MOJAVE VALLEY TO MOUTH OF BLACK CANON —ACCIDENT TO STEAMBOAT. 81 
ascend; but the bow was not pointed exactly towards the centre of the fork, and, being thrown 
off by the eddy, the boat would go down stream, whirling around like a teetotum. After four 
or five unsuccessful trials, Captain Robinson struck the right point, and we got through with- 
out further trouble. The worst places encountered have been where the banks were low and 
destitute of vegetation, and the rocky bed of the river afforded no holding ground near by for 
an anchor. The lines have become almost worn out by hard service; the skiff is badly battered, 
and scarcely able to float, and all the oars are broken. The last seventy miles will, perhaps, be 
Fig. 23—Mount Davis. 
the best part of the Colorado to navigate when the water is not at so exceedingly low a stage. 
The rapids will be less violent, and the bottom being gravelly no new bars will be formed as 
the river rises. 
Between Mount Davis and the Black mountains the river flows between gravel bluffs and the 
foot-hills of the latter chain. The view in all directions was intercepted, and before we were 
conscious of its neighborhood a sudden turn around the base of a conical peak disclosed the 
southern portal of the Black cafion directly in front. The Black mountains were piled over- 
head in grand confusion, and through a narrow gateway flanked by walls many hundreds of feet 
in height, rising perpendicularly out of the water, the Colorado emerged from the bowels of 
the range. 
A rapid, a hundred yards below the mouth of the cafion, created a short detention, and a 
strong head of steam was put on to make the ascent. After passing the crest the current 
became slack, the soundings were unusually favorable, and we were shooting swiftly past the 
entrance, eagerly gazing into the mysterious depths beyond, when the Explorer, with a stun- 
ning crash, brought up abruptly and instantaneously against a sunken rock. For a second the 
impression was that the cafion had fallen in. The concussion was so violent that the men near 
“ 11 
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