ow the fort. "It was much swollen, and rushed by with great velocity,
washing away the banks and carrying with it numberless snags and trees."
Never is the Colorado tranquil. As they followed up the stream they
suddenly found the road washed away, and were obliged to cut a new path
through the underbrush. This proved a long task, so with the pack-mules
he pushed on, leaving the waggons to come later. Antoine Leroux was the
guide. When they reached the place he had selected for a camp and had
unpacked the mules, it was found that the water could not be approached
because of the abruptness of the washed-out bank, so they were compelled
to saddle again and go on toward the fort, though they had been riding
since one o'clock in the morning.

* Personal Narrative of Exploration, by John Russell Bartlett.

They were finally stopped altogether by a bayou and had to wait for a
boat from the fort with which to cross it. When they came finally to
the crossing of the river itself to the Arizona side they had a slow and
difficult time of it. Sometimes the scow they used failed to reach the
landing-place on the other side and the strong current would then sweep
it two or three miles down the river before the men could get it to the
shore. The next operation would be to tow it back to some low place,
where the animals on it could be put ashore. This is a sample of the
difficulties always encountered in crossing when the river was at flood.
From Yuma looking northward the river can be traced for about fifteen
miles before it is lost in the mountains. See cut on page 26. Bartlett
desired to explore scientifically down to the mouth, but the government
failed to grant him the privilege. He and Major Emory were not on good
terms and there was a great deal of friction about all the boundary
work, arising chiefly from the appointment of a civilian commissioner.
Bartlett mentions Leroux's "late journey down the Colorado," on which
occasion he met with some Cosninos, but just where he started from is
not stated, though it was certainly no higher up than the mouth of the
Grand Wash.

In 1852 the steamer Uncle Sam was brought out on a schooner from San
Francisco and put together at the mouth of the river, but after a few
months she most strangely went to the bottom, while her owner, Turnbull,
was on the way from San Francisco with new machinery for her. Turnbull
came in the schooner General Patterson, which was bearing stores for the