The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 4, 1901, Page 8

THE SUNDAY CALL. Black Canyon of t on —the most frightful gorge in the geological wonder- 1 the West—has been con- quered by man. A party of bold expiorers has passed through it and emerged in safety, climbing over almost v c a mile in Leight. 4 have done what no other human have ever accomplished—what it Wwas believed no human beings could Successfully a mpt The story reads like ¥ tale, and no wonder. It the surface of the earth—a river ghted by the sun, which flows ough a chasm of appalling profund where only bears and mysterious s find a_home. _ghastly gash ripped through a desert tableiand is the Black Canvon. Some monstrous Titan in a vaniched epoch 3 have cut it with a jagged knife— cut through the strata of the plateau to of half a mile, as one slices a ver cake, but awkwardly, so that the &ap produced is irregular and torn. Black it is called because its extreme narrow- ness in proportion to its profundity makes it a chasm of perpetual gloom, the river at its bottom running through a sunless avenue of towering walls of ever- lasting rock ough caverns heretofore deemed measureless to man the rapid Gunnison, itself In reality the carver of this won- derful canyon, pursues its course. From time to time 'adventurous persons iave thought of trying to make the trip from end 1o end of the gorge in boats, and one ettempt of this kind was actually made & few years ago by a surveying party sent out by the Denver 2nd Rio Grande Rallway 10 examine the canyon and de. termine whether a road could be built through it On the first day out the boat which carried the expedition was swamped, all the provisions being lost, and the voy- agers, fortunate to escape with their lives, 2bandoned the project The successful accomplishment of the feat was reserved for five men, who set out on September 10 last, with a deter- mination 10 go through the canyon or perish in the effort. Their names were John H. Pelton, J. A. Curtis. M. F Hovey, W. W. Torrence and B. An dérson. Pelton had been a pioneer in the Yukon country in early days, long before the gold discoveries, and his com. panions, with the exception of Curtis, who was 2 civil engineer and relativel a tenderfoot, were likewise hardened ad- venturers, afraid of nothing in the way of danger or difficulty. Two boats were loaded with provisions, a cooking outfit, surveyors' instruments. a camera and other necessarfes, and thus equipped the explorers set out upon their perilous Journey. It was by no means a spirit of mere @are-devil adventure that inspired the ex- edition. The object of it was to find out f there was not some path by which the waters of the Gunnison River could be conducted ‘out of the tunnel and made to irrigate the drought parched farms of the neighboring_region. It was a_ question whether a “hillside ditch™ might not be buils in the chasm, so as to bring a por- tion of the descending stream near the tops of the cliffs, and so save tunneling three and a balf miles through the moun- talns—a costly enterprise which the resi- dents of the Uncompahgre Valley are de- termined to undertake if it is proved that there is no other way to get water. Before going further, it may be well to state that the exploration ylelded con- evidence of the of the ditch plant. | each boat were which a rope could Ve run for letting the craft down rapids. The larger of the boats, named the City of Montrose, was cighteen feet long and three beam; empty it weighed 400 pounds. other one was called the John C. Bell. On the second day of the voyage the John C. Bell was wrecked. boat had Dbeen through a narrow rapid, hauled up on the bank, and the explerers returned to bring the other one through. They had let it down almost length of the cable when impracticability It was found that the walls of the canyon became steeper as depths were reached. wenty-one days in making a journey of fourteen miles from the junction of the Cimarron River with the Gunnison, near Cimarron station, and in_that distance five points at which it ble for even the most ex- pert cliff climber to scale the rocky walls and ‘get out of the gorge. while only thirty feet apart in places, are from 2100 to 2600 feet high, and as a rule are nearly perpendicular. there is not so much as a foothold to be bad, and were a ditch to be built, the workmen would have to begin at the en- trance of the canyon and cut it out of the lid rock all of the way. A glance at a map will show that the Gunnison River, which pursues its tortu- us way along the bottom of the Black LCanyon, eventually joins the Grand River, an affluent of the mighty Colorado. Wwas the project of the expedition to fol- low the current of the stream through the gorge until, if they were successful in making the passage, they shomld reach Delta station, beyond the further end. party had two boats of very or-/ which were however, with extra the bottoms and enable them to with- stand collisions with rocks, while, for an The party was successfully would be pos: around in such a manner that it fetched up fore and aft upon some bowlders be- tween which the instant its sides were crushed and fragments of the wreck, with one-half the provisions and outfit, Not the slightest trace of Q wreckage or of the lost articies was found during the rest of the voyage. places the river disa owing under huso les of bowlders, which have fallen from Tearing beneath In many places rely from sight, fi a_ deafening roar, at times so loud that two men stand- ing with hands clasped cannot make their voices audible to each other. parts of the canyon the stream flows on in awesome silence, the rock walls rising so steeply and so far aloft as to exclude the rays of the sun. The explorers’ sensations were as If the, had been in the depths of looking up toward the skv at full noon- day. they could see the stars shimmering overhead as if it were midnight. At oge spot it was necessary to haul the keels to strengthen 2 mine, and, ribbed with iron rods. At the bow and s in l P 4. i e s ¥l 'r’." Ll i R AN heavy boat for & considerable distance at and various queer Kinds a height of 120 feet above the river, wiich including jumping mice, 3 was there rushing at terrific speed under and pack rats—those curious and hignly the rocks. Again, there would be a short disreputable relatives i space of water in which the craft could house rat, which make a business be launched, though it had to te let down stealing #om iraveiers’ the rapids by means of a rope. The boat they can lay paws upon, from a spoon was used chiefly in crossing the stream any small article of merchandise, their from time to tiine, but where possible it only object in view apparently bemg mis- was floated, with tbe outfits on board. It chief. High up on the mountains, would be lét down