116 SAN FRANCISCO FOREST TO MOQUIS— TRIP: NORTHWARD. 
country and rocky surface, have reduced them to a sorry plight. They look and move like 
slightly animated skeletons. 
. The stock of provisions is nearly gone. While traversing the thick forests the branches have 
torn the packs and occasioned unavoidable wastage. ere is barely enough left to take the 
party to Fort Defiance, which is the nearest military post. I am loth, however, to forego a 
short exploration of the country to the north, if only to visit the towns of the Moquis, which 
cannot be more than seventy or eighty miles distant. The impassable cafions west of the terri- 
tory of these Indians have thrown them out of the line of travel and exploration, and there has 
been no record concerning them since the accounts of the early Spanish missionaries, who visited 
the country, and described the ‘‘seven cities’? which they found there. 
It has been finally arranged for Lieutenant Tipton to take the train and follow Lieutenant 
Whipple’s trail to Zufi, and thence go to Fort Defiance, while Dr. Newberry, Mr. Egloffstein, 
and myself, with ten men and a few of the least exhausted mules, are to proceed northward. 
- A reduction throughout the command in the amount of the accustomed ration will enable our 
small number to be kept in the field for a week or two longer than the time it would require to 
go directly to the fort. 
The day has been passed in preparing to carry out this arrangement. The mules, provisions, 
&c., for the use of my detachment, have been crossed to the north side of the river. Owing 
to the quicksand, and the want of tools and materials to construct a raft, this would have been 
a difficult if not an impracticable undertaking, had we not been provided with one of 
Buchanan’s portable boats.* As it is, there has been no trouble. Enough pack-straps were tied 
together to reach across, and a single person could easily pull over the boat and a load weighing 
a couple of tons. The mules swam over. To enable them to reach and emerge from the river 
across the quicksand banks, an approach was prepared on either side with logs and branches of 
trees covered with earth. 
The gale has blown itself out, and a cloudless sky has succeeded, bringing with it a return 
of summer weather. 
Camp 89, Flax river, May 6.—We made an early start, and signalling good-bye to our 
friends upon the opposite side of the river, struck off towards the bluffs that border the bottom 
lands. The direction taken was a little east of north. The alluvial earth was soft and difficult 
to traverse; the slope that followed composed of material still softer, and when, after crossing 
several Sion. the top of the plateau was reached, the soil became so light and friable that 
every step of the way was attended with labor and fatigue. The day was the hottest that had 
been experienced. 
e summit being attained, a vast extent of country—sweeping from Flax river around to 
the northeast—was brought into view. It was a flat table-land, from which wide tracts had 
been eroded to a moderate depth, leaving exposed lines of low bluffs and isolated fragments of 
* This admirable invention was patented by Colonel R. @. Buchanan, 4th infantry, in 1857.* The boat ikcieaa of a portable 
: skeleton frame, sheathed with unprepared canvas, secured ve the framework by lashing. It was first used during the campaign 
* in Southern Oregon against the Rogue River Indians, in 1856. . 
Pease to carry everything, during my land explorations, u upon pack-mules, I had a boat made of smaller dimensions 
than had been before constructed. It was eleven feet long, five feet wide, and about two feet deep. The frame was of pine, 
and the whole weight, including the canvas and cords, but 150 pounds—a light load for a single animal. Twelve men could 
cross @ river in it with perfect safety. It could be unpacked and put together in about ten minutes. 
__ A few years before I had had experience, while in the same coun untry, and under much the same circumstances, of one of 
the ordinary pontoon boats. Its liability to rot, to get stuck together when packed and carried under a hot sun, and to be 
ee by the attrition of pack-ropes, other packs, and branches of trees, rendered it, after a short time, almost valueless. 
‘The Buchanan boat was found to be free from these objections. After being packed for four months over a rough and 
cena country, it was found in a perfectly serviceable condition. The canvas covering I used when required to protect the 
packs from rain. This | it unnecessary to carry a tarpauli 
: ~My experience has convinced me that the boat is admirably adapted for field service, and will be found to possess the 
uch ga pmees and staunchness, in a superior degree to any now in use. 
