The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its CanyonsCourier Corporation, 1961-01-01 - 400 psl. The time is 1 p.m., May 24, 1869. The place: the Green River portage, in present-day Wyoming. The personnel are ten: Major John W. Powell, one-armed Civil War veteran, later head of the U. S. Geological Survey) and nine geologists, geographers, scouts, and adventurers. Their assignment: to fill in the last white space on the map, to explore the last great unmapped and unknown part of the continental United States. No man has ever descended the Colorado River -- some 1,000 miles cut through impassable badlands. It is known that there are other rivers in the area, like the Dirty River and the Grand River, but their interrelationships are unknown. What lies along the course of the Colorado as it flows between cliffs 5,000 feet high on either side? Some say that there are waterfalls that dwarf Niagara; others that there are impassable rapids; others that the river flows underground; others say that it is a smooth placid stream, lined by horizon-reaching fields of wild wheat. No one knows, not even the Indians. Major Powell wrote the account of this remarkable expedition, and his narrative is one of the great classics of exploration, as thrilling as the feat itself. As we follow Powell's journal (expanded for publication), we find the ten men sailing through wild waters, momentarily expecting rapids around the next bend; and finding rapids, throwing out drag anchors, while one advanced boat tries to find through-flowing channels. We see mutiny, as three men refuse to face the perils any longer and desert -- to be massacred by the hostile Indians. Famine -- the beans are sprouting, the apples are fermenting, and the flour has gone moldy. Yet six men finally emerged, after 95 days of peril and a new continent of experience was recorded. This is the only uncut version of Powell's narrative that has been printed in the many years. It even includes the full text of the later 1870 expedition along the Uinta, where Powell rediscovered the Pueblo Indians. It also contains Powell's later reflections on the expedition, omitted in other editions. |
Kiti leidimai - Peržiūrėti viską
The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons John Wesley Powell Trumpų ištraukų rodinys - 1961 |
Pagrindiniai terminai ir frazės
alcoves altitude ancient Basin beautiful beds boat brink broken buttes camp canyon walls carved caves channel cinder cones climb clouds Colorado Chiquito Colorado River colors crags creek crevice deep distance east escarpment fall feet high foot forms gneiss gorge Grand Canyon gray gulch head hundred illustrations Indians Kaibab Kaibab Plateau Kanab kiva lakes land lava limestone line of cliffs Little Colorado look Marble Canyon mesas miles morning mountains mouth naked narrow Navajo night oars Oraibi Park pass peaks pines Pink Cliffs pinnacles places Plateau portage pueblos rain rapids reach red wall region Rio Virgen rocks rolls ruins sand sandstone seen side canyons slope sometimes springs stand Stone Shirt stream stretch summit swift terrace to-day towering tribes Tusayan Uinta Uinta Mountains valley vast Vermilion Cliffs vertical volcanic Walpi Wasatch Mountains waves Whirlpool Canyon Zuñi