with the utmost care- occurs the pika. otherwise known as the fulness, one man aboard, standing in the “little chief,” which middle, with a long pike with which he rabbits and one of the least knowa of kept it from being pounded to pieces on American animals. the rocks. At other stages it was not A peculiar and quite 3 safe to trust the precious outfit in the was found in the canyon, which excited boat and the men would strap the instru- the curiosity of the ) on expedition. They describe it as a weird the ‘sort of feathered creature, which sought narrow rock shelf beside the torrent. the solitude of the very darkest part of From the beginning of the trip to the ‘the gorge. What it actually was nobody end only a few animals were seen, theugh can say. though the abyss is known to be a veral species of owls—lung was espied. During the first few days the eared owls, littie screech owls, big horned bears were comparatively numerous, owls, and the great sawwhet owls, waich those creatures having long made the last get their name from their stranze entrance to the canyon their home, ard cry, which sounds like the sharpening of they seemed to resent the intrusion uf a saw. Another bird that finds its home ments, bundles of provisions, etc,\ their backs, treading their way along an occasional bear or a_mountain shesp inhabited b: the strangers, growling savagely. But as in the canyon is the depths of the gorge were reached it which has a - peculiar becamgtmo wild 1%: gme bears, though note. A notion of the tumultuous char- not for the mountain sheep—timid brutes acter of the Gunnison River is obtained which have been hunted from every spot from the fact that its waters, as they that man can reach, rifle in hand. Ths flow through the gorge, are without 5 bears were of the black or cinnamon being too rough even for the hardy moun- species, which find a congenial home in tain trout, which are supposed to revel in such inhospitable regions. any torrent. One reason for the apparent scarcity of The first fourteen days of the trip were animals was that most of the creatures the easy ones, relatively speaking, ten of which make their abode in the canyon sre the fourteen miles being covered in that appropriately enough nocturnal in habit.: period. Seven days were Even in that gloomy abyss the day is t00 traveling the remaining four miles. light for them. There are woodchucks cne serious accident occurred, and this 7 of rodents, kangaroo mice the cominon camps whatever is a relative o unfamiliar bird and melancholy happened on the seventh day. when Hovey fell from a bowlder, striking on his head and receiving a severe scalp wound. On one day during this last stage of the Journey the explorers were able to travel only 1500 feet, mearly all of the distance being over rocks where the boat had first to be unloaded and then dragged. Into this part of the chasm it is impossible for any human being to enter alive except by the way these T'Ve men came. The walls rise to a height of just about half a mi® almost vertically, and often there is Ao footing on either side of the river. une or two of the party would o ahead, ex- amine the prospect in front of them for a few vards and then return to st in moving the boat. At every 100 or 2/ feet, sometimes, the boat had to be ualoaded and the outfit carried on the backs of the members of the pariy. but now and then it happened that they could no longer find any foothold, and under such eircum- stances there was nothing to do but to trust entirely to the boat. taking the chance of what a sharp turn in the stream 2 short distance ahead might reveal. On the day before the last of the jour- ney the whole party got a ducking, the boat being caught in a whlrlgflul and sub- merged. Similar accidents happened more than once on the trip, making it neces- sary to land, bufld a fire and dry the clothes and bedding. Most unfortunately, many photographs which had been taken were destroyed by the wetting of the fiims. The last day was the saddest. When undergoing hardships men of the kind that composed this party are not down- hearted, and the greatest danger is re- sardcd with a smile. Any one's mishap, - dured, and which would have disheart- it the resmit i3 not serious, 1s a subject of joke, and the accidents which befeil Cur- tis, the only tenderfoot of the expedition, gave rise to much ¢ perience In boating cau called the “landlubber,” a strange title for a man to win 1400 miles from the seat and more than a mile above sea level, but on 7, when it became obvious that d not be completed and must be abandoned, there was genuine sorrow. After the hardships that had beeu en- ened less seasoned men, they that there was one part of through which no means men can ¢ mand could possibly carry them. They had come to a cataract sixty feet in height, between precipitous walls of solid rock of an altitude so tremendous as to ex- clude the sunlight at noon. On neither side was there s possibility 2 g a footing by which to make descent. Even if they ould manage to lower the boat In safety, they would be unable to follow It. Nor was there any certainty, if they assed the falls, that they could escape- o return che way tney had come was jmi- possible. . The boat could not be fofced back agsnst the current, and it was out of the question to carry their provisions, even if they had had enou 6 last them on a return trip. The capyon was only thirty feet wide at the bottom, and above then loomed the nearly vertical walls whi¢n seemed likely to hem them in for- vyT. fhe situation seemed desperate enough. 7o scale one of the walls was their only tion, d they did it. Everything was left behind. The boat was abandoned, and with it the outfit, inciuding provisions and water. There was not a dry eye i y as_the explorers, Just a ak. bade farewell to the sturdy aft that had brought them through such ulties and dangers, and turned their faces to the Stripped ot they began daybreak to 1l o'clock at n T -ation of 2600 feet (just about half a mile) on a 600 foot siope. 'That is to say, ihey were but 600 feet back from the river and %00 feet above it. All of these hours they had reither food nor water. At the top they found friends, who pro- vided them with everything they needed Not yet daunted, they tried to ascertain if it would not be practicable to approach the impassable falls from the other end . _e. from Delta Station. . they learned, would not be difficult up to a point within one and half miles of the cataract—the Falls of S 3 the explorers named them— again was a stretch that could n ba vassed. They have not vet given up the enterprise. and this winter they will make another attempt to reach the fajls from the Delta end of the gorge, when the river is frozen, starting out with ice hooks nd spiked boots, and carrying their out- fit on a sled. E