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Mayo Mayo is offline
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Default Powell: Mountain sheep feast

On 8/13/2014 4:02 AM, Opinicus wrote:
> On Wed, 13 Aug 2014 02:36:56 -0400, Travis McGee >
> wrote:
>
>> Reminds me of a passage in T. E. Lawrence's "Seven Pillars of Wisdom",
>> where he participates in an Arab sheep feast. It's repellant and
>> gustatory at the same time.

> Speaking of "repellant and gustatory", I came across this gem in the
> 1872 report:
>
> <powell>
> Now we reach the stinking water pocket; our ponies have had no water
> for thirty hours, and are eager even for this foul fluid. We carefully
> strain a kettleful for ourselves, then divide what is left between
> them-two or three gallons for each; but this does not satisfy them,
> and they rage around, refusing to eat the scanty grass. We boil our
> kettle of water, and skim it; straining, boiling, and skimming makes
> it a little better, for it was full of loathsome, wriggling larvae,
> with huge black heads. but plenty of coffee takes away the bad smell,
> and so modifies the taste that most of us can drink, though our little
> Indian seems to prefer the original mixture.
>
> - J. W. Powell, Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and its
> Tributaries (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1875), 126.
> </powell>
>
> I suppose camp coffee in the 1870s wasn't exactly Starbucks-quality.
>
> Note: The "little Indian" is their new guide, "a blear eyed, weazen
> faced, quiet old man, with his bow and arrows in one hand, and a small
> cane in the other." (122-3)
>

I suspect they would have used egg shells to settle the grounds, had
they the luxury.

Then again the Colorado River is a silt machine, so grit of any ind is
to be expected.