FORT YUMA TO MOJAVE CANNON—PURPLE HILL PASS. 49 
Camp 18, Great Colorado valley, January 11.—Provided with a new rudder we started yes-, 
terday from camp in the Canebrake cafion, with an open looking stretch of water ahead that 
gave encouragement of a good day’s run. We soon discovered that, as regards the navigation 
of the Colorado, no dependence can be placed upon appearance, for after proceeding two 
hundred yards the boat grounded upon a bar with such force that it took nearly two hours to 
get her off. After this we pursued our way through the cafion without difficulty, At a bend 
two miles above the head of the canon, the river makes rapidly against and around the base of 
a massive perpendicular rock 100 feet high. The water appeared to be whirling and eddying 
at an unusual rate, and we discovered that the Explorer was making no headway, being just 
able to hold her own against the current. There was not a great deal of steam on, so Captain 
Robinson headed towards the bank, which fortunately presented an abrupt face, and when 
SS 
Fig 4,—Purple Hill Pass. 
near enough the men sprang ashore with a tow line, and pulled us along for one or two hundred 
hundred yards, when the current resumed its accustomed flow. A short distance north of the 
rapid several high rocks, arranged in a circular form, occupy the centre of the stream, leaving 
a narrow channel on either side. A swift current and some isolated rocks above made the 
passage dangerous, and we were somewhat startled, just as we thought it safely accomplished, 
by striking rather heavily upon a sunken rock, but fortunately without sustaining any damage. 
Looking back the rocks seemed to completely block the river, and the place appeared much 
more formidable than from below. 
From the entrance to Canebrake cafion we had been pursuing a due westerly course, but now 
the river turned again to the north, winding between gravel bluffs that form a portion of the 
desert mesa which here extends to the water’s edge. Passing out from these we noticed a 
short distance westward a cluster of slender and graceful spires surrounding a spur that runs 
7 I 
