and at twelve o'clock emerge from the grand canyon of the colorado thus simply it is told that on august twenty ninth three months after the start from green river the party victoriously passes out of the deep canyon into the open country of the great basin some of the men go on down the river powell went northward through mormon settlements to salt lake city and thence home he had been preceded by reports of disaster and had the pleasure of reading a number of obituary notices of his life the good fortune of this daring journey was deservedly of great service to its chief it developed his capacity for leadership in the field it received much attention in the newspapers of the time and thus gave its head a national reputation as a bold adventurous successful explorer best of all it secured the full confidence of men at washington who could aid his further work when in later years of exploration the men of his party gathered around the camp-fire and the major talked to them of his passage through the great caon his influence over all his hearers was so profound that in the days that followed a word from him was sufficient to cause the men to go anywhere or to do anything no matter what the personal danger might be and this is no wonder for he was loyally devoted to his men of his companions through the canyon, he wrote years afterward.

I was a maimed man, my right arm was gone, and these brave men, these good men, never forgot it.

Philosophical Bearings of Darwinism, Washington, 1882, page 12.

Powell's interest in Indian customs and languages was at first combined with some attention to problems in the practical administration of Indian affairs.

He was appointed by Congress in 1872, a commissioner to examine the condition of certain tribes in the Far West, and his report, made jointly with G. W. Ingalls, was his first ethnological publication, 1874. it was at this time that he discussed the causes and remedies for the inevitable conflict that arises from the spread of civilization over a region previously inhabited by savages but in his later studies the indians unmodified by contact with the whites were his subject Secretary Henry of the Smithsonian Institution, who had early given Powell encouragement and assistance in the direction of ethnology, was greatly impressed with the exploration of the Colorado.

Regarding the report upon which he later wrote, quote, The whole work will do honor to the appreciation by the government of scientific information of this kind, as well as of the ability and perseverance of Professor Powell and his assistants.

EXPLORATION OF THE COLORADO CANYON it was truly a daring project professor brewer of yale wrote of it some years later in effect as follows being in colorado while powell was making his trip down the river i was intensely anxious as to his fate for i thought his project a mad scheme the river has an average fall of ten or fifteen feet per mile and i had assumed that there must be great falls or that the explorer must approach them from above on telling powell of this some years later he answered in substance have you never seen the river it is the muddiest river you ever saw rapids i expected of course but not falls i was convinced that the canyon was old enough and the muddy water swift enough and gritty enough to have worn down all falls to mere rapids i entered the canyon with confidence that i would have no high falls to stop us although there might be bad rapids and i believed that we might overcome them in some way and we did the most significant words in this statement are old enough for they show that even before powell had explored the colorado he had somehow come to understand that a large muddy river must rapidly acquire a graded course even though at the bottom of a deep canyon still enclosed by high walls Powell returned from the West by rail to Chicago in the spring of 1869 to get boats for the expedition.

It was organized as a geographical and geological survey, supported by an appropriation from Congress, and placed under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, of which the then Secretary, Joseph Henry, advised that the collection of ethnological data should be made a leading feature of the journey.

the party consisted of ten men they embarked may twenty fourth eighteen sixty nine in four boats where the union pacific railroad crosses the green river in southwestern wyoming followed green river through deep gorges in the uinta mountains to its junction in open country with the grand river below which point the name colorado is given then continued down the colorado through its profound canyons and the plateaus of southeastern utah and northern arizona to the open country near the nevada line on august twenty ninth singularly enough no sufficient account of this adventurous journey was published until several years afterward although it attracted much notice at the time a few brief summaries regarding the canyon and the adjacent region are buried in the congressional documents of the early seventies but powell did not at first intend to publish any full report of what he had done and seen his famous volume exploration of the colorado river of the west eighteen seventy five one of the best narratives of adventure anywhere to be found was not written until four or five years after the event and then only on the insistence of representative later president garfield as powell tells in eighteen ninety five in the preface to his popular book the canyons of the colorado in addition to his report of eighteen seventy five several articles were contributed to popular science monthly and to scribner's magazine for that year the country traversed was of exceptional interest and his articles awakened widespread attention his official report treated the journey in a singularly free and unconventional manner for powell reproduced his original diary keeping the narrative in the present tense as when written in the canyon with the result of giving a vivacity to his story unusual in government publications yet one may read it without learning that the author had lost his right forearm the climax of the journey is reached when after the party had made nearly all the dangerous distance in a little less than three months three of the men insist that further progress is too perilous and that the river must be abandoned they seek a way out by climbing up to the plateau surface the others persist in following the river and that very afternoon come upon a group of the most dangerous falls in the whole journey it is interesting to note that these falls do not constitute an exception to powell's expectation that the river must have already graded its course in the uplifted rocks of the plateaus for the obstruction which here caused the falls was formed in an exceptional manner by flows of lava that had in altogether unpredictable fashion cascaded down from the volcanoes of the uinkaret plateau on the north so recently that they have not yet been cleared away by the river as these falls are approached from up stream there is no possibility of seeing their face and choosing the least dangerous point for descent the walls are too steep for a portage along the bank so one of the men bradley approaches the brink of the fall in a boat held by a tow-line from the cliffs the current soon becomes so strong that the boat cannot be drawn back bradley promptly cuts the line and plunges over the falls whirling in waves and foam sinking out of sight rising again safe on board and waving his hat powell then tells his own manner of descent with two of his men we run to the other boat jump aboard push out and away we go over the falls a wave rolls over us and our boat is unmanageable another great wave strikes us the boat rolls over and tumbles and tosses i know not how all i know is that bradley is picking us up We soon have all right again and row to the cliff and wait until Sumner and W.H. Powell can come along the wall.

After a difficult climb they reach us.

End of section 19 section twenty of biographical memoir of john wesley powell eighteen thirty four to nineteen o two by william morris davis ethnological work although powell is probably known to a greater number of persons as a geologist than as an ethnologist his publications on ethnology and anthropology and on the philosophical problems into which the study of these sciences led him are apart from purely administrative reports twice as numerous as those on geology and it appears that his contributions to the content of the sciences of Earth and of man stand in about the same proportion.

His active interest in ethnology began when he came into contact with the Indian tribes of western Colorado and eastern Utah in the summer of 1868.

It was probably reinforced by Secretary Henry's advice that special study of the Indians should be made during the canyon journey.

next year.