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~ 0) '" -t "UNNI,;ON IUVFm DIVERSION PROJECT 13 take them to Delta, and thence they went back to Montrose. The foregoing account of the men's departure from the canyon is based upon a story by Will Torrence which appeared in the Montrose Enterprise for August 29, 1901. The following account, with variations, appeared in several popular periodi- cals of the day,''' was probably edited to increase the excite- ment, and may have confused the first and second expeditions. According to this version, several days after getting below the Narrows, the men found an inviting side canyon, opposite the mouth of Smith's Fork, northwest of the present western boundary of the Monument, and decided to forsake the river. They had gone thirty miles along its bed, swimming it 72 times. They scrambled 2000 feet up the Devil's Slide to the rim,- where Fellows encouraged, "Come along Bill! There's beefsteak, and bacey, and a bed at the end of the road.""9 Off they hiked, fourteen miles to the ranch house of the McMillens (or MacMil- lan) back of the rim, guided by a light in a window, The McMillens gave them a hear- ty meal, bundled them into a wagon, and that night drove them to Hotchkiss and on to Delta. There they boarded the train to Mont- rose, where a erowd of 300 people had gathered at the station to greet them. It is difficult for one, look- ing down from the rim, to visualize the immensity of the hazards these surveyors encountered. They had many portages over slippery rocks, bumped down many a rough rapid. Through this forbidding gorge they had gone, by luck without any mishaps, half-swimming, half-wading, hanging onto their raft, sometimes even lashed to it, pushing and pulling it as the occasion demanded, traveling as little as 20 yards in five hours, At night they would seek out a dry ledge above the water, sometimes so narrow they had to take turns FI<}LLOvVS SWIMMING WIIERlD \VAI...LS COULD NOT BE SCAL:E;D as li;specially F'orbes-Lil1dsey, O}J. cU.; 9378, Rocl{well, op. cit." pp. 285-287, and Slutw, 0]). cU.. 1147. :111 Forbes-Lindsey, op. cit.. tl378.