Shooting the Colorado

Four hundred miles of the most dangerous rapids in the United States--through the Grand and Marble Canyons of the Colorado--will be traversed between Aug. 1 and Oct. 1 by a party of map makers and geologists sent out by the U. S. Geological Survey, under the direction of Col. C. H. Birdseye, a World War veteran, chief topographical engineer of the Survey. Their four boats are specially constructed with air chambers, and are manned by the most skillful boatmen of the region. The men are strapped in the cockpits, wearing life preservers continually. The mapping of the Colorado has been in progress since 1909. From Lee's Ferry, Ariz., to Needles, Cal. (450 miles), the river falls 2,600 feet. The rapids have been shot only a few times since the original Powell expedition of 1869-72. This survey will cover almost 2,000 miles on the Colorado and Green Rivers and their tributaries. Besides completing the topographical maps of the region, the party will seek sites for dams, to control the floods in the Colorado, for irrigation, and for commercial power development on an extensive scale.