94 MOJAVE VALLEY TO BIG CANON —MEADOW CREEK. 
good grass, and fringed on one side by a growth of willows that bordered the stream. The 
half-starved animals would hardly allow the saddles to be removed in their impatience to enjoy 
the unaccustomed plenty. They ate greedily for the rest of the day, and nearly all night, and 
this morning still seemed so ravenous that I have remained in camp to let them appease their 
appetites. The delay has permitted me to set up a transit and get some observations on moon 
culminations for longitude. 
Ireteba informed me after .breakfast that there were a few Hualpais living at no great 
distance, and that he would hunt them up, and endeavor to engage one to accompany us 
beyond the point where he himself would be compelled to go back. He has not yet returned 
from his mission. He has told me that in a few days we shall strike the Colorado and come to 
a large settlement of Hualpais Indians ; that it would be unsafe for himself and companions to 
proceed further, and that we must secure Hualpais guides to conduct us to another tribe that 
reside upon a tributary of the Colorado, a long distance above. Between the two villages he 
says the river is inaccessible and the country sterile, with few watering places, and those diffi- 
cult to find. 
ate 
Fig. 27.—Ireteba’s Mountain, 
I can converse with Ireteba with considerable readi 
interpreter, Mariano. The Mojave has acquired a fe 
maps on the ground. His 
ness, notwithstanding the absence of our 
w familiar words, and is expert in drawing 
pantomime is expressive and intelligible. He is invaluable as a 
e of travel, and enable 
guide, having had enough experience with mules to teach him their rat 
him to select the most favorable routes and the best 
