Note: Although this entry is from the thirteenth day of the 1869
expedition I've held off posting it until the end because I was
curious about what became of the keg.

It's never mentioned again...

<powell>
June 10.- I have determined to get the barometers from the wreck, if
they are there. After breakfast, while the men make the portage, I go
down again for another examination. There the cabin lies, only carried
fifty or sixty feet further on.

Carefully looking over the ground, I am satisfied that it can be
reached with safety and return to tell the men my conclusion. Sumner
and Dunn volunteer to take the little boat and make the attempt. They
start, reach it, and out come the barometers; and now the boys set up
a shout, and I join them, pleased that they should be as glad to save
the instruments as myself. When the boat lands on our side, I find
that the only things saved from the wreck were the barometers, a
package of thermometers, and a three gallon keg of whisky, which is
what the men were shouting about. They had taken it aboard, unknown to
me, and now I am glad they did, for they think it will do them good,
as they are drenched every day by the melting snow, which runs down
from the summits of the Rocky Mountains.

- J. W. Powell, Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and its
Tributaries (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1875), 26.
</powell>

--
Bob
www.kanyak.com