164 
The Colorado River 
across country, joined the expedition, and further preparations 
were made for the more difficult task above. The craft was 
lightened as far as possible, but at the best she still drew two 
and one-half feet, while the timbers bolted to the bottom were 
a great detriment, catching on snags and ploughing into the 
mud of the shoals. There were twenty-four men to be car¬ 
ried, besides all the baggage that must be taken, even though 
a pack-train was to leave, after the departure of the boat, to 
transport extra supplies to the end of the voyage, wherever 
that might be. It is not easy to understand why so large a 
party was necessary. Some few miles above Yuma they came 
to the first range of mountains that closes in on the water, 
suddenly entering a narrow pass several hundred feet deep. 
Seven miles farther on, they went through a small canyon 
where another range is severed. This was called Purple Hill 
Pass, while the first one was named Explorer’s Pass, after the 
steamer. The first approach to a real canyon was encountered 
a short distance above. Emerging from this, called Cane- 
brake, from some canes growing along the sides, the Explorer 
ran aground, resting there for two hours. They had now 
passed through the Chocolate Mountains, the same range that 
Alargon mentions, and as he records no other he probably went 
no farther up than the basin Ives is now entering, the Great 
Colorado Valley. Alargon doubtless proceeded to the upper 
part of this valley, about to latitude thirty-four, where he 
raised the cross to mark the spot. Two miles above the head 
of the canyon, the power of the Explorer was matched against 
a stiff current that came swirling around the base of a perpen¬ 
dicular rock one hundred feet high. With the steam pressure 
then on, she was not equal to the encounter and made no ad¬ 
vance, whereupon she was headed for a steep bank to allow 
the men to leap ashore with a line and tow her beyond the op¬ 
position. Above, the current was milder, but the river spread 
out to such an extent that progress was exceedingly difficult, 
and Ives expresses a fear that this might prove the head of 
navigation, yet he must then have been aware (and certainly 
was when he published his report) that Johnson at that very 
moment was far beyond this with a steamer larger than the 
