ith Lieutenant
White and party returning to the fort, and went back with them in order
to bring up the pack-train." He does not mention, however, that Johnson
was piloting a steamboat larger than the Explorer. Indeed, I have been
told that he failed to reply to Johnson's salute. Slowly they worked
their way up, and on up, toward their final goal, though the water was
exceptionally low. At last reaching Bill Williams Fork, Ives, who had
seen it at the time he was with Whipple about four years earlier,
could not at first find it, though, on the former occasion, in the
same season, it had been a stream thirty feet wide. It was now a feeble
rivulet, the old mouth being filled up and overgrown with willows.
Approaching Mohave Canyon, a rapid was encountered, necessitating the
carrying forward of an anchor, from which a line was brought to the bow,
and this being kept taut, with the boat under full steam the obstruction
was surmounted without damage. This was the common method of procedure
at rapids. This canyon, Ives, says was a "scene of such imposing
grandeur as he had never before witnessed," yet it is only a harbinger
of the greater sublimity extending along the water above for a thousand
miles. Mohave Canyon and The Needles soon were left behind, and they
were steaming through the beautiful Mohave Valley, where the patient
footsteps of the padres and the restless tramp of the trappers had
so long ago passed and been forgotten. Probably not one of that party
remembered that Pattie on horseback had covered this same field over
thirty years before, or that rare old Garces guided his tired mule
along these very banks a full half century ahead of Pattie. To-day,
the comfortable traveller on the railway, crossing the river near The
Needles, has also forgotten these things and Lieutenant Ives as well.

Many Cocopas, Yumas, Mohaves, and Chemehuevis were met with since the
trip began, but there had been no trouble with any of them. Ives now
began to inquire for a former guide of Whipple's, whom he pleasantly
remembered and whose name was Ireteba. Fortunately, he soon came across
him and engaged his services. Ireteba was a Mohave, but possessed one of
those fine natures found in every clime and colour. He was always true
and intelligent, and of great service to the expedition. The Explorer
pushed on, encountering many difficulties, some due to the unfortunate
timbers on the bottom, which often became wedged in rocks, besides
incr